The Abbasid Revolution | 750CE - 754CE 1

The Abbasid Revolution | 750CE - 754CE

The story of the Abbasids starts, like most stories about the Caliphate, on that
unfortunate summer day in 632CE, when Prophet Muhammad passed away.
His followers, the Muslim community, was left without a leader. During his life,
Prophet Muhammad had been both a religious and a political leader. Now, he
was gone. In the crisis that ensued, the community, in mourning, needed
someone to guide them. The office of the caliph was established with Abu
Bakr as-Siddiq, the Prophet’s close ally and friend, as the first caliph.
The prophet’s cousin and son-in-law, Ali ibn Abu Talib was not present at the
time. He was busy with funeral arrangements. To this day, this has been a
point of contention between different sects of Muslims. Some believe that
Abu Bakr was the right choice while some believe that Ali, being a blood
relative of the prophet, should’ve been the caliph. Ali, eventually, did become
the caliph. However, his reigned was marked by a tragic civil war which saw
Muslim divided into two camps. Shia tul-Ali, the supporters of Ali and Shia
tul-Muawiyah, the supporters of Muawiyah ibn Abu Sufyan. Ali’s support
came from the non-Arab parts of the empire, namely Iraq and Iran while
Muawiyah’s support came from Syria and Egypt. A divide that, to some
extent, can still be seen today. Ali was assassinated by the Kharijites. The Banu
Umayyah, or the Umayyads, established their dynasty with Muawiyah.
For the next ninety years, this dynasty ruled the Islamic Empire as Caliphs.
With the exception of one man, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, all Umayyad caliphs
were very unpopular. During their rule, the Muslim Arabs were an elite class.
The empire touched Indus in the east and Iberia in the west. People were
converting to Islam in large numbers. The Arabs were becoming an
increasingly smaller percentage of Muslims. These new non-Arab Muslims
weren’t treated the same as Arab Muslims. At one-point, non-Arab Muslim
converts even had to pay Jizya. The new Muslims were alienated and felt that
this was unfair as Prophet Muhammad had said specifically that no Arab had
any superiority over a non-Arab neither the other way around except for piety.
This led to discontent amongst the people. Various other scandals
contributed to it including, the barbaric assassination of Hussain ibn Ali, the
Prophet’s beloved grandson. The non-Arab Muslims now looked for another
way.
The Abbasid Revolution | 750CE - 754CE 2

After the assassination of Hussain, a man named Mukhtar al-Thaqafi had

fought the Umayyads during the second civil war. He had advocated for
Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah, a son of Ali, to be the Caliph. Muhammad ibn
al-Hanafiyyah was not a son of Fatima az-Zahra, the prophet’s daughter. So,
he wasn’t a descendant of the prophet but he was still a descendant of his
heir and the next head of his house, Ali. Mukhtar was defeated but his idea,
that Muhammad should be the caliph, resonated with quite a few people.
When Muhammad died, his son Abu Hashim ibn Muhammad became the
next icon of hope against the corrupt Umayyad regime. This movement was
called the Hashimiyya Movement. However, when he died, a distant cousin of
his, claimed that Abu Hashim had chosen him as his successor. The cousin
was named Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Abdullah ibn al-Abbas, the
great-grandson of the prophet’s Uncle, al-Abbas. This made him a member of
the prophet’s house but not his descendant. Muhammad ibn Ali had been
the caretaker of a small village named Humayma in modern-day Southern
Jordan. However, the revolution was not born there. The revolution was born
around 30 days journey away from Humayma, in the province of Khorasan.
Khurasan was a frontier province which comprised parts of modern-day Iran,
Afghanistan and much of Central Asia. It was a vital part of the Silk Road so
the cities such as Merv, Samarkand and Bukhara were some of most
prosperous in the world. The demographic of the region was as varied as the
geography. While it already housed people such as the nomadic Turks and
Iranians, to name a few, after the Muslim conquest, another group moved to
the region; Muslim Arabs. Soon, in this medley of languages and cultures, a
new group emerged, an Arab-Iranian elite class that ruled most of the cities
and held difficult treaties with frontier peoples. The capital of the province
was Merv. This area was the most Islamized part of the Umayyad caliphate,
outside of Arabia. However, it still retained an aristocracy that was very much
Persian. They inherited a lot of traditions of the Sassanids and their
predecessors. A lot of princes and their courts were indistinguishable from
the Iranians who came before. This was, in my opinion, a clash of cultures,
more than anything else. The Arabs were introducing their culture to the
region and there was bound to be a push back. The Muslims of Merv weren’t
just influenced by the various cultures that had arrived in their region. They
were also well-trained in the art of war. As Khurasan was a frontier province,
skirmishes were regular and the people were always prepared for war. The
The Abbasid Revolution | 750CE - 754CE 3

new Muslims, the lower classes that usually made up the bulk of these
warriors, weren’t really treated nicely by the Arab elites. As is the case with
many modern cities, there were great disparities of wealth and status. All of
these factors combined made the perfect breeding ground for a revolution.
Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik died in 743CE. He would turn out to be the last
powerful Umayyad caliph. After him, his successor al-Walid II was
assassinated after a short reign of fourteen months. The same year, 744CE,
saw a revolving door of three more caliphs until in December of that year,
Marwan II came to power. The empire never looked more unstable. The
timing was perfect for the Abbasids. The Abbasids and their missionaries
went to work and set up networks for communication and propaganda. Their
message was purposefully vague. They claimed that a member of the
Prophet’s family would be made Caliph. Which member? Whose son? No one
knew.
In the summer of 747CE, there was a commotion in Merv. A large group of
people, all wearing black and carrying a black banner marched through the
city. Eventually, they took it over and expelled the Umayyad bureaucracy.
Their leader, a man named Abu Muslim, which means Father of a Muslim,
would go on to lead the revolution. When the caliph heard of this, the
propaganda also reached him. He realized that the members of the prophet’s
family were plotting a coup. Immediately, he sent men to Humayma to arrest
and bring Ibrahim to the capital. Ibrahim was the successor of Muhammad
ibn Ali and the de facto head of the Abbasid family. He would later be
executed. The rest of the family ran out of Humayma. They had been kept
away from the revolt to make sure they were safe.
In Kufa, a man named Abu Salama also joined Abu Muslim’s revolution and
raised the Abbasid banner. The Abbasids headed there as well. Meanwhile,
after having secured Merv and Khurasan, Abu Muslim took his men and
marched to Kufa as well, clearing Iran and Iraq of Umayyad loyalists. As Abu
al-Abbas, the new head of the Abbasids arrived in Kufa, locals swarmed
around his house to swear allegiance. The new Caliph, Abu al-Abbas took the
title of as-Saffah. This was a tradition that would continue for as long as the
Abbasids did. Among the thirty-seven caliphs that ruled till 1258, no title or
Laqab as it was called, was ever repeated. As-Saffah made a speech in the
mosque and addressed his people. There was no coronation. Instead loyalty
The Abbasid Revolution | 750CE - 754CE 4

was sworn by taking the hand of the caliph. Here are some paragraphs from
the first Abbasid sermon by as-Saffah and his uncle, Dawood.
Now are the dark nights of this world put to flight, its covering lifted.
Now light breaks in the earth and in the heavens, and the sun rises from the
springs of the day while the moon ascends from its appointed place… Rule
has come back to where it originated, among the people of the house of your
Prophet… You are under the protection of God’s Messenger… and the
protection of Abbas. We will rule you according to what He has sent down
and treat you in accordance with His book and act with the commoner and
elite among you following the practice of God’s Messenger… God’s
punishment came upon them [the Umayyads] like a night raid when they
were sleeping. They were torn all to tatters, and thus may an oppressive
people perish! He [Allah] has made manifest among you a caliph of the
house of Hashim, brightening your faces and making you to prevail over the
army of Syria, transferring the sovereignty and the glory of Islam to you. He
has graced you with an imam [caliph] whose gift is justice and granted him
good government… So, know that the authority is with us and will not depart
from us until we surrender it to Jesus son of Mary [at the end of the world],
God’s blessing be upon him. Praise be to God, Lord of the universe, for that
with which He has tried us and entrusted to us.
The speech highlights some key points of the Abbasid claim to power. First of
all, the Abbasids were members of the house of the Prophet, the house of
Hashim. So, they believed that the caliphate should belong to them. Secondly,
they were talking to the people of Iraq, the people of the east. New and
Non-Arab Muslims who had felt left out. They specifically mentioned their
triumph over the armies of Syria pointing to the original civil war between Ali
and Muawiyah, the founder of the Umayyads, when the Iraqis sided with Ali
and the Syrians sided with Muawiyah. They made it clear that power had
shifted from Damascus to Kufa, which was closer to the people of Iraq, Iran
and Khurasan.
Marwan II, on the other side, gathered his forces and led them in person to
fight the revolution. Marwan met the Abbasid army, commanded by
Abdullah, the caliph’s uncle, on the river Zab on 25th of January, 750CE. The
Umayyads were badly defeated and Marwan ran to Egypt where he was
killed. The Umayyad Caliphate was gone. Long live the house of al-Abbas.
The Abbasid Revolution | 750CE - 754CE 5

Even though the Umayyads were gone, the revolution was far from complete.
The revelation of the descendants of the Prophet’s uncle was a
disappointment to the public who were hoping for a descendant of Ali and
Fatima. The Abbasids, to many, seemed like imposters. Some, at the time,
believed that al-Abbas had never even converted to Islam so, what business
did his children have with the caliphate? But for now, as-Saffah was the new
Caliph.
The Abbasids were ruthlessly cautious about any challengers. The Umayyad
princes were sought after and killed on the spot. One of those princes, Abd
al-Rahman made his way to Umayyad Spain where he established the
Emirate of Cordoba, a story for another time. According to some sources, over
60,000 people were killed by Abu Muslim during and after the revolution,
justifying As-Saffah’s title, which means ‘The Blood shedder’. However,
potential challengers weren’t just amongst the old rulers, they were hiding
amongst their allies as well.
Abu Salama, perhaps wanting to install the Abbasids as puppets and himself
as the puppet master, wasn’t happy with the Abbasids approaching the new
public directly. He was even slow to offer his allegiance to the new Caliph.
As-Saffah realized this. He invited him over one night to bestow honour upon
him. When he left the house of the caliph, he was killed on the way back to
his house. Kharijites were blamed for this. At the same time, various armies
were dispatched by the caliph to secure key cities. One of the most important
battles of the campaigns was the Battle of Talas river where the Abbasids met
the Tang Dynasty in Kazakhstan. This battle put an end to the Chinese
ambition of expansion into Khurasan. The empire was slowly consolidated
under the Abbasid Caliphate with the exception of much of North Africa and
Iberian Peninsula.
Abu al-Abbas As-Saffah, the first Caliph of the Abbasid Dynasty, died in 754CE.
He had been ill for quite a while. At least since the revolution. He had
nominated his brother Abu Ja’far as his successor but obviously, it was to be
decided by Bigger Army Diplomacy. Abu Ja’far was on a pilgrimage to
Makkah at the time when as-Saffah died. In Syria, his uncle Abdullah, who
had led the battle of Zab against the Umayyads thought that he deserved the
caliphate more than Abu Ja’far who had led a quiet life up to this point.
The Abbasid Revolution | 750CE - 754CE 6

Abdullah put together a coalition of Syrians, who had been unemployed since
the revolution and needed work, and Khurasanis, who had fought against
those very same Syrians. Not a recipe for success, I would say. The other
problem was that Abu Muslim was with Abu Ja’far on the pilgrimage. Abu
Ja’far practically begged Abu Muslim to support him. Abu Muslim was
reluctant to put himself in the middle of a family feud but he wanted to
respect as-Saffah’s nomination and install Abu Ja’far on the throne. So, he
joined Abu Ja’far. When the two forces met at Nisbin, the Khorasanis, seeing
their leader Abu Muslim, on the opposite side, began to desert Abdullah. The
Syrians also left. Abdullah was left alone. Abu Ja’far decided not to execute
him to preserve the sanctity of royal blood and put him in house arrest. He
died a few years later.
The Abbasids were, to be honest, pretty powerless at this point. While the
empire was secured, the power of the caliph was not. Abu Muslim was the
most popular man in the empire. He had the command and loyalty of the
army. Whatever the caliph was to do, he would need the support of Abu
Muslim. The power of Abu Muslim, while not Abu Muslim himself, could make
the caliph nothing but a figurehead. The new caliph was determined to
change that. While the Abbasid dynasty was established with as-Saffah, the
caliphate would be defined by Abu Ja’far al-Mansur, the second caliph.
See you next time.