Qarmatian killing of pilgrims in Mecca
Ibn Kathir reports that the Qarmatian attacker killed many pilgrims in Mecca, including within the Sacred Mosque and the Kaaba, on the Day of Tarwiya.
What this does and does not establish
Arabic Wikisource revision 77205, part XI. Lines 4 and 10 identify AH 317 in words; line 40 explicitly supplies Mecca and the Day of Tarwiya. The quoted clause gives no numerical death toll. The surrounding narrative is confessionally hostile. An anonymously transmitted account at line 86 also places a killing in the Sacred Mosque on that day; it is not independent corroboration. Lines 58–64 present differing explanations of Qarmatian relations with the Fatimids, without contradicting this event’s date or location.
- Read through an AI working translation.
- Region
- Western Asia
- Theme
- Politics and institutions
- Kind of record
- Placed in a year. A source places this in one year. It is listed under that year; no day precision is invented.
How it is dated
- Date reference
- 8 Dhu al-Hijja AH 317 (Day of Tarwiya)
- How we use it
- Year-level placement is limited to the dated source entry.
The date reference is this project’s reading of the source’s date. It may give an era name, a reign or a calendar in a normalised form rather than in the source’s own words; the dating notes say what the source prints.
Dating notes from the research record
Examined kathir317.wikitext, especially lines 4, 10, 38–64 and 84–96. ah-317.txt lines 1 and 13 place 1 Dhu al-Hijja AH 317 on Julian 930-01-05; day 8 therefore falls on 930-01-12, or 930-01-09 through 930-01-15 with the supplied ±3-day allowance. Even the broader buffered pilgrimage interval, days 8–13, is entirely within 930: January 9–20 (line 14; rite days checked in hajj-days.txt line 3). Also examined kathir318.wikitext and ah-318.txt: the AH 318 pilgrimage’s buffered December 29, 930–January 9, 931 interval cannot securely establish a single AD year. Original quotation begins at line 40, character 3417.
File names and line numbers in these notes, and in the limits above, refer to the project’s retained copies of the cited sources. Names such as calendar_headers are the project’s calendar look-ups, and “the investigator” is the research step that prepared the record.
Sources and quoted text
Line and character numbers under “Location” refer to the project’s retained copy of the source. For database rows, “Edition” names the batch of rows that was fetched together.
Source 1 · Supports the statement
Al-Bidaya wa-l-nihaya
Ibn Kathir
Quoted text (Arabic)
فقتل في رحاب مكة وشعابها وفي المسجد الحرام وفي جوف الكعبة من الحجاج خلقا كثيراAI working translation into English; not official or authoritative
Then he killed a great many pilgrims in Mecca’s open spaces and ravines, in the Sacred Mosque, and inside the Kaaba.
Source credit and reuse conditions recorded for this source: Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa-l-nihaya, part XI, annal AH 317 https://ar.wikisource.org/w/index.php?oldid=77205 Public-domain historical original. Wikisource contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Attribute the fixed transcription and share adapted excerpts alike. Project English translation.
Exact source version
c27d5fee384c58c08aebe6a8c4a7b9f2f65abaaadf117a6266101abafb0df625Checks and changes
Source checked 2026-11-06. An independent AI evidence review supports this bounded, attributed wording. That review does not guarantee historical truth. How records are checked
No correction has been made to this record’s statement or limits.
Revision s901_islam_930_930_0
Exact revision fingerprint
c563a94333db5e95fddad1010fabb43b82b663a07dc29c00eb2eb124c9cda793