The Fall of the Umayyads and the 'Abbasid Revolution (747-750)
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Question
What does 'mawali' mean?
Answer
Non-Arab converts to Islam, who were taxed and treated as second-class citizens under Umayyad rule despite Islamic teaching on equality.
Question
What was the Hashimiyya movement?
Answer
A secret organisation built in Khurasan from around 718 that recruited support for 'a member of the family of the Prophet' without revealing it would be an 'Abbasid, not a Shi'a Alid.
Question
Who led the 'Abbasid army during the revolution?
Answer
Abu Muslim, a general of largely mawali background who raised the black-bannered army in Khurasan in 747.
Question
Who was proclaimed the first 'Abbasid caliph, and where?
Answer
Abu'l-'Abbas al-Saffah, proclaimed in the mosque at Kufa in 749.
Question
What happened at the Battle of the Zab (750)?
Answer
The decisive battle where the 'Abbasid army destroyed the main Umayyad force; Caliph Marwan II fled and was later killed in Egypt.
Question
Name four long-term causes of the Umayyad collapse.
Answer
Arab tribal favouritism over mawali; Shi'a resentment since Ali's death (661); Qaysi-Yamani tribal feuding; weak Umayyad control over distant Khurasan.
Question
What happened to the Umayyad royal family after 750?
Answer
Almost all were massacred, including at a famous banquet; one survivor, Abd al-Rahman, escaped to Spain and founded a separate Umayyad emirate at Córdoba.
Question
Why did the 'Abbasids found Baghdad instead of keeping Damascus as capital?
Answer
Damascus was the Umayyads' Arab tribal power base; Iraq was central, wealthy, and home to the mawali/Persian-influenced groups who had backed the 'Abbasid cause, so moving there consolidated the new regime's support.
Question
When was Baghdad founded, and by whom?
Answer
762, by the second 'Abbasid caliph, al-Mansur.
Question
What happened to Abu Muslim after the revolution succeeded?
Answer
He was executed in 755 on the order of Caliph al-Mansur, who feared his popularity and independent power base in Khurasan.
Question
Why were Shi'a supporters of the revolution left disappointed?
Answer
They had expected a descendant of Ali (an Alid) to become caliph, but the 'Abbasids — a different branch of the Prophet's extended family — took power instead.
Question
What Paper 3 skill does the command term 'evaluate' require?
Answer
A reasoned judgement weighing the relative importance of different factors against each other, not just a list or narrative of causes.
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Full study notes for The Fall of the Umayyads and the 'Abbasid Revolution (747-750)
Topic 21.1 hub
The 'Abbasid dynasty (750–1258)
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