Arabic Thought: Chapter III. The Coming of the ‘Abbasids

The rule of the ‘Umayyads had been a period of tyrannical oppression on the part of the Arab rulers upon their non-Arab subjects and especially upon the mawali or converts drawn from the native population of the conquered provinces who not only were not admitted to equality, as was the professed principle of the religion of Islam, but were treated simply as serfs. This was in no sense due to religious persecution, for it was the converts who were the most aggrieved, nor was it due to a racial antipathy as between a Semitic and an Aryan people, nor yet to anything that could be described as a "national" feeling on the part of the Persians and other conquered races, but simply a species of "class" feeling due to the contempt felt by the Arabs for those whom they had conquered and hatred on the part of the conquered towards their arrogant masters, a hatred intensified by disgust at their misgovernment and ignorance of the traditions of civilization. There were other causes also which helped to intensify this feeling of hatred especially in the case of the Persians. Amongst these was a semi-religious feeling, even amongst those who had become converts to Islam. It had been the

Abu Hashim, the son of Muhammad b. al-Hanafiya, died in 98. A.H. poisoned, it was generally believed, by the Khalif Sulayman, and bequeathed his rights to Muhammad b. ‘Ali b. ‘Abdullah, a descendant of the house of Hashim, to which the Prophet and ‘Ali had belonged, the rival clan of the Quraysh tribe opposed to the clan of the ‘Umayyads. Abu Hashim assumed

The supporters of the family of Muhammad b. al-Hanafiya, who had now transferred their allegiance to

Abu Muslim, who had done most to establish the ‘Umayyad dynasty, next provoked the Khalif's jealousy, probably with good cause for he was indignant to find that "the Butcher" was no sooner on the throne than he entirely discarded the Shi‘ites who had helped to place him there, and so within the first year of the ‘Abbasid rule Abu Muslim was put to death.

The fall of the ‘Umayyads brought an end to the tyranny of the Arab minority, as it now was, and placed the preponderance for a clear century (A.H. 132-232) in Persian hands. The government was