The Challenges Faced by the Abbasid Rule:

HISTORY 101 - The Challenges Faced by the Abbasid Rule:

The Abbasid era which lasted for over 400 years, has been a field of interest for many scholars
mainly through its emergence, the ideologies it represented, manner of evolution, and the
challenges that it faced especially pertaining its legitimacy and expansion, connection to the Shite
movement and the management of the different divisions within the ruling family. The paper at
hand discusses the mentioned challenges in light of the articles provided by Elton Daniel, John
Williams, and Hugh Kennedy.

In his article "The Abbasid Revolt", Daniel states that the Abbasid era began with the revolution
against the Ummayad Caliphate in early 740 750 CE. The revolution was the fruit of more than
30 years of planning, dawa and the recruiting of believers from various Arab reigned regions
(Daniels, p.29). Subsequently he asserts that the revolution came with several challenges that the
Abbasid had to overcome to ensure their success. He asserts that the movement was part political
and part religious addressing the increasing dissatisfaction of the citizens of the Ummayad nation,
which were a majority of minor sects of mainly non-Arab bloodline. He further elaborates by
stating that the population of revolts constituted of the bloc of middling class Arab colonists,
their mawali, and the Iranian Dahaqin all of whom resented the domination of Khurasan by an
alien Qaysite-Syrian military elite [.] the native Iranian peasantry and mostly assimilated
lower class Arabs (Daniels, p.26).

The first challenge faced was to find a base on which the revolution would initiate. As such, the
revolts utilized the minor Shiite sect to communicate what the revolution would stand for. Early
on the revolution preached that the nation needed a a legitimate imam chosen from the family of
Muhammad, but subject to the approval and confirmation of the (Khurusani) partisans who would
remain comfortably in distance tending to the religious welfare of the community while his
political deputes dealt with secular affairs. In light of the above, since the Ummayads did not
trace their lineage to Banu Hashim clan (the Prophets clan), they did not have legitimate right to
establish Caliphate.
According to the author, Abbasid had recognized the two strategies that would contribute most
to their success: appeal to local interests in Khurasan, and exploit the nascent Shii tendencies of
the population (Daniel p.32). He elaborates by stating that at that time, Khurasan wasnt tapped
by any religious-political party and that made it a good medium to cultivate the revolutionary
seeds of what later on was knowns as the Abbasid revolution (Daniel, p.32). Thus, the missionaries
and most importantly Abu Muslim began the dawa within the obscure Shii sect'' (Daniels, p.26).
They articulated the fact that the imamate rightly belong to the descendants of Ali, the Prophets
son in law and nephew. Hence, the not so prominent Shiite sect, mainly located in Khurasan,
was used as base to propagate the message of the revolution, as they were numerous and strong,
free from extremist doctrines, eager to support a member of the family of the Prophet, and most
important, not marred by the Arabs ambition and love of tribal strife (Daniel, p.30).
Daniel, in his article iterates that the second challenge faced by the revolution early on was to
establish a mass of supporters that the Imam of the dawa was able to align their interests in the
direction that allows the revolution to overthrow the Ummayad ruling. As the seed of revolution
that was being planted in Kufa showed little success, the missionaries moved to Khurasan to
propagate the revolutions ideologies within the masses. In the nation of factional and sectarian
rivalries, the missionaries utilized the fact that Khurasan was the melting pot for various sects
such as Mawali, slaves, repressed Iranians, and non-Arab majorities to their benefit. They also
addressed Khurasani inhabitants lack of tribal strife tendency and their lack of extremist
doctrines (Daniel, p.30) to propagate the message of bringing the Caliphate to its rightful
successors. As they established their base in Khurasan and gained credibility, the missionaries
expanded their territory by spreading their message to areas such as Jurjan, Merv among others.
As such, they were to befriend the tribes of Yaman, and Rabia, but to be aware of Mudar (Daniel,
p.32).
One of the various strategies adopted by the Abbasids early on was to exploit the friction between
the weakening Ummayad nation and other movements (Daniel, p.39). As always the Abbasids
capitalized on the strength of other movements by assimilating them with their own. Without ever
making any real commitment to the Zaydi cause, they used the feelings Yahya had aroused for
their own benefit (Daniel, p.39). Similarly, the author recounts how Abu Muslim recruited
dissatisfied slaves to his revolution. He inquired only about whether the slave was a Muslim, and
being answered affirmatively, took the new recruit to the camp where he informed the partisans
that anyone, slave or free who joined the dawa would be accepted (Daniel, p. 53).
Furthermore, Daniel articulates that the Abbasid revolution built a movement around political
notions of Khurasan particularism, but they would have to govern an empire of which Khurasan
was but one part (Daniel, p.60). As such, after the success of the revolution, a third challenge
emerges pertaining the governance of an empire so wide and diverse before and after and
maintaining its supremacy over these lands. Daniel suggests that the Abbasid population was
comprised of vagabonds, social outcasts, oppressed peasants, and the like, but which the Abbasids
were fundamentally opposed to the radical violent goals of these groups (Daniel, p.60).
During the early stages of the revolution, an Imam whose name remained secret to the public led
the movement. The chain of command was in the following manner: Twelve chiefs handled the
revolutions message propagation per the Imams guidance. In addition, twelve alternates
(Nuqaba) were designated to fill in the role of the generals should any of them die. Under each
alternate was 58 missionaries. In our opinion, the hierarchy was necessary to propagate the
message to the biggest mass possible while retaining its original goals and form.
Subsequent to the success of the revolution, Kennedy in his article When Baghdad Rules the
Muslim World articulates some of the methods adopted by the Ruling Abbasid Caliph Mansur
to manage the various aspects of his nation. For instance, as Mansur was a Caliph who rose to rule
without a reputation to precede him, he had shown the tendency to kill those who did not support
him. Kennedy recounts the murder incident of Abu Salma, the leader of the Kufa group who was
late in swearing his allegiance to Mansur (Kennedy, p.11). Also, the article recounts the storage
room in which the Caliph preserved the corpses of members of the family of Ali who he had
executed as they posed threat to his throne. In the ear of each corpses was a label, carefully
inscribed with the name and genealogy of the victim (Kennedy, p.26). In addition, the Abbasid
operated politically to ascertain their reign over the nation. Kennedy recounts how Mansur for
instance, played enemies against each other (Kennedy, p.13). He knew who could be bribed or
not and also when to use force or positive reinforcements to ascertain his rule ( Kennedy, P.13). It
is noteworthy that not all the methods implemented by Mansur or the Abbasid in general were of
excessive show of force and hostility. The author acknowledges that Mansur was a pious man who
knew how to employ both the carrot and the stick (Kennedy, p.17). He worked hard to settle the
governments affairs, uphold religious duties, and listen to the nations needs.

Throughout the ideas we have presented in this paper, we note that the Abbasid revolution was
born as both a political and religious uprising against the Ummayad ruling. It took around thirty
years to attain the revolts goals and a collaboration between different minorities within the Arab
nation. Yet, there is no doubt that the diverse composition of the revolution at that time cast
challenges for the Caliph to ascertain their rule and manage all the divisions within the people and
the ruling family. Nonetheless, history shows that the Abbasids were able to create a long lasting
era with various successes that are renowned up to date, such as the Abbasid Golden Age that
extended from 775 to 861 and that this era remains a fertile field of study for people with different
backgrounds.