Q. & A. 711 to 1707 with solved Papers css 1971 to date

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ABUL ABBAS AL-SAFFAH
(749-754 A.D./132-136A.H.)
Rise of the Abbasids to Power
The Abbasids were the descendants of an uncle of the Prophet, al-Abbas ibn ’Abdul Muttalib ibn Hashim. They made common cause with the Alids. The Shiahs regarded this family as such were not Alids though by descent they were closer to the Holy Prophet than to the Umayyads. Taking advantage of the widespread discontent and posing as defenders of the true faith the descendants of Abbas Muhammad ibn Ali and his sons Abul Abbas and Abu Jafar, soon became the champions and leaders of the anti-Umayyad movement. To secure the support of the Shiahs the Abbasid propaganda was carried on in the name of Hashim the common ancestor of both the Abbasids and Alids. It was only at the last moment that they could understand their folly to their bitter disappointment that the house of Abbas was to profit by their labours to the exclusion of the Alids.
The national Persian opponents of Arab rule united with those Muslims who upheld the principle of legitimacy and maintained that the government of the Umayyads was a secular state hostile to the Islamic one. The Abbasids cleverly turned this antiUmayyad mood of the east to their own advantage by claiming their relationship with Holy Prophet Muhammad and Hazrat Ali. Their ancestor Abdullah ibn Abbas had made peace with Muawiya after Ali’s death. As Imam Zaynul Abidin refused to take part in politics the Imamat and leadership of the house of Ali were transferred from the Fatimids to those of Alids who were born of the wives of Ali other than Fatimah. Thus Muhammad, son of ’Ali from Hanfiyah

512 Political and Cultural History of Islam

became the champion for the cause of Alids, Muhammad bin Hanfiyah’s son and successor Abu Hashim Abdullah died at Humaymah on the Syrian pilgrim highways and transferred the Shiite Imamat to Muhammad bin Ali grandson of Abbas as there was none else present with him at the spot. Muhammad settled there and after his death in 743 his son Ibrahim sent his emissaries to Khurasan in 746 A.D. This became the foundation stone of Abbasid rule.
The agents of the Abbasid propaganda wondered in the disguise of merchants and invited the people to swear any allegiance to the Abbasid Imam avoiding premature outbreak but ready to sacrifice their lives for the cause. As the Persians were not given social and economic equality under the Umayyads they hated the Arab rule and supported the Abbasid propagandists whose movements were controlled and directed by a council of twelve naqibs and a senate of seventy subordinate chiefs in Khurasan. The Abbasid propaganda continued actively but silently. Sometimes the propagandists would be taken prisoners and put to death by the Umayyad Government as happened to Abu Ikrimah and Hayyan. Inspite of the warnings of the governor the Umayyad Caliph showed unwise leniency towards the Abbasid propagandists in Khurasan.
The most prominent among these Abbasid devotees was one Abdur Rahman ibn Muslim, a Persian by birth. The majority of his adherents were Persian peasants and clients. His propaganda was based on Iranian beliefs: he is said to have taught the transmigration of souls and given* himself out as an incarnation of the Deity. He contributed more than any one else to the overthrow of the Umayyads but he fell a victim to the jealousy of those who owed him so much.
Nasr b. Sayyar, the governor of Khurasan, wrote to Marwan II that 200,000 men had sworn allegiance to Abu Muslim who had raised the black standard of the Abbasids at the village of Siqadanj, near Merv on the 9th June, 747. But Marwan II, being busy at home in suppressing the troubles created by the Qaysites and Yamanites, did not send troops to crush the rebellion. The Governor, however, killed Ibrahim the son of Muhammad and his other two brothers Abu’l Abbas and Abu Jafar escaped to Humayma and from there to Kufah. In the general engagements, however, Abu Muslim with the help of the Yamanite Arabs, Rawandis, Ishaq the Turk and Sinbadh the Magian defeated Nasr b. Sayyar who fled to Sawa where he died a year later. It was the war between the Arabs and non-Arabs.
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Amongst the Umayyads there was an utter lack of enthusiasm, patriotism and loyalty while Abu Muslim commanded unbounded loyalty of the Musawwidahs the black dressed Abbasid troops. In August 749 Marwan’s son Abdullah was routed on the little Zab by Awn and Marwan himself suffered the final defeat on the great Zab on January 25, 750 A.D. The Umayyad capital, Damascus, was, however, occupied by the Abbasids three months later. Much about the origin and rise to power of the Abbasids has been discussed earlier.