Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T06:34:23.099Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - THE ‘ABBĀSID CALIPHATE IN IRAN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Roy Mottahedeh
Edited by
R. N. Frye
Roy Mottahedeh
Affiliation:
Princeton University
Get access

Summary

On 3 Rabī' I 132/20 October 749 Abu'l-'Abbās ‘Abd-Allāh b. Muhammad b. ‘Aī b. ‘Abd-Allāh b. al-‘Abbās, after receiving the oath of allegiance as caliph, spoke in the mosque of Kūfa until, weakened by fever, he sat down in the pulpit while his uncle finished the speech for him. The speech served as an inaugural address for this first 'Abbāsid caliph and clearly outlined both the discontents which had encouraged the revolution against the Umayyads, and the claims of the 'Abbāsids to restrict the caliphate of the Islamic community to the members of their own family. Even if the authenticity of the speech is difficult to establish, it faithfully reflects the tone of 'Abbāsid rule during the following two hundred years:

Praise be to God … who has given us ties of relation and kinship with the Messenger of God, and has brought us forth from his fathers … and has placed us in respect to Islam and its people in an exalted position … He has informed them of our excellence and made it obligatory for them to render us our right and to love us … The erring Sabā'iyya have claimed that someone other than us has a greater right than we to leadership, administration and the caliphate … How so and why so, oh people? It is through us that God has guided men after their erring and enlightened them after their ignorance … God tolerated [the Umayyad usurpers] for a while, until they angered Him; and when they angered Him, He avenged Himself on them at our hands and returned our right to us … Oh people of Kūfa, you are the object of our love and affection. You have been constant in that love, your mistreatment by the oppressors has not turned you from it until you reached our time and God brought you our turn in power (daula), and so you have become the happiest of people through us and the most honoured by us. We have increased your [yearly] stipends by one hundred dirhams. Hold yourselves ready, for I am the pitiless bloodshedder (al-saffāh) and the destroying avenger.

Keywords

Islamic empire‘Abbāsid revolutionArabsIranian MuslimsMāzandarānZaidī 'AlidYemen
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Iran , pp. 57 - 89
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1975

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

al-Sābi', Hilāl. al-Wuzarā'. Cairo, 1958.
Bal‘amī, Abu ‘Alī Muhammad. Tarjuma-yi tārīkh-i Tabarī, Tehrān, 1337/1959.
Dūrī, ‘Abd al-‘Azīz. al-‘Asr al-Abbāsī al-awwal. Baghdad, 1363/1945.
Jahshiyārī, Abū ‘Abd-Allāh Muhammad b. ‘Abdūs. Kitāb al-wuzarā’ wa'lkuttāb. Cairo, 1357/1938.
Lewis, Bernard, “ ‘Abbāsids”, EI, 2nd ed.
Margoliouth, Tr. as The Table Talk of a Mesopotamian Judge, parts I, II, VIII. Oxford, 1921–32.
Mas‘ūdī, . Muruj al-dhahab (Les prairies d'or), 9 VolS., ed. and tr. Meynard, C. A. Barbier and Courteille, A. J. Pavet. Paris.
Miskawaih, . Tajārib al-umam, Vol. 1. Cairo.
Qummī, Hasan b. Muhammad b. Hasan. Tārīkh-i Qumm, ed. Tihrānī, Jalāl al-Dīn. Tehrān, 1313/1934.
Sourdel, Dominique. Le Vizirat ‘Abbāside, 2 vols. Damas, 1959–60.
Spuler, Bertold. Iran in früh-islamischer Zeit. Wiesbaden, 1952. (Extensive annotated bibliography.)
Tabarī, . Ta'rīkh al-rusul wa'l-mulūk, 15 Vols., ed. Goeje, M. J. et al. Leiden, 1879–1901.
Tanūkhī, Abū ‘Alī al-Muhassin. Nishwār al-muhādara, parts I, II, VIII, ed. Margoliouth, D. S.. Damascus, 1921–30.
Ya‘qūbī, . Ta'rīkh. Najaf, 1939.
Zarrīnkūb, ‘Abd al-Husain. Tārikh-i Irān ba‘d az Islām, Vol. I. Tehrān, 1343/1965

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×