4. Resentment in Khurasan News from al-Iraq were not encouraging. The Kufans ousted one governor and disliked another and there was constant change of the governors to satisfy the Kufans. Khurasan was in state of unrest. The Abbasid movement secretly continued there. Meanwhile their leader Muhammad died and was succeeded by his son Ibrahim who was recognized as Imam by the Khurasanis at Merv. They sent to him large offerings. The rising of the Persian Shi’a in Khurasan which had been colonized from al-Basrah strengthened the cause of the Abbasids. Meanwhile Abdullah ibn Mu’awiya, as great-grandson
:Havvting, P 108.
Decline & Fall of the Uniayyad Dynasty 453
of Ali’s brother Ja’far proclaimed himself as Imam. He was defeated and driven to Medina. He settled first in Isfahan then in Istakhr and extended his rule to Khuzistan. Pars and Kirman gave refuge to the Kharijis. He was attacked by Marwan’s troops at Merv in 747 and driven to Khurasan where he was killed by the ”Abbasid propagandist, Abu Muslim.
The old feud between the Mudars and the Yamanis continued. Nasar, the governor, who was himself a Mudar was hard pressed by the Yamanis. Surrounded by enemies and fearing the Turkoman attack under the Khaqan to whom had joined Harith, the latter was pardoned and allowed to join the Muslims under Nasr after twelve years of imprisonment the only example of condonation of an apostate’s crime in Islam.1
