Lamak ibn Malik

rdf:langString Lamak ibn Malik

rdf:langString Lamak ibn Mālik al-Ḥammādī (died c. 1097) was a qadi who was a prominent political and religious figure in 11th-century Yemen, under the Sulayhid dynasty. An Isma'ili Muslim, Lamak was sent to the court of the Isma'ili Fatimid Caliphate for several years from 1062 to 1067 and served as an embassy representing Sulayhid interests. He was instrumental in making Yemen the center of the Isma'ili da‘wah and also for re-establishing the da‘wah in India after its original extinction there. His visit also helped define the relationship between the Fatimids and the Sulayhids and bring their interests into mutual alignment. When he returned to Yemen, he brought some of the Fatimids' Isma'ili literature with him, which indirectly led to its survival of the Ayyubid destruction of Isma'ili manuscripts after they conquered Egypt. According to Abbas Hamdani, Lamak was responsible for introducing the split between political and religious authority in Sulayhid Yemen after Ali al-Sulayhi's death. Al-Mukarram inherited the status of da‘i from his father along with the monarchy but in practice it was Lamak who carried out these duties, and he had been appointed da‘i himself by al-Mustansir.