CHAPTER V THE ABBASIDE DYNASTY OF KHALIFS A.D. 750-1258 DURING the life of the Prophet of Arabia his paternal uncle Abbas was a personage of considerable power and influence in the Muslim world; the more so as having an elder son, Abdullah, who lived in the closest friendship with the grandson of the Prophet. After the events of the fatal field of Karbala, which will be described in a subsequent chapter, Abdullah retired to Mecca, where he brought up his family in deadly hatred of the Omaiyad Khalif, who then held sway at Damascus. A son by name Ali was born to him in A.D. 660, who settled at Damascus, where, however, he was subjected to every kind of insult and eventually driven from court. He thereupon betook himself and his family to a town on the borders of Syria and Arabia, where in due course his son Muhammad conceived the ambitious design of supplanting the Omaiyad dynasty. To attain this end the Abbaside intriguer spread abroad a report that the rights of the Khalifat had descended to him, as linked by close affinity to the Prophet of Arabia. As time passed, emissaries were sent into Iraq and Khorassan, where the adherents of the house of Ali were more numerous than elsewhere, to stir up the people in secret against the reigning house. Gradually the movement gained power and strength, till during the reign of Omar II. (A.D. 717-720) it became a source of considerable danger to the "Commander of the Faithful." After an interval of twenty years (A.D. 740), the Abbasides found themselves sufficiently strong to proclaim a member of the house of Ali-by name Zaid bin Ali-as Khalif, but he was deserted by his troops and slain in an unequal conflict, his head being sent to Damascus. Nothing daunted, the Abbaside emissaries secretly continued their propaganda, and other dissensions and rebellions added considerably to the danger of the empire. During the troublous reign of Walid II. (A.D. 743-744), the Abbasides grew more and more powerful, especially under the leadership of Ibrahim bin Muhammad, who had become the head of the family on the death of his father, Muhammad bin Ali. When Marwan II. succeeded to the throne (A.D. 744), he found the Abbasides powerful and united, more particularly in Khorassan, where their leader Abu Muslim and his three sons engaged in a vast conspiracy to overthrow the Omaiyad Khalif (A.D. 745). Angered at the success of the rebellion Marwan caused Ibrahim, the rival candidate for the throne of the Muslim world, to be put to death, an act of cruelty which brought upon the Omaiyad dynasty the most terrible reprisals at the hands of his brother Abdullah, called Abul Abbas, surnamed As Saffah (the Sanguinary), on account of the cruelty which he displayed against the house of his enemy, culminating in the murder of Marwan, as previously described, in a Coptic church in Egypt (A.D. 750), an act of horror which paved the way for his own accession, as the first to hoist the black standard of the Abbasides, as monarchs of Islam. Abdullah as Saffah, a man of iron will and untiring energy, took vigorous and prompt steps to ensure the triumph of his dynasty. Establising himself at the city of Hashimiya, which he had founded not far from Kufa, he at once commenced to treat the Omaiyads with the utmost cruelty. The better to secure their destruction, the new Khalif caused it to be understood that an amnesty would be granted to all members of the dispossessed dynasty who were prepared to submit; and as a further inducement, it was given out that their property would be restored to them should they prove tractable. Seduced by these promises, no less than ninety members of the Omaiyad family tendered their allegiance, whereupon, under pretence of holding out the hand of friendship and goodwill, Abdullah invited them to a banquet. In the midst of the festivities, a body of executioners rushed into the hall and slew the unarmed guests. The cruelties of the Khalif, however, raised a host of enemies throughout the empire, and his entire reign till his death (9th June, A.D. 754) was passed in quelling insurrection and consolidating his power. The next Khalif was Abu Jafar, who on his accession assumed the name of "Al Mansur," "The Victorious." He signalised the commencement of his |