In the aftermath of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s death, I noted that the Islamic State (IS) was likely to start a bayat campaign for its new Caliph Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi. Beginning November 2, IS’s official Telegram channels began posting such bayat.
There are two main reasons for this: 1. pledges are leader-specific rather than group-specific and thus need to be renewed with each succession and 2. it is a way to legitimize al-Qurashi’s rule and create a media event so that the group can promote itself as it transitions to a new phase.
The first reason is also something that IS pointed to when it began to overtly feud with al-Qaeda (AQ) in 2013, by saying that following Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi’s death, his successor Abu Hamzah al-Muhajir gave baya to the newly created Islamic State of Iraq’s leader Abu ‘Umar al-Baghdadi and even after Abu ‘Umar was killed, when Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi took over in 2010 and then Usamah Bin Laden was killed in 2011, Abu Bakr never publicly gave baya to Ayman al-Zawahiri, even if al-Zawahiri claims he gave it to him privately. Therefore, from the perspective of IS this whole process is not trivial, but important for legitimacy of its leadership and to potentially weed out any insubordination before it manifests into something larger as it already did in the past vis-a-vis AQ.
This post will be updated with the latest official pledges.
November 2, 2019:
Wilāyat Saynā’
al-Binghāl
November 3, 2019:
Wilāyat al-Ṣūmāl
November 4, 2019:
Wilāyat Bākistān
Wilāyat al-Yaman – al-Bayḍā’
November 5, 2019:
Wilāyat al-Shām – Ḥawrān
Wilāyat Khurāsān
November 6, 2019:
Tūnis
November 7, 2019:
Wilāyat Gharb Ifrīqīyyah – Nījīrīā
Wilāyat al-Shām – Ḥimṣ
Wilāyat al-Shām – al-Khayr
Wilāyat al-Shām – al-Raqqah
Wilāyat Sharq Asīā
Wilāyat Wasaṭ Ifrīqīyyah
November 8:
Wilāyat al-Shām – Ḥimṣ
November 9:
Wilāyat Sharq Asīā
Wilāyat Gharb Ifrīqīyyah – Mālī and Būrkīnāfāsū
Wilāyat al-Shām – al-Barakah
November 12, 2019:
Wilāyat al-Shām – Ḥalab
November 14, 2019:
Wilāyat al-‘Irāq – Shamāl Baghdād
November 15, 2019:
Wilāyat Lībīyā
November 16, 2019:
Wilāyat al-‘Irāq – Dijlah
November 17, 2019:
Wilāyat al-‘Irāq – Diyālā
November 18, 2019:
Wilāyat al-‘Irāq – Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn
November 19, 2019:
Wilāyat al-‘Irāq – Karkūk
November 22, 2019:
Wilāyat Sharq Asīā – Indūnīsīyā
November 29, 2019:
Adhirbayjān
