History of Himaya

The history of Himaya concerns the development of Himaya, the dominant faith in South Abaria and portions of North Hylasia.

Originating in the 700s CE from the teachings of the prophet Al-Hakam in the contemporary Ruchanid Empire, Himaya first appears in the historical record as an eclectic, messianic movement comprised of Abbasian and Palmerist groups opposed to the Ruchanid order who awaited the coming of the Palmerist Revealer. With the defeat of the Ruchanids and the rise of the Shiraqic Qal'aldesh in the 800s CE, Himaya underwent a period of consolidation and institutionalization, with the compilation of much of the Hamin canon and the establishment of hagiographic accounts of Al-Hakam. With the eclipse of the post-Hernician Calesian world following the Principal invasions, the Qal'aldesh turned into a center of the arts, sciences, and commerce. While the Qal'aldesh separated into the Four Emirates in the 1100s, the Hamin faith maintained a substantial degree of orthodoxy, with the standardization of many aspects of Hamin practice under the Translators. During the first five centuries of its existence, Himaya spread across much of South Abaria, coming into conflict and interaction with the Adorationalists and Watani faiths, and later, Gregorianism.

The Catabole and ensuing Catabolic Crisis caused the collapse of the Abbasian-led order and the Great Fitna, during which sectarian divisions led to the emergence of the divergent Mutatariff sects and the division of the Shiraq under various radical sects and orders. While the Shiraq fell under disarray, the Abbasian Mustasaadi hosts conquered much of North Hylasia, causing the spread of Himaya there and the establishment of a parallel center of Hamin faith. The Mutatariff-led order ended when the Artuchid conquests led to the movement of many Berkic and !Iranian tribes, leading to the establishment of the Saqlaganids, Hamimids, and !Ottomans, along with the ensuing consolidation of the normative and Mutatariff sects under the the Taqlidi and He'ara paradigms, respectively.

The downfall of many of the great gunpowder empires of Abaria following the Great War, along with the triple threat of Razanite reversionism, Adorationalist migration, and Calesian imperialism led to many conflicts in the Hamin world that continue this day. Regardless, interaction with Calesian customs has led to the rise of new developments in Hamin thought, including the rise of modernist Mithali ideology.

Antecedents

The religious environment of the Shiraq in the 7-8th centuries CE was highly eclectic. The once majority-Adorationalist region had underwent waves of migration from Nahorites, Ifrahi Palmerists, and Turanites over the past millennium, resulting in the emergence of a variety of syncretized belief systems. In the cosmopolitan urban centers of Harduk and Mel-Summat, Nahorite and Adorationalist influences consolidated into the Palmeric Gnostic movements, which posited that the material world was fundamentally flawed and in schism, resulting from its imperfect creation by one or more subservient, flawed deities. These beliefs, first spread by itinerant preachers, soon spread like wildfire among the lower classes; by the 8th century, the issue of a flawed material creation even became a matter of debate among the higher echelons of Adorationalist clergy. The diffusion of dualist Turanite beliefs during the reign of the Ruchanids and their predecessors led to the advent of Ashtinism, which was at one point the dominant religion in much of south and central Abaria.

The Abbasian people, at the time largely limited to the plains to the west of the Shiraqi homelands and only marginally under Ruchanid rule, had a similarly diverse set of beliefs. A large proportion of the early Abbasian population believed in a syncretized form of Palmeric Gnosticism, which was largely reinterpreted to fit traditional polytheistic and dualistic beliefs. The proximity to nearby Palmerist tribes (who often lived among the Abbasians) led to many Abbasians to accept several key ideas in Palmerist theology, including the return of the Revealer.

Origins (8th-9th centuries)

Not much is known about the exact origins of Himaya — later hagiographic accounts distort the exact sequence of events, and often only allude to key moments. However, the general consensus is that the 8th century Abbasian homeland lay host to a wide variety of dualistic preachers and prophets (largely contemporary to Alhacam), a stage known in Hamin historiography as "proto-Himaya." Common teachings among these preachers included the contrast between a transcendent deity and a lesser, feminine demiurge (known as Al-Khati'a) who fashioned the material world. These prophets were said to amass large followings, and inspired a religious revival in the western Shiraq. Inherited from the textual tradition of the Gilu'im, a large corpus of proto-Hamin literature started to appear. Several proto-Hamin preachers were later canonized as secondary prophets and saints in the Qal'aldesh era.

Not much is known about the early life of Alhacam, the prophet modern Hamins claim descent from. He is said to have been prominent and respected Ruchanid jurist in the region, and started preaching around the 730s CE. His message, encoded in the Awamir, gave a more legalistic twist on the early proto-Hamin beliefs: he is thought to have gained a moderately-sized following, mostly comprised of Abbasians seeking a less radical variety of proto-Hamin beliefs. Unlike several other proto-Hamin preachers, he endeavored to provide a consolidated vision of how to construct an organized society based on dualistic teachings; Ruchanid authorities became vexed at the construction of parallel societies in the imperial hinterlands; accounts say that the Ruchanid governor was particularly worried that Alhacam, as a prominent government official, was more of a threat than the other preachers. Thus, the authorities tried and executed Alhacam for treason c. 765 CE.

Shiraqi miniature depicting Abbasian soldiers advance in the campaigns against the Ruchanids

Hamins next appear in the historical record as an eclectic Palmero-Abbasian movement in the western territories opposed to the Ruchanid establishment. While traditional historiographic accounts attribute the rise of this movement as a response to Alhacam's death, contemporary accounts indicate that the movement was actually pluricentric, composed of the followers of various proto-Hamin sects, reportedly considering the Awamir, along with various other pieces of proto-Hamin literature, in relatively equal levels of esteem. Alongside dualism, a central belief in this movement was of the return of a Palmeric Revealer who will liberate the Shiraq from Ruchanid control and establish an eternal kingdom susceptible to human enlightenment and transcendence from the flawed material world.

Starting from around 780 CE, the movement grew into a full-scale rebellion, one which was bolstered by Abbasian elites dissatisfied with Ruchanid rule; the Hamin armies first advanced towards and liberated Ifrah, the Palmeric holy land, in 786 CE. However, the momentum of the rebellion was unmatched, and the Palmero-Abbasian forces advanced eastward to the Ruchanid core in the Imirian river basin; after a series of stunning victories, the rebellion sacked the Ruchanid capital in 793 CE. The Abbasian elites, who had led the rebellion, soon installed one of their own as king, and the Shiraqic Qal'aldesh was established, ostensibly as a state to "ripen" the world to the Redeemer's coming.

During the early, 9th century, the Qal'aldesh's efforts to consolidate its power, first over opposing segments of the Hamin movement, and then over its own territory, drove a corresponding consolidation in the Hamin faith. A standardized canon was created, emphasizing the preeminence of the Awamir over other proto-Hamin texts and Alhacam over the other proto-Hamin preachers; moreover, Qal'aldesh scribes started to create hagiographic accounts of early Hamin history. It was around this period that the larger corpus of Hamin law became encoded, including the rest of the Hakamic canon. Finally, efforts by early rulers to emphasize the Abbasian roots of the state led to the general divorcing of Himaya from its Palmeric origins, including the rejection of messianic figures through the introduction of the institution of the Emirate, which carried the same office.

14th - 16th centuries: the Great Fitna and Hamin division

• The Catabolic Crisis basically causes the collapse of the entire Abbasian-led order
• Mysticist undercurrents explode into the development of the Mutatariff sects, many of which center on the coming of a messianic figure known as the Masih, which was previously only an incidental figure in Hamin eschatology; many historians recognize the Masih as originating from remnants of Palmerist Revealer thought in popular Hamin practice along with influence from intellectual Palmerism and Gregorianism
• Equivalents to the Qarmatians