The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1906 page)

 
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see
KAL VA-HOMER
.

 
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(Arab.,
al-Qar
mi
ah
). Members of a broad, often revolutionary, movement in Islam, which sought social reform and justice during the 9th–12th cents. CE, in Khur
s
n, Syria, Yemen, and Egypt. The Qarmatians were named after their 9th-cent. leader, Hamd
n al-Qarma
. They emerged from the
Ism
‘
li
Seveners
, accepting Mu
ammad b. Ism
‘
l as the final
Im
m
. Their teaching was kept as a secret ‘
gnosticism
’ among initiates.
Their most notorious act was the abduction, in 930 (AH 317), of the
Black Stone
, refusing offers to ransom it. They threw it back into the mosque in Kufah in 951 (AH 340), saying, ‘By command we took it, and by command we return it’—now in seven pieces, perhaps to affirm the seven Im
ms? Although they disappeared as a sect, their influence continued in other movements, e.g. perhaps the Alawis (see
NU
AIRI