17. A Medieval Jerk Religious Cult That Started Off as Bandits
The medieval Qarmatians were a Muslim religious cult that combined elements of Zoroastrianism with Shiite Islam to form a radical sect that was deemed heretical by other Muslims. They started off as bandits who earned a living attacking trade and pilgrimage caravans, but got religion after coming under the sway of a mystic. Their leader transformed the bandits into a millenarian cult that preached the End of Days was near, and began gathering a large following of fanatics. They rose in the ninth century and captured eastern Arabia and Bahrain, where they founded a utopian religious republic in 899.
From that base, the Qarmatians went full jerk and terrorized the Middle East for generations. They pillaged their neighbors, engaged in widespread banditry, massacred pilgrims by the tens of thousands, and seized and sacked Mecca. They believed that pilgrimage to Mecca, a Pillar of Islam, was a superstition, so they sent raiding parties to interdict the pilgrimage routes. In one such raid in 906, they massacred over 20,000 pilgrims. In 930, as part of a millenarian quest to speed up and usher in the End of Days, the Qarmatians seized Mecca and Medina, Islam’s holiest cities, and sacked both.
Also Read: History’s Out of the Ordinary Radicals.