The Zaydīs and Rayy: The Path to Inclusion and Back

Abstract:It was only in the 3rd/9th centuries that Rayy came to figure prominently in the fortunes of the Iranian Zaydī community. The leaders of the community were at this time largely drawn from refugees seeking respite from the relentless ʿAbbāsid persecution of the ʿAlids. In 250/864‒5 resentment against the depredations of the Ṭāhirids along the border between Ṭabaristān and Daylam led the local population to give their allegiance to al-Ḥasan b. Zayd, a Medinese ʿAlid residing in Rayy. Under al-Ḥasan (d. 270/884) and his brother Muḥammad (d. 287/900) Rayy was captured a number of times but not held for any significant length of time. Despite their prominence in the early history of Caspian Zaydism neither of the brothers was held in the highest esteem by later Zaydīs, unlike their successor, the highly respected jurist al-Nāṣir al-Uṭrūsh (d. 304/917), the ancestor of a long line of Caspian imams Al-Nāṣir’s cousin al-Ḥasan b. al-Qāsim (d. 316/928), the imam al-Dāʿī ilā al-Ḥaqq, ruling from Āmul, captured Rayy and had designs on Baghdad itself. With the rise of the Būyids from among al-Dāʿī’s commanders, the Zaydī imamate was reconfigured to reflect its subordinate role, and with this reconfiguration a new model of the Zaydī imam emerged, beginning with al-Dāʿī’s son Muḥammad (d. 359/970). The imam now drew a large measure of his influence among his followers from the respect in which he was held by the non-Zaydī political and intellectual elite outside of his Caspian domain. This development reached its peak with the two imāms al-Muʾayyad bi-llāh (d. 421/1030) and his brother al-Nāṭiq bi-l-Ḥaqq (d. 422/1031), both prominent members of the circle of al-Ṣāḥib b. ʿAbbād (d. 385/995) in Rayy.