Home > As-Saffah

Abu al-'Abbas was the head of one branch of the Banu Hashim, who traced their lineage to Hashim, a great-grandfather of Muhammad, via al-Abbas, an uncle of the prophet. The Banu Hashim had great support from Shi'ites who thought that the family, which had produced Muhammad and ' Ali, would produce another great leader or Mahdi who would liberate Islam. The half-hearted policies of the late Umayyads to tolerate non-Arab Moslems and Shi'ites had failed to quell unrest among these minorities.

This unrest led to revolt during the reign of HishamHisham ibn Abd al-Malik ( 691 743) was an Umayyad caliph who ruled from 723 until his death in 743. Inheriting the caliphate from his brother Yazid II, Hisham was ruling an empire with many different problems. He would, however, be effective in attending in KufaCities and towns of Iraq Kufa ( al-Kufa in Arabic) is a city in Iraq, about 170 km south of Baghdad, and 10 km northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000. Along with Karbala, and Naj, a prominent city in southern IraqThe Republic of Iraq is a Middle Eastern country in southwestern Asia encompassing the ancient region of Mesopotamia. It shares borders with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to the south, Turkey to the north, Syria to the north-west, Jordan to the west and Iran to. Shi'ite Moslems revolted in 736Events The Kegon school of Buddhism arrives in Japan via Korea, when Roben invites the Korean monk Simsang to lecture, and formally founds Japan's Kegon tradition in the Todaiji temple. Births Deaths 736. and held the city until 740Events October 26 An earthquake strikes Constantinople, causing much damage and death. End of the reign of king Sevar and thus of the House of Dulo in Bulgaria. Cuthbert becomes archbishop of Canterbury. Pippin III marries Bertrada of Laon. The Khazars a, led by Zayd ibn AliZayd ibn Ali (d. 740) was the son of the Fourth Shia Imam, Ali Zayn al Abidin. Zayd was thus the grandson of Husayn bin Ali. Zayd led a rebellion against the Umayyads in the mid 8th century, renewing the hostilities that existed between the Umayyads and t, a grandson of Husayn and another member of the Banu Hashim. Zayd's rebellion failed, and was put down by Umayyad armies in 740. The revolt in Kufa indicated both the strength of the Umayyads and the growing unrest in the Muslim world.

Abu al-'Abbas chose to focus on Khurasan, an important military region in eastern Iran. In 743, the death of the Umayyad Caliph Hisham provoked the a civil war in the Islamic Empire. Abu al-'Abbas, supported by Shi'ites, Kharijis, and the residents of Khurasan, led his forces to victory over the Umayyads and ultimately deposed the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II in 750.

The civil war was marked by millenial prophecies encouraged by the beliefs of some Shi'ites that Abu al-'Abbas was the mahdi. Prominent Islamic scholars wrote works such as the Jafr telling faithful Moslems that the brutal civil war was the great conflict between good and evil. The choice of the Umayyads to enter battle with white flags and the Abbasids to enter with black encouraged such theories. The color white, however, was regarded in much of Persia as a sign of mourning.

Concerned that there would be a return of Umayyad power, Abu al-'Abbas sought out all the remaining members of the Umayyad family to have them executed. Those that could, escaped to al-Andalus, or Spain, led by Abd-ar-Rahman where the Umayyad caliphate would endure for three centuries. For his ruthless efforts to eliminate the Umayyad family, Abu al-'Abbas gained the epithet al-Saffah, or blood-letter.

After the victory over the Umayyads, Abu al-'Abbas's short reign was marked with efforts to consolidate and rebuild the Caliphate. His supporters were represented in the new government, but apart from his policy toward the Umayyad family, Abu al-'Abbas is widely viewed by historians as having been a mild victor. Jews, Nestorian Christians, and Persians were well-represented in Abu al-'Abbas's government and in succeeding Abbasid adminstrations. Education was also encouraged, and the first paper mills were set up in Samarkand.

Equally revolutionary was Abu al-'Abbas's reform of the army, which came to include non-Moslems and non- Arabs in sharp contrast to the Umayyads who refused any soldiers that were either. Abu al-'Abbas selected the gifted Abu Muslim as his military commander, an officer that would serve until 755 in the Abbasid army.

Abu al-'Abbas reneged on his promises to the Shi'a community in claiming the Caliphate for himself. The Shi'ites had hoped that their imam would be named head of the Caliphate, inaugurating the era of peace and prosperity the millenialists had believed would come. The betrayal alienated Abu al-'Abbas's Shi'ite supporters, although the continued amity of other groups made Abbasid rule markedly more solvent than Umayyad.

Abu al-'Abbas died in 755, only five years after deposing the Umayyads. He was succeeded by his brother, al-Mansur.