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majority of the Arabs of the empire were in the Arabian Peninsula and had converted during the life of the Prophet , and were thus not subject to the jizya. This created a unequal society based on race. Arab Muslims had more privileges while non-Arab Muslims were treated as inferior. The Umayyad caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, who ruled from 717 to 720 recognized the numerous problems with this policy and reversed it as soon as he came to power. Due to his Islamically-based reign, historians and Islamic scholars consider him the fifth rightly guided caliph after Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali. The rest of the Umayyad ruling family opposed his reforms however, and he was poisoned after 3 years in power. With his death, the equitable treatment of all races in the Umayyad Empire also ended, and serious plans to remove the Umayyads from power began.
The Abbasids
From the beginning of Umayyad rule in 661, one of the major problems they had was legitimacy. Unlike the first four caliphs, the Umayyads were not chosen by popular opinion or by respected community leaders. Umayyad rule was essential based on their ability to keep the Muslim world united and organized after the upheaval of Alis time. One group that offered an alternative to Umayyad rule was the people who favored the rule of Alis family. They reasoned that since Ali was the Prophet s cousin and son-in-law, his family had the most right to rule. This ideology found supporters among the people of Iraq as well as the Hejaz, where the descendants of Ali lived. Later, this political ideology would morph into a new sect known as the Shia, but in the 700s, they were indistinguishable from traditional Islam, and only differed on politics. The problem with the people who supported rule being given to the Prophet s family was that they lacked the organizational skills and power to overthrow the Umayyads and establish themselves. That is where another group that was related to the Prophet Muhammad stepped in the Abbasids. The Abbasid family was descended from the uncle of the Prophet , Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib. By the early 700s, the family had settled in Humayma, an oasis town in what is now the sandy country of Jordan. Being close to the center of Umayyad power in Damascus, the Abbasids could clearly see when subtle cracks began to develop in Umayyad society based on inequality, and chose to use that as a springboard to claim power for themselves. The Abbasids sent secret missionaries to the Persian provinces of the empire in the 730s and 740s, where discontent against the Umayyads was a common sentiment. Since most Muslims in this area were non-Arabs, the Abbasids knew they could count on the support of these people. In order to get the support of the more pious-minded, the Abbasids claimed that one of the descendants of Ali had officially transferred the right to rule to the Abbasid family. Whether or not this actually happened, it helped give the Abbasids some legitimacy as the rightful rulers of the Muslim world, something the Umayyads lacked.
Revolution
In 747, after years of secretly getting promises of support throughout the eastern part of the Muslim world, the Abbasids decided the time was ripe to openly revolt. Their distinctive black banners and flags were raised near the ancient city of Merv, in the province of Khurasan, where popular support was very strong for the revolutionaries. Led by a mysterious figure known as Abu Muslim, the supporters of the Abbasid family in Khurasan promised a return to the utopian ideals of the Prophet Muhammad and the early caliphs. Other than that, the promises
of the Abbasids were vague, and intentionally so. The important thing to the Abbasids and their supporters was the removal of the Umayyad family from power, other issues would be solved afterwards. After securing the city of Merv and exiling the Umayyad governor, Abu Muslim began to send the Abbasid armies westward, towards the rest of Persia and Iraq. The Umayyad position had never been particularly strong in Persia, probably due to the fact that their rule was resented by the large non-Arab population, and the Abbasid revolution began to snowball into a larger movement as it rolled through the Iranian plateau. Meanwhile, the Abbasid family had fled Humayma for the relatively safer Iraq. After an arduous journey through the Syrian desert, they arrived in Kufa, not long before the armies that were fighting for their rule began to appear on the eastern horizon. With the support of the local people, the Abbasids organized an overthrow of the local Umayyad government, installing the Abbasids as the rulers of the city. It was in Kufa that the first public show of allegiance was given to Abul-Abbas, who was declared the first Abbasid caliph in 749. All of this symbolic transfer of caliphate would have meant nothing without the forceful removal of the Umayyads. The Abbasid army finally met the bulk of the Umayyad forces near the Zab River in northern Iraq. The two armies could not have been more different. The Umayyads with their white flags represented the Arab Syrians who had been the most important social group in the 89 years of Umayyad rule. The black flag-waving Abbasid soldiers represented the undermined and forgotten non-Arabs of the empire and those who desired a more Islamic-based government. At the climactic Battle of the Zab in early 750, the Abbasid force completely smashed the Umayyad army. The Syrian army was effectively routed and ceased to exist. The Abbasids were able to march right into the Umayyad homeland in Syria and take control of Damascus, relatively peacefully. The last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II, fled to Egypt, where he was found by Abbasid agents and executed. In the transitional mayhem, the Abbasids managed to round up almost every member of the Umayyad family and execute them in the years after 750, except for one young man, Abd al-Rahman. Fleeing from the Abbasid armies during his teen years, he managed to escape to al-Andalus the Iberian Peninsula and establish Umayyad rule there, where it would last until 1031. After the revolution, the Abbasids managed to create a more equitable Islamic society as they had promised, but failed to fulfill all the hopes that came along with their overthrow of the Umayyads. From their new capital in Baghdad, the Abbasids established a dynasty much like the Umayyads that came before them. Despite giving non-Arabs a more equal role in society, the Abbasids failed to honor their vague promises to go back to the early days of the caliphate and that utopian society. Like the Umayyads, and every other dynasty in Islamic history, there were positive and negative aspects to Abbasid rule.
Conclusions
When studying Islamic history, it is important to avoid painting any one group as 100% good or 100% bad. With the exception of the Prophet and his companions, almost every historical figure, movement, and empire has good and bad qualities. When applying this understanding to the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, we can appreciate the achievements and lofty ideals of both, while still understanding that they were both less than perfect and had their flaws. Bibliography: Hourani, Albert Habib. A History Of The Arab Peoples. New York: Mjf Books, 1997. Print. Kennedy, Hugh. When Baghdad Ruled The Muslim World, The Rise And Fall Of Islams Greatest Dynasty. Da Capo Pr, 2006. Print.
Ochsenwald, William, and Sydney Fisher. The Middle East: A History. 6th. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003. Print.