13. Rise of the Abbasids When the Caliphs became degraded morally and politically and cared little for the Qur’anic and traditional laws, the Shi’ahs, the born enemies of the Umayyads, took a religious colour and gained popular support. The Shi’ahs and many dissatisfied Sunnis were ready to give religious sanction and active support to the destructive force operating against the Umayyads in Khurasan. They were the Abbasids who, being members of the Hashimite branch of the Quraysh, had better claim of the support of the Shi’ahs, the descendants and the followers of Hazrat AM than that of the Banu Umayyah. The Abbasids easily turned the anti-Umayyad mood to their own advantage.
This destructive force was nourished in Khurasan, while the head-quarter was in a seemingly harmless and lovely village, al-
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Humaymah in the south of the Dead Sea but close to the caravan and pilgrim route a good place for propaganda. Posing as defenders of the true faith and making common cause with the Alids, the Abbasids soon became the champions of the anti-Umayyad movement started in Khurasan. Non-Arab Muslims, in general, and Persian Muslims in particular, had reasons for discontent because they had not been given the expected economic and social equality by the Umayyads. These were the various reasons why the Abbasids gained ground in Khurasan and the north-eastern provinces of Persia. In Iraq and Persia, under guise of Shi’aite Islam, Persianism was reviving at full speed.
