The Abbasid Revolution, also called the Movement of the Men of the Black Raiment, was the overthrow of the

Umayyad Caliphate The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by th ...

(661–750 CE), the second of the four major

Caliphate A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

s in early

Islamic history The history of Islam concerns the political, social, economic, military, and cultural developments of the Islamic civilization. Most historians believe that Islam originated in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century CE. Muslims ...

, by the third, the

Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttal ...

(750–1517 CE). Coming to power three decades after the death of the Islamic prophet

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mon ...

and immediately after the

Rashidun Caliphate The Rashidun Caliphate ( ar, اَلْخِلَافَةُ ٱلرَّاشِدَةُ, al-Khilāfah ar-Rāšidah) was the first caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was ruled by the first four successive caliphs of Muhammad after his ...

, the Umayyads were an

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

Empire ruling over a population which was overwhelmingly non-Arab. Non-Arabs were treated as second-class citizens regardless of whether or not they converted to Islam, and this discontent cutting across faiths and ethnicities ultimately led to the Umayyads' overthrow. The Abbasid family claimed to have descended from al-Abbas, an uncle of Muhammad. The revolution essentially marked the end of the Arab empire and the beginning of a more inclusive, multiethnic state in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

Saïd Amir Arjomand Saïd Amir Arjomand (Persian: سعید امیر ارجمند) is an Iranian-American scholar and Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology at Stony Brook University, Long Island, and Director of the Stony Brook Institute for Global Studies. He r ...

Abd Allah Ibn al-Muqaffa and the Abbasid Revolution

Iranian Studies Iranian studies ( fa, ايران‌شناسی '), also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It ...

, vol. 27, Nos. 1–4.

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law ...

, 1994. Remembered as one of the most well-organized revolutions during its period in history, it reoriented the focus of the

Muslim world The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. I ...

to the east.Hala Mundhir Fattah
A Brief History of Iraq
p. 77. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2009.

Background

By the 740s, the Umayyad Empire found itself in critical condition. A

succession crisis A succession crisis is a crisis that arises when an order of succession fails, for example when a king dies without an indisputable heir. It may result in a war of succession. Examples include (see List of wars of succession): *Multiple periods ...

in 744 led to the

Third Fitna The Third Fitna ( ar, الفتنة الثاﻟﺜـة, al-Fitna al-thālitha), was a series of civil wars and uprisings against the Umayyad Caliphate beginning with the overthrow of Caliph al-Walid II in 744 and ending with the victory of Marwan ...

, which raged across the Middle East for three years. The very next year,

al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Shaybani Al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Qays al-Shaybānī ( ar, الضحاك بن قيس الشيباني) was the leader of a widespread but unsuccessful Kharijite rebellion in Iraq against the Umayyad Caliph Marwan II from 745 until his death in battle in 746. ...

initiated a

Kharijite The Kharijites (, singular ), also called al-Shurat (), were an Islamic sect which emerged during the First Fitna (656–661). The first Kharijites were supporters of Ali who rebelled against his acceptance of arbitration talks to settle the ...

rebellion that would continue until 746. Concurrent with this, a rebellion broke out in reaction to

Marwan II Marwan ibn Muhammad ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam ( ar, مروان بن محمد بن مروان بن الحكم, Marwān ibn Muḥammad ibn Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam; – 6 August 750), commonly known as Marwan II, was the fourteenth and last caliph of ...

's decision to move the capital from

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

Harran Harran (), historically known as Carrhae ( el, Kάρραι, Kárrhai), is a rural town and district of the Şanlıurfa Province in southeastern Turkey, approximately 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of Urfa and 20 kilometers from the border ...

, resulting in the destruction of

Homs ar, حمصي, Himsi , population_urban = , population_density_urban_km2 = , population_density_urban_sq_mi = , population_blank1_title = Ethnicities , population_blank1 = , population_blank2_t ...

– also in 746. It was not until 747 that Marwan II was able to pacify the provinces; the Abbasid Revolution began within months. G. R. Hawting
The First Dynasty of Islam: The Umayyad Caliphate AD 661–750
p. 105. London: Routledge, 2002.

Nasr ibn Sayyar Naṣr ibn Sayyār al-Lāythi al-Kināni ( ar, نصر بن سيار الليثي الكناني; 663 – 9 December 748) was an Arab general and the last Umayyad governor of Khurasan in 738–748. Nasr played a distinguished role in the wars aga ...

was appointed governor of Khurusan by

Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik ( ar, هشام بن عبد الملك, Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik; 691 – 6 February 743) was the tenth Umayyad caliph, ruling from 724 until his death in 743. Early life Hisham was born in Damascus, the administra ...

in 738. He held on to his post throughout the war of succession, being confirmed as governor by Marwan II in the aftermath. Khurusan's expansive size and low population density meant that the Arab denizens – both military and civilian – lived largely outside of the garrisons built during the spread of Islam. This was in contrast to the rest of the Umayyad provinces, where Arabs tended to seclude themselves in fortresses and avoided interaction with the locals. Peter Stearns,

Michael Adas Michael Adas (born 4 February 1943 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American historian and currently the Abraham E. Voorhees Professor of History at Rutgers University. He specializes in the history of technology, the history of anticolonialism and i ...

, Stuart Schwartz and Marc Jason Gilbert."The Umayyad Imperium." Taken from ''World Civilizations:The Global Experience'', combined volume. 7th ed. Zug:

Pearson Education Pearson Education is a British-owned education publishing and assessment service to schools and corporations, as well for students directly. Pearson owns educational media brands including Addison–Wesley, Peachpit, Prentice Hall, eCollege ...

, 2014. Arab settlers in Khorasan left their traditional lifestyle and settled among the native

Iranian peoples The Iranian peoples or Iranic peoples are a diverse grouping of Indo-European peoples who are identified by their usage of the Iranian languages and other cultural similarities. The Proto-Iranians are believed to have emerged as a separate ...

. While intermarriage with non-Arabs elsewhere in the Empire was discouraged or even banned, Patrick Clawson, ''Eternal Iran'', p. 17.

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is the largest town in the county of Hampshire. It is situated in south-central England and lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon, at the far western edge of The North Downs. It is located north-east of Southa ...

Palgrave Macmillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains off ...

, 2005.

Al-Baladhuri ʾAḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Jābir al-Balādhurī ( ar, أحمد بن يحيى بن جابر البلاذري) was a 9th-century Muslim historian. One of the eminent Middle Eastern historians of his age, he spent most of his life in Baghdad and e ...

Futuh al-Buldan ''Futūh al-Buldān'' ( ar, فتوح البلدان, , Conquest of (the) countries), or ''Kitāb Futūḥ al-Buldān''("Book of the Conquest of the Countries/Lands"), is the best known work by the 9th century Arab or Persian historian Ahmad Ibn Yah ...

, p. 417. it slowly became a habit within eastern Khorasan; and the Arabs began adopting Persian dress and as the two languages influenced one another, the ethnic barriers came down.

Causes

Support for the Abbasid Revolution came from people of diverse backgrounds, with almost all levels of society supporting armed opposition to Umayyad rule.The Oxford History of Islam
p. 25. Ed.

John Esposito John Louis Esposito (born May 19, 1940) is an Italian-American academic, professor of Middle Eastern and religious studies, and scholar of Islamic studies, who serves as Professor of Religion, International Affairs, and Islamic Studies at Ge ...

. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. This was especially pronounced among Muslims of non-Arab descent,Donald Lee Berry, ''Pictures of Islam'', p. 80. Macon: Mercer University Press, 2007.

Richard Bulliet Richard W. Bulliet (born 1940) is a professor of history at Columbia University who specializes in the history of Islamic society and institutions, the history of technology, and the history of the role of animals in human society. Early life ...

Pamela Kyle Crossley Pamela K Crossley (born 18 November 1955) is a historian of modern China, northern Asia, and global history and is the Charles and Elfriede Collis Professor of History, Dartmouth College. She is a founding appointment of the Dartmouth Society ...

, Daniel Headrick, Steven Hirsch and Lyman Johnson
The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History
vol. A, p. 251.

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Cengage Learning Cengage Group is an American educational content, technology, and services company for the higher education, K-12, professional, and library markets. It operates in more than 20 countries around the world.(Jun 27, 2014Global Publishing Leader ...

, 2014. James Wynbrandt
A Brief History of Saudi Arabia
p. 58. New York:

Infobase Publishing Infobase Publishing is an American publisher of reference book titles and textbooks geared towards the North American library, secondary school, and university-level curriculum markets. Infobase operates a number of prominent imprints, including ...

, 2010. though even Arab Muslims resented Umayyad rule and centralized authority over their nomadic lifestyles. Bryan S. Turner, ''Weber and Islam'', vol. 7, p. 86. London: Routledge, 1998. Both

Sunnis Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word ''Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagree ...

and

Shias Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...

supported efforts to overthrow the Umayyads,Islamic Art
p. 20.

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...

, 1991. G.R. Hawting, ''The First Dynasty of Islam'', p. 106. as did non-Muslim subjects of the empire who resented religious discrimination. Richard Foltz
Religions of Iran: From Prehistory to the Present
p. 160. London:

Oneworld Publications Oneworld Publications is a British independent publishing firm founded in 1986 by Novin Doostdar and Juliet Mabey originally to publish accessible non-fiction by experts and academics for the general market. Following the

Battle of Karbala The Battle of Karbala ( ar, مَعْرَكَة كَرْبَلَاء) was fought on 10 October 680 (10 Muharram in the year 61 AH of the Islamic calendar) between the army of the second Umayyad Caliph Yazid I and a small army led by Husayn ...

which led to the massacre of

Husayn ibn Ali Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, أبو عبد الله الحسين بن علي بن أبي طالب; 10 January 626 – 10 October 680) was a grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a son of Ali ibn Abi ...

, the grandson of

, and his kin and companions by the Umayyad army in 680 CE, the Shias used this event as a rallying cry of opposition against the Umayyads. The Abbasids also used the memory of Karbala extensively to gain popular support against the Umayyads. The Hashimiyya movement (a sub-sect of the

Kaysanites Shia The Kaysanites () were a Shi'i sect of Islam that formed from the followers of Al-Mukhtar. They traced Imamate from Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah and his descendants. The name Kaysaniyya was most likely derived from the name of Mukhtar's chief g ...

) was largely responsible for starting the final efforts against the Umayyad dynasty, initially with the goal of replacing the Umayyads with an

Alid The Alids are those who claim descent from the '' rāshidūn'' caliph and Imam ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (656–661)—cousin, son-in-law, and companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad—through all his wives. The main branches are the (inclu ...

ruling family.H. Dizadji
Journey from Tehran to Chicago: My Life in Iran and the United States, and a Brief History of Iran
p. 50. Bloomington:

Trafford Publishing Trafford Publishing is a company for self-publishing using print-on-demand technology, formerly based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and now based in Bloomington, Indiana, USA. History The company was founded in 1995, by Bruce and Mar ...

, 2010. To an extent, rebellion against the Umayyads bore an early association with Shi'ite ideas.Matthew Gordon
The Rise of Islam
p. 46. Westport:

Greenwood Publishing Group Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (GPG), also known as ABC-Clio/Greenwood (stylized ABC-CLIO/Greenwood), is an educational and academic publisher ( middle school through university level) which is today part of ABC-Clio. Established in 1967 as G ...

, 2005. A number of Shi'ite revolts against Umayyad rule had already taken place, though they were open about their desire for an Alid ruler.

Zayd ibn Ali Zayd ibn Zayn al-Abidin ( ar, زيد بن زين العابدين; 695–740), also spelled Zaid, was the son of Ali ibn al-Husayn Zayn al-Abidin, and great-grandson of Ali ibn Abi Talib. He led an unsuccessful revolt against the Umayyad Calipha ...

fought the Umayyads in Iraq, while

Abdallah ibn Mu'awiya ( ar, عبد الله بن معاویه الهاشمي; died 747) was an Alid leader who led a rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphate at Kufa and later Persia during the Third Fitna. Early life and rise to the imamate Abd Allah ibn Mu'awiya was ...

even established temporary rule over Persia. Their murder not only increased anti-Umayyad sentiment among the Shia, but also gave both Shias and Sunnis in Iraq and Persia a common rallying cry. At the same time, the capture and murder of the primary Shi'ite opposition figures rendered the Abbasids as the only realistic contenders for the void that would be left by the Umayyads.G.R. Hawting, ''The First Dynasty of Islam'', p. 113. The Abbasids kept quiet about their identity, simply stating that they wanted a ruler from the descendant of Muhammad upon whose choice as caliph the Muslim community would agree. Many Shi'ites naturally assumed that this meant an Alid ruler, a belief which the Abbasids tacitly encouraged to gain Shi'ite support.''The Oxford History of Islam'', pp. 24–25. Though the Abbasids were members of the

Banu Hashim ) , type = Qurayshi Arab clan , image = , alt = , caption = , nisba = al-Hashimi , location = Mecca, Hejaz Middle East, North Africa, Horn of Africa , descended = Hashim ibn Abd Manaf , parent_tribe = ...

clan, rivals of the Umayyads, the word "Hashimiyya" seems to refer specifically to

Abd-Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafīyya () (died 98 AH; 716 CE), also known as Abū Hāshim was a member of the Banu Hashim clan of the Quraish tribe in Mecca. He was one of the Salaf and a narrator of hadith. After Muhammad ibn al-Han ...

, a grandson of Ali and son of

Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib () also known as Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafīyya () (15 AH – 81 AH; AD 637 – 700) and surnamed Abū al-Qāsim. He was the third son of Ali ibn Abi Talib (the fourth rightly-guided caliph and the firs ...

. According to certain traditions, Abd-Allah died in 717 in Humeima in the house of

Mohammad ibn Ali Abbasi Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh () or Muḥammad al-Imām (679/80 - 744) was the son of Ali ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Abbas and great-grandson of al-‘Abbas ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib, the uncle of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. Born in Humeima in ...

, the head of the Abbasid family, and before dying named Muhammad ibn Ali as his successor.Hala Mundhir Fattah, ''A Brief History of Iraq'', p. 76. Although the anecdote is considered a fabrication, at the time it allowed the Abbasids to rally the supporters of the failed revolt of

Mukhtar al-Thaqafi Al-Mukhtar ibn Abi Ubayd al-Thaqafi ( ar, المختار بن أبي عبيد الثقفي, '; – 3 April 687) was a pro-Alid revolutionary based in Kufa, who led a rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphate in 685 and ruled over most of Iraq ...

, who had represented themselves as the supporters of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya. By the time the revolution was in full swing, most Kaysanite Shia had either transferred their allegiance to the Abbasid dynasty (in the case of the Hashimiyya), or had converted to other branches of Shi'ism and the Kaysanites ceased to exist.

Discontent among Sunni Muslims who were non-Arab

The Umayyad state is remembered as an Arab-centric state, being run by and for the benefit of those who were ethnically Arab though Muslim in creed.Ivan Hrbek
Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century
p. 26. Melton:

James Currey James Currey is a former academic publisher specialising in African Studies which since 2008 has been an imprint of Boydell & Brewer. It is named after its founder who established the company in 1984. It publishes on a full spectrum of topics� ...

, 1992. The non-Arab Muslims resented their marginal social position and were easily drawn into Abbasid opposition to Umayyad rule. Arabs dominated the bureaucracy and military, and were housed in fortresses separate from the local population outside of Arabia. Even after converting to Islam, non-Arabs or ''

Mawali Mawlā ( ar, مَوْلَى, plural ''mawālī'' ()), is a polysemous Arabic word, whose meaning varied in different periods and contexts.A.J. Wensinck, Encyclopedia of Islam 2nd ed, Brill. "Mawlā", vol. 6, p. 874. Before the Islamic prophet ...

'' could not live in these garrison cities. The non-Arabs were not allowed to work for the government nor could they hold officer positions in the Umayyad military and they still had to pay the

jizya Jizya ( ar, جِزْيَة / ) is a per capita yearly taxation historically levied in the form of financial charge on dhimmis, that is, permanent non-Muslim subjects of a state governed by Islamic law. The jizya tax has been understood in ...

tax for non-Muslims.The Umayyads: The Rise of Islamic Art
p. 40. Museum with No Frontiers, 2000. Philip Adler and Randall Pouwels
World Civilizations
p. 214. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2014. Non-Muslims under Umayyad rule were subject to these same injunctions. Racial intermarriage between Arabs and non Arabs was rare. When it did occur, it was only allowed between an Arab man and a non-Arab woman while non-Arab men were generally not free to marry Arab women. Conversion to Islam occurred gradually. If a non-Arab wished to convert to Islam, they not only had to give up their own names but also had to remain a second-class citizen. The non-Arab would be "adopted" by an Arab tribe, though they would not actually adopt the tribe's name as that would risk pollution of perceived Arab racial purity. Rather, the non-Arab would take the last name of "

freedman A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom ...

of al-(tribe's name)", even if they were not a slave prior to conversion. This essentially meant they were subservient to the tribe who sponsored their conversion. Although converts to Islam made up roughly 10% of the native population – most of the people living under Umayyad rule were not Muslim – this percent was significant due to the very small number of Arabs. Gradually, the non-Arab Muslims outnumbered the Arab Muslims, causing alarm among the Arab nobility. Socially, this posed a problem as the Umayyads viewed Islam as the property of the aristocratic Arab families. There was a rather large financial problem posed to the Umayyad system as well. If the new converts to Islam from non-Arab peoples stopped paying the jizya tax stipulated by the Qur'an for non-Muslims, the empire would go bankrupt. This lack of civil and political rights eventually led the non-Arab Muslims to support the Abbasids, despite the latter also being Arab. Even as the Arab governors adopted the more sophisticated Iranian methods of governmental administration, non-Arabs were still prevented from holding such positions. Non-Arabs were not even allowed to wear Arabian style clothing, so strong were the feelings of Arab racial superiority cultivated by the Umayyads. Much of the discontent this caused led to the Shu'ubiyya movement, an assertion of non-Arab racial and cultural equality with Arabs. The movement gained support among

Egyptians Egyptians ( arz, المَصرِيُون, translit=al-Maṣriyyūn, ; arz, المَصرِيِين, translit=al-Maṣriyyīn, ; cop, ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, remenkhēmi) are an ethnic group native to the Nile, Nile Valley in Egypt. Egyptian ...

Arameans The Arameans ( oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; syc, ܐܪ̈ܡܝܐ, Ārāmāyē) were an ancient Semitic-speaking people in the Near East, first recorded in historical sources from the late 12th century BCE. The Aramean ...

and

Berber people , image = File:Berber_flag.svg , caption = The Berber ethnic flag , population = 36 million , region1 = Morocco , pop1 = 14 million to 18 million , region2 = Algeria , pop2 ...

, though this movement was most pronounced among

Iranian people Iranians or Iranian people may refer to: * Iranian peoples, Indo-European ethno-linguistic group living predominantly in Iran and other parts of the Middle East and the Caucasus, as well as parts of Central Asia and South Asia ** Persians, Irania ...

Repression of Iranian culture

First Umayyad gold dinar, Caliph Abd al-Malik, 695 CE

The early

Muslim conquest of Persia The Muslim conquest of Persia, also known as the Arab conquest of Iran, was carried out by the Rashidun Caliphate from 633 to 654 AD and led to the fall of the Sasanian Empire as well as the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion. The ...

was coupled with an anti-Iranian

Arabization Arabization or Arabisation ( ar, تعريب, ') describes both the process of growing Arab influence on non-Arab populations, causing a language shift by the latter's gradual adoption of the Arabic language and incorporation of Arab culture, aft ...

policy which led to much discontent. The controversial Umayyad governor

Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf Abu Muhammad al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf ibn al-Hakam ibn Abi Aqil al-Thaqafi ( ar, أبو محمد الحجاج بن يوسف بن الحكم بن أبي عقيل الثقفي, Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Abī ʿAqīl al-T ...

was upset at the usage of Persian as the court language in the eastern Islamic empire, and ordered all written and spoken Persian to be suppressed in both government and even among the general public, by force if necessary. Contemporary historians record that al-Hajjaj contributed to the death of the

Khwarezmian language Khwārezmian (Khwarezmian: , ''zβ'k 'y xw'rzm''; also transliterated Khwarazmian, Chorasmian, Khorezmian) is an extinct East Iranian language closely related to Sogdian. The language was spoken in the area of Khwarezm (Chorasmia), centered ...

, closely related to Persian. Once the Umayyads expanded into

Khwarezm Khwarazm (; Old Persian: ''Hwârazmiya''; fa, خوارزم, ''Xwârazm'' or ''Xârazm'') or Chorasmia () is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the ...

, a stronghold of east Iranian civilization, al-Hajjaj ordered the execution of anyone who could read or write the language, to the point that only the illiterate remained.

Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni (973 – after 1050) commonly known as al-Biruni, was a Khwarazmian Iranian in scholar and polymath during the Islamic Golden Age. He has been called variously the "founder of Indology", "Father of ...

, The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries, pp. 35–36 and 48.

Discontent among non-Muslims

Support for the Abbasid Revolution was an early example of people of different faiths aligning with a common cause. This was due in large part to policies of the Umayyads which were regarded as particularly oppressive to anyone following a faith other than Islam. In 741, the Umayyads decreed that non-Muslims could not serve in government posts. The Abbasids were aware of this discontent, and made efforts to balance both its Muslim character as well as its partially non-Muslim constituency.

Ira M. Lapidus Ira M. Lapidus is an Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic History at The University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of ''A History of Islamic Societies'', and ''Contemporary Islamic Movements in Historical Perspective'', ...

p. 58. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Persecution of Zoroastrians was part of state policy during the Umayyad era. Al-Hajjaj allegedly killed all Zoroastrian clergy upon the conquest of east Iranian lands, burning all Zoroastrian literature and destroying most religious buildings. The non-Muslim aristocracy around

Merv Merv ( tk, Merw, ', مرو; fa, مرو, ''Marv''), also known as the Merve Oasis, formerly known as Alexandria ( grc-gre, Ἀλεξάνδρεια), Antiochia in Margiana ( grc-gre, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐν τῇ Μαργιανῇ) and ...

supported the Abbasids, and thus retained their status as a privileged governing class regardless of religious belief.

Events

Buildup

Beginning around 719, Hashimiyya missions began to seek adherents in

Khurasan Greater Khorāsān,Dabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 or Khorāsān ( pal, Xwarāsān; fa, خراسان ), is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plat ...

. Their campaign was framed as one of

proselytism Proselytism () is the policy of attempting to convert people's religious or political beliefs. Proselytism is illegal in some countries. Some draw distinctions between ''evangelism'' or '' Da‘wah'' and proselytism regarding proselytism as invol ...

. They sought support for "a member of the House of the Prophet who shall be pleasing to everyone", without making explicit mention of the Abbasids.ABBASID CALIPHATE

Encyclopædia Iranica ''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times. Scope The ''Encyc ...

. Retrieved 8 November 2014. These missions met with success both among Arabs and non-Arabs, although the latter may have played a particularly important role in the growth of the movement. A number of Shi'ite rebellions – by Kaysanites, Hashimiyya and mainstream Shi'ites – took place in the final years of Umayyad rule, just around the same time that tempers were flaring among the Syrian contingents of the Umayyad army regarding alliances and wrongdoings during the

Second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ea ...

''The Oxford History of Islam'', p. 24 only. and

. At this time

Kufa Kufa ( ar, الْكُوفَة ), also spelled Kufah, is a city in Iraq, about south of Baghdad, and northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000. Currently, Kufa and Najaf a ...

was the center for the opposition to Umayyad rule, particularly Ali's supporters and Shias. In 741–42

Abu Muslim , image = Abu Muslim chastises a man for telling tales, Folio from the Ethics of Nasir (Akhlaq-e Nasiri) by Nasir al-Din Tusi (fol. 248r).jpg , caption = "Abu Muslim chastises a man for telling tales," Folio from the '' ...

made his first contact with Abbasid agents there, and eventually he was introduced to the head of Abbasids, Imam

Ibrahim Ibrahim ( ar, إبراهيم, links=no ') is the Arabic name for Abraham, a Biblical patriarch and prophet in Islam. For the Islamic view of Ibrahim, see Abraham in Islam. Ibrahim may also refer to: * Ibrahim (name), a name (and list of people w ...

, in

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow v ...

. Around 746,

assumed leadership of the Hashimiyya in Khurasan.ABŪ MOSLEM ḴORĀSĀNĪ

. Retrieved 30 April 2014. Unlike the Alid revolts which were open and straightforward about their demands, the Abbasids along with the Hashimite allies slowly built up an underground resistance movement to Umayyad rule. Secret networks were used to build a power base of support in the eastern Muslim lands to ensure the revolution's success. This buildup not only took place right on the heels of the

Zaydi Revolt In 740, Zayd ibn Ali led an unsuccessful rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphate, that had taken over the Rashidun Caliphate since the death of his great-grandfather, Ali. The revolt Unlike his brother, Muhammad al-Baqir, the fifth Imam of ...

in Iraq, but also concurrently with the

Berber Revolt The Berber Revolt of 740–743 AD (122–125 AH in the Islamic calendar) took place during the reign of the Umayyad Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik and marked the first successful secession from the Arab caliphate (ruled from Damascus). Fired up b ...

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese language, Aragonese and Occitan language, Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a pe ...

and

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...

, the

Ibadi The Ibadi movement or Ibadism ( ar, الإباضية, al-Ibāḍiyyah) is a school of Islam. The followers of Ibadism are known as the Ibadis. Ibadism emerged around 60 years after the Islamic prophet Muhammad's death in 632 AD as a moderate sc ...

rebellion in

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast and ...

and

Hijaz The Hejaz (, also ; ar, ٱلْحِجَاز, al-Ḥijāz, lit=the Barrier, ) is a region in the west of Saudi Arabia. It includes the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif, and Baljurashi. It is also known as the "Western Provinc ...

, and the

in the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...

, with the revolt of al-Harith ibn Surayj in

and

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the fo ...

occurring concurrently with the revolution itself. The Abbasids spent their preparation time watching as the Umayyad Empire was besieged from within itself in all four cardinal directions, and

School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury ...

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

G. R. Hawting has asserted that even if the Umayyad rulers had been aware of the Abbasids' preparations, it would not have been possible to mobilize against them.

Revolt of Ibn Surayj

In 746, Ibn Surayj began his revolt at

without success at first, even losing his secretary Jahm bin Safwan.G.R. Hawting, ''The First Dynasty of Islam'', p. 108. After joining forces with other rebel factions, Ibn Surayj drove Umayyad governor Nasr ibn Sayyar and his forces to

Nishapur Nishapur or officially Romanized as Neyshabur ( fa, ;Or also "نیشاپور" which is closer to its original and historic meaning though it is less commonly used by modern native Persian speakers. In Persian poetry, the name of this city is wri ...

; the two factions double-crossed each other shortly thereafter, with Ibn Surayj's faction being crushed. Western Khorasan was controlled by

at the time, cutting Ibn Sayyar in the east off from

. In the summer of 747, Ibn Sayyar sued for peace, which was accepted by the remaining rebels. The rebel leader was assassinated by a son of Ibn Surayj in a revenge attack while at the same time, another Shi'ite revolt had begun in the villages. The son of the remaining rebels signed the peace accord and Ibn Sayyar returned to his post in Merv in August of 747 – just after Abu Muslim initiated a revolt of his own.

Persian phase

On 9 June 747 (Ramadan 25, 129AH), Abu Muslim successfully initiated an open revolt against Umayyad rule, The Cambridge History of Iran
p. 62
Ed. Richard N. Frye. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975. which was carried out under the sign of the

Black Standard The Black Banner or Black Standard ( ar, الراية السوداء, ar-rāyat as-sawdāʾ, also known as (, "banner of the eagle" or simply as , , "the banner") is one of the flags flown by the Islamic prophet Muhammad according to Muslim ...

.Bernard Lewis, ''The Middle East'', Introduction, first page on the Abbasid Caliphate.The Cambridge History of Islam
vol. 1A, p. 102. Eds.

Peter M. Holt Peter Malcolm Holt, FBA (28 November 1918 – 2 November 2006) was a historian of the Middle East and Sudan., British Academy, 2008 He was generally known as P. M. Holt. Biography The son of a Unitarian minister, Holt attended Lord William ...

, Ann K.S. Lambton and Bernard Lewis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Close to 10,000 soldiers were under Abu Muslim's command when the hostilities officially began in

. On 14 February 748 he established control of Merv, expelling

less than a year after the latter had put down Ibn Surayj's revolt, and dispatched an army westwards.Matthew Gordon, ''The Rise of Islam'', p. 47. Newly commissioned Abbasid officer

Qahtaba ibn Shabib al-Ta'i Qahtaba ibn Shabib al-Ta'i ( ar, قحطبة بن شبيب الطائي) (died 27 August 749) was a follower of the Abbasids from Khurasan who played a leading role in the Abbasid Revolution against the Umayyad Caliphate. Qahtaba was a Khurasani ...

, along with his sons Al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba and

Humayd ibn Qahtaba Humayd ibn Qahtaba ibn Shabib al-Ta'i () was a senior military leader in the early Abbasid Caliphate. Biography Humayd was the son of Qahtaba ibn Shabib al-Ta'i, who along with Abu Muslim led the Abbasid Revolution that toppled the Umayyad Cali ...

, pursued Ibn Sayyar to

and then pushed him further west to Qumis, in western Persia.G.R. Hawting, ''The First Dynasty of Islam'', p. 116. That August, al-Ta'i defeated an Umayyad force of 10,000 at

Gorgan Gorgan ( fa, گرگان ; also romanized as ''Gorgān'', ''Gurgān'', and ''Gurgan''), formerly Esterabad ( ; also romanized as ''Astarābād'', ''Asterabad'', and ''Esterābād''), is the capital city of Golestan Province, Iran. It lies appro ...

, South East of Caspian Sea. Ibn Sayyar regrouped with reinforcements from the Caliph at

Rey Rey may refer to: *Rey (given name), a given name *Rey (surname), a surname * Rey (''Star Wars''), a character in the ''Star Wars'' films *Rey, Iran, a city in Iran * Ray County, in Tehran Province of Iran * ''Rey'' (film), a 2015 Indian film *The ...

near today's Capital "Tehran", only for that city to fall as well as the Caliph's commander; once again, Ibn Sayyar fled west and died on 9 December 748 while trying to reach

Hamedan Hamadan () or Hamedan ( fa, همدان, ''Hamedān'') (Old Persian: Haŋgmetana, Ecbatana) is the capital city of Hamadan Province of Iran. At the 2019 census, its population was 783,300 in 230,775 families. The majority of people living in Ham ...

in south Western Persia. Al-Ta'i rolled west through Khorasan, defeating a 50,000 strong Umayyad force at

Isfahan Isfahan ( fa, اصفهان, Esfahân ), from its ancient designation ''Aspadana'' and, later, ''Spahan'' in middle Persian, rendered in English as ''Ispahan'', is a major city in the Greater Isfahan Region, Isfahan Province, Iran. It is lo ...

in Central Persia in March 749. At

Nahavand Nahavand ( fa, نهاوند, translit=Nahāvand / Nehāvend) is a city in Hamadan Province, Iran. It is the capital of Nahavand County. At the time of the 2006 census, its population was 72,218, in 19,419 families. It is located south of the ci ...

south western Persia, the Umayyads attempted to make their last stand in Persia. Umayyad forces fleeing Hamedan and the remainder of Ibn Sayyar's men joined with those already garrisoned. Qahtaba defeated an Umayyad relief contingent from Syria while his son al-Hasan laid siege to Nahavand for more than two months. The Umayyad military units from Syria within the garrison cut a deal with the Abbasids, saving their own lives by selling out the Umayyad units from Khorasan who were all put to death. After almost ninety years, Umayyad rule in Khorasan had finally come to an end. At the same time that al-Ta'i took Nishapur Located in North Eastern Khorasan, Abu Muslim was strengthening the Abbasid grip on the Muslim North East. Abbasid governors were appointed over

Transoxiana Transoxiana or Transoxania (Land beyond the Oxus) is the Latin name for a region and civilization located in lower Central Asia roughly corresponding to modern-day eastern Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan, parts of southern Kazakhstan, parts of Tu ...

and

Bactria Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, sou ...

(Parts of today's Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan), while the rebels who had signed a peace accord with Nasr ibn Sayyar were also offered a peace deal by Abu Muslim only to be double crossed and wiped out. With the pacification of any rebel elements in the east and the surrender of Nahavand in the west, the Abbasids were the undisputed rulers of Khorasan.

Mesopotamia phase

Balami - Tarikhnama - Abu'l-'Abbas al-Saffah is proclaimed the first 'Abbasid Caliph (cropped)

The Abbasids wasted no time in continuing from Persia into Mesopotamia. In August 749, Umayyad commander

Yazid ibn Umar al-Fazari Yazid ibn Umar ibn Hubayra al-Fazari ( ar, يَزِيد بن عُمَر بن هُبَيْرَة الْفَزارِيّ , Yazīd ibn ʿUmar ibn Hubayra al-Fazārī; died 750) was the last Umayyad governor of Iraq. A son of former governor Umar ibn ...

attempted to meet the forces of al-Ta'i before they could reach

. Not to be outdone, the Abbasids launched a nighttime raid on al-Fazari's forces before they had a chance to prepare. During the raid, al-Ta'i himself was finally killed in battle. Despite the loss, al-Fazari was routed and fled with his forces to Wasit. The

Siege of Wasit The siege of Wasit involved the army of the Abbasid Revolution under al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba and the future Caliph al-Mansur, and the Umayyad garrison of Wasit under the last Umayyad governor of Iraq, Yazid ibn Umar ibn Hubayra. Yazid had been forced t ...

took place from that August until July 750. Although a respected military commander had been lost, a large portion of the Umayyad forces were essentially trapped inside Wasit and could be left in their virtual prison while more offensive military actions were made.G.R. Hawting, ''The First Dynasty of Islam'', p. 117. Concurrently with the siege in 749, the Abbasids crossed the

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...

and took Kufa. The son of Khalid al-Qasri – a disgraced Umayyad official who had been tortured to death a few years prior – began a pro-Abbasid riot starting at the city's citadel. On 2 September 749, al-Hasan bin Qahtaba essentially just walked right in to the city and set up shop. Some confusion followed when

Abu Salama Abū Salamah ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Asad ( ar, أَبُو سَلَمَة عَبْد ٱلله ٱبْن عَبْد ٱلْأَسَد ) was one of the Companians of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He was also a cousin and a foster-brother of Muha ...

, an Abbasid officer, pushed for an Alid leader. Abu Muslim's confidante Abu Jahm reported what was happening, and the Abbasids acted preemptively. On Friday, 28 November 749, before the siege of Wasit had even finished,

As-Saffah Abū al-ʿAbbās ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Saffāḥ ( ar, أبو العباس عبد الله بن محمد السفّاح‎; 721/722 – 8 June 754, al-Anbar) usually known as Abūʾl-ʿAbbās as-Saffāḥ or simply by his laqab As ...

, the great-grandson of Muhammad's uncle, al-Abbas, was recognized as the new caliph in the mosque at Kufa. Abu Salama, who witnessed twelve military commanders from the revolution pledging allegiance, was embarrassed into following suit. Just as quickly as Qahtaba's forces marched from Khorosan to Kufa, so did the forces of Abdallah ibn Ali and Abu Awn Abd al-Malik ibn Yazid march on

Mosul Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second larg ...

(in today's Northern Iraq). At this point Marwan II mobilized his troops from

(Today's South Central Turkey) and advanced toward Mesopotamia. On 16 January 750 the two forces met on the left bank of a tributary of the Tigris in the

Battle of the Zab The Battle of the Zab ( ar, معركة الزاب), also referred to in scholarly contexts as Battle of the Great Zāb River, took place on January 25, 750, on the banks of the Great Zab River in what is now the modern country of Iraq. It spel ...

, and nine days later Marwan II was defeated and his army was completely destroyed.Bertold Spuler
The Muslim World a Historical Survey
Part 1: the Age of the Caliphs, p. 49. 2nd ed. Leiden: Brill Archive, 1968. The battle is regarded as what finally sealed the fate of the Umayyads. All Marwan II could do was flee through Syria and into Egypt, with each Umayyad town surrendering to the Abbasids as they swept through in pursuit.

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

fell to the Abbasids in April, and in August

and his family were tracked down by a small force led by Abu Awn and Salih ibn Ali (the brother of Abdallah ibn Ali) and killed in Egypt. Al-Fazari, the Umayyad commander at Wasit, held out even after the defeat of Marwan II in January. The Abbasids promised him amnesty in July, but immediately after he exited the fortress they executed him instead. After almost exactly three years of rebellion, the Umayyad state came to an end.

Tactics

Ethnic equality

Militarily, the unit organization of the Abbasids was designed with the goal of ethnic and racial equality among supporters. When Abu Muslim recruited mixed Arab and Iranian officers along the Silk Road, he registered them based not on their tribal or ethno-national affiliations but on their current places of residence. This greatly diminished tribal and ethnic solidarity and replaced both concepts with a sense of shared interests among individuals.

Propaganda

The Abbasid Revolution provides an early medieval example of the effectiveness of propaganda. The Black Standard unfurled at the start of the revolution's open phase carried messianic overtones due to past failed rebellions by members of Muhammad's family, with marked eschatological and millennial slants. The Abbasids – their leaders descended from Muhammad's uncle Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib – held vivid historical reenactments of the murder of Muhammad's grandson

by the army of the second Umayyad ruler

Yazid I Yazid ibn Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan ( ar, يزيد بن معاوية بن أبي سفيان, Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiya ibn ʾAbī Sufyān; 64611 November 683), commonly known as Yazid I, was the second caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate. He ruled from ...

, followed by promises of retribution. Focus was carefully placed on the legacy of Muhammad's family while details of how the Abbasids actually intended to rule were not mentioned.Bertold Spuler, ''The Muslim World a Historical Survey'', p. 48. While the Umayyads had primarily spent their energy on wiping out the Alid line of the prophetic family, the Abbasids carefully revised Muslim chronicles to put a heavier emphasis on the relationship between Muhammad and his uncle. The Abbasids spent more than a year preparing their propaganda drive against the Umayyads. There were a total of seventy propagandists throughout the province of Khorasan, operating under twelve central officials.G.R. Hawting, ''The Final Dynasty of Islam'', p. 114.

Secrecy

The Abbasid Revolution was distinguished by a number of tactics which were absent in the other, unsuccessful anti-Umayyad rebellions at the time. Chief among them was secrecy. While the Shi'ite and other rebellions at the time were all led by publicly known leaders making clear and well-defined demands, the Abbasids hid not only their identities but also their preparation and mere existence. As-Saffah would go on to become the first Abbasid caliph, but he did not come forward to receive the pledge of allegiance from the people until after the Umayyad caliph and a large number of his princes were already killed. Abu Muslim al-Khorasani, who was the primary Abbasid military commander, was especially mysterious; even his name, which literally means "father of a Muslim from the large, flat area of the eastern Muslim empire" gave no meaningful information about him personally. Even today, although scholars are sure he was one real, consistent individual, there is broad agreement that all concrete suggestions of his actual identity are doubtful. Abu Muslim himself discouraged inquiries about his origins, emphasizing that his religion and place of residence were all that mattered. Whoever he was, Abu Muslim built a secret network of pro-Abbasid sentiment based among the mixed Arab and Iranian military officers along the

Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and rel ...

garrison cities. Through this networking, Abu Muslim ensured armed support for the Abbasids from a multi-ethnic force years before the revolution even came out in the open. These networks proved essential, as the officers garrisoned along the Silk Road had spent years fighting the ferocious Turkic tribes of

and were experienced and respected tacticians and warriors.

Aftermath

The victors desecrated the tombs of the Umayyads in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, sparing only that of

Umar II Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz ( ar, عمر بن عبد العزيز, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz; 2 November 680 – ), commonly known as Umar II (), was the eighth Umayyad caliph. He made various significant contributions and reforms to the society, an ...

, and most of the remaining members of the Umayyad family were tracked down and killed. When Abbasids declared amnesty for members of the Umayyad family, eighty gathered in

Jaffa Jaffa, in Hebrew Yafo ( he, יָפוֹ, ) and in Arabic Yafa ( ar, يَافَا) and also called Japho or Joppa, the southern and oldest part of Tel Aviv-Yafo, is an ancient port city in Israel. Jaffa is known for its association with the b ...

to receive pardons and all were massacred.Michael A. Palmer
The Last Crusade: Americanism and the Islamic Reformation
p. 40. Lincoln: Potomac Books, 2007. In the immediate aftermath, the Abbasids moved to consolidate their power against former allies now seen as rivals. Five years after the revolution succeeded, Abu Muslim was accused of heresy and treason by the second Abbasid caliph

al-Mansur Abū Jaʿfar ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Manṣūr (; ar, أبو جعفر عبد الله بن محمد المنصور‎; 95 AH – 158 AH/714 CE – 6 October 775 CE) usually known simply as by his laqab Al-Manṣūr (المنصور) ...

. Abu Muslim was executed at the palace in 755 despite his reminding al-Mansur that it was he (Abu Muslim) who got the Abbasids into power, and his travel companions were bribed into silence. Displeasure over the caliph's brutality as well as admiration for Abu Muslim led to rebellions against the Abbasid Dynasty itself throughout Khorasan and

Kurdistan Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, languag ...

. Although Shi'ites were key to the revolution's success, Abbasid attempts to claim orthodoxy in light of Umayyad material excess led to continued persecution of Shi'ites. On the other hand, non-Muslims regained the government posts they had lost under the Umayyads. Jews, Nestorian Christians, Zoroastrians and even Buddhists were re-integrated into a more cosmopolitan empire centered around the new, ethnically and religiously diverse city of Baghdad. The Abbasids were essentially puppets of secular rulers starting from 945, though their rule over

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

and its surroundings continued until 1258 when the Mongols sacked Baghdad, while their lineage as nominal caliphs lasted until 1517, when the Ottomans conquered Egypt (the seat of the Abbasid caliphate after 1258) and claimed the caliphate for themselves. The period of actual, direct rule by the Abbasids lasted almost exactly two-hundred years.Andrew Marsham

p. 16. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. One grandson of

, Abd al-Rahman I, Abd ar-Rahman I, survived and established a kingdom in

Al-Andalus Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...

(

Moorish The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or s ...

) after five years of travel westward. Over the course of thirty years, he ousted the ruling Fihrids and resisted Abbasid incursions to establish the

Emirate of Córdoba The Emirate of Córdoba ( ar, إمارة قرطبة, ) was a medieval Islamic kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula. Its founding in the mid-eighth century would mark the beginning of seven hundred years of Muslim rule in what is now Spain and Po ...

. This is considered an extension of the Umayyad Dynasty, and ruled from Cordoba from 756 until 1031.

Legacy

The Abbasid Revolution has been of great interest to both Western and Muslim historians. According to

State University of New York The State University of New York (SUNY, , ) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is one of the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. Led by ...

professor of sociology

, analytical interpretations of the revolution are rare, with most discussions simply lining up behind either the Iranic or Arabic interpretation of events. Frequently, early European historians viewed the conflict solely as a non-Arab uprising against Arabs.

Bernard Lewis Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near ...

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of Near Eastern Studies at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

, points out that while the revolution has often been characterized as a Persian victory and Arab defeat, the caliph was still Arab, the language of administration was still Arabic and Arab nobility was not forced to give up its land holdings; rather, the Arabs were merely forced to share the fruits of the empire equally with other races. Al-Ukhaidir Fortress-Iraq-حصن الأخيضر

C.W. Previté-Orton argues that the reasons for the decline of the Umayyads was the rapid expansion of Islam. During the Umayyad period, mass conversions brought Iranians,

Berbers , image = File:Berber_flag.svg , caption = The Berber ethnic flag , population = 36 million , region1 = Morocco , pop1 = 14 million to 18 million , region2 = Algeria , pop2 ...

Copts Copts ( cop, ⲛⲓⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ; ar, الْقِبْط ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group indigenous to North Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt and Sudan since antiquity. Most ethnic Copts are ...

, and Assyrians to Islam. These "clients," as the Arabs referred to them, were often better educated and more civilised than their Arab masters. The new converts, on the basis of equality of all Muslims, transformed the political landscape. Previté-Orton also argues that the feud between the Arabs in Syria and the Arabs in Mesopotamia further weakened the empire. The revolution led to the enfranchisement of non-Arab people who had converted to Islam, granting them social and spiritual equality with Arabs.Fred Astren, ''Karaite Judaism and Historical Understanding'', p. 34. With social restrictions removed, Islam changed from an Arab ethnic empire to a universal world religion. This led to a great cultural and scientific exchange known as the

Islamic Golden Age The Islamic Golden Age was a period of cultural, economic, and scientific flourishing in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 14th century. This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign ...

, with most achievements taking place under the Abbasids. What was later known as Islamic civilization and culture was defined by the Abbasids, rather than the earlier Rashidun and Umayyad caliphates. New ideas in all areas of society were accepted regardless of their geographic origin, and the emergence of societal institutions that were Islamic rather than Arab began. Though a class of Muslim clergy was absent for the first century of Islam, it was with the Abbasid Revolution and after that the

Ulama In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...

appeared as a force in society, positioning themselves as the arbiters of justice and orthodoxy. With the eastward movement of the capital from Damascus to Baghdad, the Abbasid Empire eventually took on a distinctly Persian character, as opposed to the Arab character of the Umayyads. Rulers became increasingly autocratic, at times claiming divine right in defense of their actions.

Conclusion

An accurate and comprehensive history of the revolution has proven difficult to compile for a number of reasons. There are no contemporary accounts, and most sources were written more than a century after the revolution.''The Umayyads: The Rise of Islamic Art'', p. 41.Kathryn Babayan
Mystics, Monarchs, and Messiahs: Cultural Landscapes of Early Modern Iran
p. 150. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 2002. Because most historical sources were written under Abbasid rule, the description of the Umayyads must be taken with a grain of salt; such sources describe the Umayyads, at best, as merely placeholders between the Rashidun and Abbasid Caliphates. The historiography of the revolution is especially significant due to Abbasid dominance of most early Muslim historical narratives;Muhammad Qasim Zaman
Religion and Politics Under the Early ʻAbbāsids: The Emergence of the Proto-Sunnī Elite
p. 6. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1997. it was during their rule that history was established in the Muslim world as an independent field separate from writing in general. The initial two-hundred year period when the Abbasids actually held de facto power over the Muslim world coincided with the first composition of Muslim history. Another point of note is that while the Abbasid Revolution carried religious undertones against the irreligious and almost secular Umayyads, a separation of mosque and state occurred under the Abbasids as well. Historiographical surveys often focus on the solidifying of Muslim thought and rites under the Abbasids, with the conflicts between separated classes of rulers and clerics giving rise to the empire's eventual separation of religion and politics.Muhammad Qasim Zaman, ''Religion and Politics Under the Early ʻAbbāsids'', p. 7.

References

External links

Abbasid Calipahte Bibliography
at Oxford Bibliographies
The Rise and Spread of Islam
{{Abbasid Caliphate topics 740s conflicts 750s conflicts 740s in the Umayyad Caliphate 8th-century rebellions