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 Shi’te 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, da’wa 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).

Scholars at an Abbasid library, from the Maqamat of al-Hariri by Yahya ibn Mahmud al-Wasiti, Baghdad, 1237 AD

The first challenge faced was to find a base on which the revolution would initiate. As such, the revolts utilized the minor Shi’ite 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 Prophet’s 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 Shi’i tendencies of the population (Daniel p.32)”. He elaborates by stating that at that time, ‘‘Khurasan wasn’t 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 da’wa within ‘‘the obscure Shi’i sect'' (Daniels, p.26). They articulated the fact that the ‘‘imamate rightly belong to the descendants of Ali, the Prophet’s son in law and nephew”. Hence, the not so prominent Shi’ite 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 da’wa 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 revolution’s 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 Rabi’a, 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 da’wa 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 revolution’s message propagation per the Imam’s 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 government’s affairs, uphold religious duties, and listen to the nation’s 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 revolt’s 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.