Al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba ibn Shabib al-Ta'i () was a senior military leader in the early

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-Muttalib ...

Biography

He was the son of

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 Ar ...

, who along with

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 '' ...

led the

Abbasid Revolution The Abbasid Revolution, also called the Movement of the Men of the Black Raiment, was the overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE), the second of the four major Caliphates in early History of Islam, Islamic history, by the third, the A ...

that toppled 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 ...

. Along with his brother Humayd, Hasan was active in the Abbasid cause 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 Plate ...

during the years before the Revolution, serving as a deputy '' naqib''.Crone (1980), p. 188 During the Revolution itself, together with his father he was one of the principal commanders in the campaign that brought the Abbasid armies from Khurasan into

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

; he took part in the pursuit of

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 agai ...

and the victory at

Nihavand 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 ...

, and despite his father's death in battle against the Umayyad governor

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 ...

, Hasan led the Khurasani army into Kufa.Zarrinkub (1999), pp. 54–55Kennedy (1986), p. 79 After the Revolution, Hasan served the future 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) w ...

(r. 754–775) as deputy governor in

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

, which he helped pacify, and sided with Mansur against the rebellion of Abdallah ibn Ali 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 ...

in 754. After this, he was occasionally appointed to the frontier with the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

, where he led the summer raids into

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

766 __NOTOC__ Year 766 ( DCCLXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 766 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar ...

, 779 and 780.Lilie et al. (2000), p. 120 He is probably also to be identified as the Mouchesias (Μουχεσίας) of Byzantine sources, which indicate that on the orders of Caliph al-Mahdi (r. 775–785) he was engaged in persecutions and forced conversions of Christians in Syria. Although distinguished as a member of the ''

abna al-dawla The ''abnāʾ al-dawla'' ( ar, أبناء الدولة, meaning "sons of the regime/dynasty"), often simply " the ''Abnāʾ''", is a term for the Khorasani Arabs who had participated in the Abbasid Revolution of 749–750 and their descendants, wh ...

'', the Abbasid regime's Khurasani elite, and very wealthy—like most Abbasid commanders, he received portions of the newly built capital,

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 ...

, as a grant—Hasan played scarcely any political role at court. He died in 797 at the age of 84. His sons,

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

Ali ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...

, and Sa'id, also held gubernatorial positions in various provinces. In the

Fourth Fitna The Fourth Fitna or Great Abbasid Civil War resulted from the conflict between the brothers al-Amin and al-Ma'mun over the succession to the throne of the Abbasid Caliphate. Their father, Caliph Harun al-Rashid, had named al-Amin as the first suc ...

, they all sided with al-Amin against

al-Ma'mun Abu al-Abbas Abdallah ibn Harun al-Rashid ( ar, أبو العباس عبد الله بن هارون الرشيد, Abū al-ʿAbbās ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hārūn ar-Rashīd; 14 September 786 – 9 August 833), better known by his regnal name Al-Ma'mu ...

.Kennedy (1986), p. 80 As with most of the old Abbasid families, they lost power, although not their wealth, after the triumph of al-Ma'mun in the civil war.

References

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hasan Ibn Qahtaba 713 births 797 deaths Generals of the Abbasid Caliphate Abbasid people of the Arab–Byzantine wars 8th-century Arabs Tayy People of the Abbasid Revolution Abbasid governors of Arminiya