In order to gain a clearer understanding of the conditions that led to the emergence of the sects that form the subject of this study, it is necessary to examine briefly the nature of Umayyad rule in Iraq and especially the problems at Kufa and its surroundings. Beginning with the reign of the Umayyad dynastic founder, Mu‵āwiya ibn Abī Sufyan, the ruling circles in Damascus experienced hostility and intransigence on the part of many of the inhabitants of Iraq. Anti-Umayyad outbreaks became a permanent feature of the Iraqi milieu. These movements of protest stemmed from problems of assimilation with non-Arabs, religious conflicts, and social stratification and polarization in Kufa. The economic and social grievances associated with stratification were particularly bitter and troublesome for those seeking to govern Iraq. It was inevitable that the situation resulting from prolonged struggle would, in the long run, serve only to increase the obstinacy of the Iraqis, on the one hand, and the severity of the Umayyad rulers, on the other.

Since the publication of M. A. Shaban's Islamic History a.d. 600–750 (A. H. 132): A New Interpretation, scholars of early Islamic history have begun to revise their views of one of the most important features of early Iraqi history: tribal rivalries among the Arabs living in that region. Earlier scholars such as Julius Wellhausen, Ignaz Goldziher, and others argued that early Muslim history, especially in Iraq, was shaped to a great extent by rivalry between North Arabs, Qaysites, and Southern Arabs, known in the sources as Yamanis.