Why the Jannābid Qarāmiṭa of Baḥrayn Occupied Mecca and Plundered the Black Stone in 317/930

This study re-examines the Jannābid (Qarmaṭī) sack of Mecca and seizure of the Black Stone in 317/930. Moving beyond sectarian explanations, it argues the attack was the calculated apex of a coercive strategy, provoked by ʿAbbāsid economic blockade, political exclusion and refusal to recognise the Jannābid polity. Applying Schelling’s and Fearon’s theories of coercive bargaining, the article reframes this state-periphery conflict not as a religious schism but as a rational escalation in a struggle for economic integration and political recognition. A critical reading of ʿAbbāsid and Fāṭimid sources reveals how ʿAbbāsid intransigence and failed diplomacy ultimately transformed a regional revolt into a symbolic strike against Islam’s holiest sanctuary.