Abu Tahir al-Jannabi

Abu Tahir Sulayman al-Jannabi was an Arabized Persian warlord and the ruler of the Qarmatian state in Bahrayn. He became the leader of the state in 923, after ousting his older brother Abu'l-Qasim Sa'id and immediately began an expansionist phase, raiding Basra that year. He raided Kufa in 927, defeating an Abbasid army in the process, and threatened the Abbasid capital Baghdad in 928 before pillaging much of Iraq when he could not gain entry to the city. In 930, he led the Qarmatians' most notorious attack when he attacked and pillaged Mecca and desecrated Islam's most sacred sites. Unable to gain entry to the city initially, Abu Tahir called upon the right of all Muslims to enter the city and gave his oath that he came in peace. Once inside the city walls the Qarmatian army set about massacring the pilgrims, taunting them with verses of the Quran as they did so. The bodies of the pilgrims were left to rot in the streets.