View source for Abu'l-Qasim al-Tayyib

{{Short description|Last known imam of the Tayyibi Isma'ilis (born 1130)}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Abū'l-Qāsim al-Ṭayyib<br />{{Nobold|{{lang|ar|أبو القاسم الطيب}}}}
| image              = 
| alt                = 
| caption            = 
| birth_name         = 
| birth_date         = February/March 1130
| birth_place        = Cairo
| disappeared_date   = 
| disappeared_place  = 
| disappeared_status =
| other names        =
| relatives          = 
| years_active       = 
| title              = Imam of [[Tayyibi Isma'ilism|Tayyibi Isma'ili]] [[Shia Islam]]
| term               = 7 October 1130 – unknown
| predecessor        = [[al-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah]]
| successor          = unknown
| movement           = Tayyibi [[Mustaʽli Ismailism|Musta'li]] [[Isma'ilism|Isma'ili]] [[Shia Islam]]
| opponents          = 
| parents            = al-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah {{small|(father)}}
}}
{{Ismailism|collapsed=1}}
'''Abū'l-Qāsim al-Ṭayyib ibn al-Āmir''' ({{lang|ar|أبو القاسم الطيب بن الآمر}}) was, according to the [[Tayyibi Isma'ilism|Tayyibi]] sect of [[Isma'ilism]], the twenty-first [[Imamah (Ismaili doctrine)|imam]]. The only son of Caliph [[al-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah]], al-Tayyib was an infant when his father was murdered. Amidst the ensuing power struggle, al-Tayyib disappeared; modern historians suggest that he died or was secretly killed by one of the rival strongmen. By 1132, his uncle [[al-Hafiz]] declared himself as the caliph and imam in succession to al-Amir. This was not accepted by the Yemeni Isma'ilis, who upheld the rights of al-Tayyib.

This marked the creation of two rival sects of [[Musta'li Isma'ilism]], the [[Hafizi]] one, following al-Hafiz, and the Tayyibi one, following al-Tayyib. The Tayyibis hold that al-Tayyib was rescued from Cairo and brought to safety, but that he and all subsequent Tayyibi imams remained [[satr (Isma'ilism)|in concealment]]. The Tayyibi community has instead been led by a sequence of 'absolute missionaries' ({{Transliteration|ar|[[da'i al-mutlaq]]}}).

==Life==
Al-Tayyib was the only son of the twentieth Fatimid imam-caliph, [[al-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah]], who ruled [[Egypt]] from 1101 to 1130. Al-Tayyib was born in [[Cairo]] in February/March 1130, and immediately, according to one source, designated as heir-apparent.{{sfn|Halm|2014|p=177}} Al-Amir was assassinated on 7 October of the same year by agents of the rival [[Nizari]] sect of Isma'ili Shi'ism.{{sfn|Stern|1951|p=194}}{{sfn|Halm|2014|pp=175–176}}

===Power struggle===
With only an infant child as potential heir, the dynasty's authority devolved on to al-Amir's cousin, [[al-Hafiz|Abd al-Majid]], as the oldest surviving male of the dynasty.{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=246}}{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=261}} What happened next appears to have effectively been a coup: two of al-Amir's favourites, Hizar al-Mulk Hazarmard (or Jawarmard) and Barghash, who had influence over the army, allied themselves with Abd al-Majid, to control the government. Abd al-Majid, who may have had his eyes on the caliphate, was to become regent.{{sfn|Stern|1951|pp=202–203}}{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=262}}{{sfn|Halm|2014|p=178}}

It is unclear, however, in whose name Abd al-Maji's regency was exercised.{{sfn|Halm|2014|pp=179, 182}} Most sources report that even the existence of al-Tayyib was concealed, and he disappears completely from the record after that. How the existence of a child, whose birth had been accompanied by public celebrations and proclamations, was so effectively concealed is unknown. Modern scholars speculate that al-Tayyib may have died in infancy, possibly even before his father; but at least one contemporary anonymous Syrian source maintains that he was murdered on Abd al-Majid's orders.{{sfn|Stern|1951|p=204}}{{sfn|Daftary|2007|pp=246, 261}}{{sfn|Brett|2017|pp=262–263}}

As a result of this silence in official sources, al-Tayyib's existence was doubted by some early scholars of Isma'ilism in the 20th century.{{sfn|Stern|1951|p=196}} His historicity is now considered as established, based on several points: surviving reports of festivities ordered by al-Amir to celebrate his birth survive, scattered references to him in 12th-century historians, and a surviving example, sent to the [[Yemen]]i queen [[Arwa al-Sulayhi]], of the letters sent to friendly rulers to announce the event.{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=246}}{{sfn|Halm|2014|pp=177–178}}{{sfn|Stern|1951|pp=196–198}}

=== Hafizi–Tayyibi schism ===
Instead of al-Tayyib, the new regime maintained that al-Amir had left a pregnant concubine, and that the caliph, having dreamed of his impending death, had declared this unborn child to be a son and his designated ({{Transliteration|ar|[[Nass (Islam)|nass]]}}) successor, thus effectively bypassing al-Tayyib.{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=262}}{{sfn|Stern|1951|pp=203–204}} What came of this pregnancy is likewise unclear, as different sources report that the concubine either bore a daughter or that the foetus could not be found, or that Abd al-Majid killed the baby soon after.{{sfn|Halm|2014|p=179}} The only dissenting account is that of the 15th-century Tayyibi leader and historian [[Idris Imad al-Din]], who explicitly claims that Abd al-Majid took office as regent for al-Tayyib.{{sfn|Stern|1951|p=203 (note 1)}} Whatever the truth, the new regime did not last long, as the army mutinied and installed [[Kutayfat]] as [[vizier (Fatimid Caliphate)|vizier]].{{sfn|Halm|2014|p=178}}{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=263}} Initially Kutayfat retained Abd al-Majid as regent, but the latter was de facto a prisoner; soon Kutayfat proclaimed the dynasty deposed altogether, and abandoned [[Isma'ilism]] as the state religion in favour of a vaguely [[Twelver]] form of Shi'ism with himself as vicegerent of a hidden imam.{{sfn|Stern|1951|pp=204–206}}{{sfn|Brett|2017|pp=263–264}}{{sfn|Halm|2014|pp=179–181}} The historian [[Heinz Halm]] considers it likely that Kutayfat at this point eliminated al-Tayyib.{{sfn|Halm|2014|p=180}}

Kutayfat was assassinated by Fatimid loyalists in December 1131, and Abd al-Majid was released from his prison.{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=247}}{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=265}} Abd al-Majid initially resumed ruling as a regent, but on 23 January 1132 he proclaimed himself imam and caliph in succession to al-Amir with the regnal name of al-Hafiz.{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=265}}{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=247}}{{sfn|Halm|2014|p=182}} Al-Hafiz's highly irregular accession and claims to the imamate were largely accepted by the Isma'ili faithful in the Fatimid domains in Egypt, Nubia, and the [[Levant]], but rebuffed by some communities. Most notably, this was the case in the only other major Isma'ili realm, Yemen, where Queen Arwa upheld the rights of al-Tayyib, while the subordinate regional dynasties of the [[Hamdanids (Yemen)|Hamdanids]] and the [[Zurayids]] recognized al-Hafiz's claims.{{sfn|Brett|2017|pp=265–266}}{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=248}} Al-Hafiz's accession thus produced a major schism in the Musta'li branch of Isma'ilism, between the adherents of the imamate of al-Tayyib (the '[[Tayyibi Isma'ilism|Tayyibi]]s') pitted against supporters of al-Hafiz and his successors (the '[[Hafizi Isma'ilism|Hafizi]]s').{{sfn|Daftary|2007|p=248}}{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=266}}

The Tayyibis hold that al-Tayyib did not die, but that he had been entrusted by al-Amir to a certain Ibn Madyan, and that the infant had been hidden by Ibn Madyan and his helpers when Kutayfat came to power. Ibn Madyan was killed by Kutayfat, but his brother-in-law escaped with al-Tayyib, who now went into [[Satr (Isma'ilism)|concealment]]. Al-Tayyib is held to have died while still in concealment, but to have had descendants, who have provided a series of hidden imams that continue to the present day. The public leadership of the Tayyibi community was instead assumed by a succession of 'absolute missionaries' ({{Transliteration|ar|[[da'i al-mutlaq]]}}).{{sfn|Daftary|2007|pp=261ff.}}{{sfn|Halm|2014|pp=184, 185}}

{{Nizari-Hafizi-Tayyibi schism}}

==See also==
* [[Muhammad al-Mahdi]]
* [[Occultation (Islam)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Brett | first=Michael | title=The Fatimid Empire |series=The Edinburgh History of the Islamic Empires |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh | year=2017 | isbn=978-0-7486-4076-8|doi=10.1515/9781474421515}}
* {{EI2 | last = Daftary | first = Farhad | authorlink = Farhad Daftary | title = al-Ṭayyibiyya | volume = 10 | pages = 403–404 | url = http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_7472}}
* {{Daftary-The Ismailis|edition=Second}}
* {{cite book | last = Halm | first = Heinz | author-link = Heinz Halm | title = Kalifen und Assassinen: Ägypten und der vordere Orient zur Zeit der ersten Kreuzzüge, 1074–1171 | trans-title = Caliphs and Assassins: Egypt and the Near East at the Time of the First Crusades, 1074–1171 | language = de | publisher = C.H. Beck | location = Munich | year = 2014 | isbn = 978-3-406-66163-1}}
* {{cite journal | first = S. M. | last = Stern | author-link = Samuel Miklos Stern | title = The Succession to the Fatimid Imam al-Āmir, the Claims of the Later Fatimids to the Imamate, and the Rise of Ṭayyibī Ismailism | journal = Oriens | volume = 4 | issue = 2 | year = 1951 | pages = 193–255 | jstor = 1579511 | doi = 10.2307/1579511 }}

{{S-start}}
{{s-bef|before=[[al-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of Isma'ili imams|Imam]] of [[Tayyibi Isma'ilism]]|years=1130–unknown}}
{{s-non|unknown|reason=[[Satr (Isma'ilism)|Concealment]] of the Tayyibi imams<br>Leadership of the Tayyibi community passes to the [[Da'i al-Mutlaq]]s}}
{{S-end}}
{{Shia Imams}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tayyib Abul-Qasim}}
[[Category:Egyptian Ismailis]]
[[Category:Musta'li imams]]
[[Category:1130 births]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]
[[Category:12th-century Arab people]]
[[Category:12th-century Ismailis]]
[[Category:Sons of Fatimid caliphs]]
[[Category:Heirs apparent who never acceded]]