Journal of an Abbasid Warrior

Read the journal of an Abbasid warrior participating in the revolution against the Umayyad forces in Syria and Iraq. Learn about his journey from slavery to fighting for a more inclusive and multiethnic era in the Middle East.

Running head: JOURNAL OF AN ABBASID WARRIOR
JOURNAL OF AN ABBASID WARRIOR
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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I am one of the thousands of soldiers who are on their way to attack the Umayyad forces
in Syria and Iraq. My journey from being a slave to serve Abu Muslim has been a long and
struggling path and participating in this Abbasid Revolution is making me assess my journey and
my growth that I achieved in my life.
There is a reason why I admire Abu Muslim and think of him as my idol; just like him, I also
grew up at Kufta and my initial stage of life saw nothing but the perils of slavery. I have heard
how Abu Muslim came into connection with the Shi’a Movement (Kennedy). The Umayyad has
been the cause of political unrest in Kufta for a long period of time and their biased policies for
the non-Arab were something that I have always found to be violating (Lapidus). I resided
peacefully with my family and we were followers of Judaism but the Umayyad compelled us to
convert into Islam and thus made us ‘mawali’. This fact has always been held as a grudge within
me and since the days of conversion, I thought to have my revenge in any way that I can. It has
been twenty years since our conversion and I have started to love this new religion, but the force
with which it was imposed was never accepted by me and this is the reason that I am willingly
participating in the revolution of Abbasid. I believe that this revolution will finally put the Arab
empire into an end and a more inclusive and multiethnic era will commence in the provinces of
Middle East. As I am marching against the Umayyad, I can see my fellow soldiers and I know
that they support this revolution because of the way they rule and biased against the non-Arabs;
this is the reason that soldiers of Abu Muslim’s army consists of so many warriors from diverse
background (Watt). Although most of my companions are Muslims from non-Arab descendants,
yet the Arab Muslims also resented the Umayyad and their way of having centralized authority
over the lifestyle of nomadic nature. It is intriguing that both the Sunnis and the Shias support
this revolution and are willing to overthrow the Umayyad for their discrimination on the grounds

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of religion.
After the battle of Karbala that resulted in the annihilation of Husayn ibn Ali -who was
the grandson of Muhammad- by the Umayyad in the year of 680 CE, the Shia Muslims started
their opposition against them. I cannot deny that the incident of Karbala was used by the Abbasid
to gain strength and support from Shia Muslims. However, there were already several revolts
undertaken by the Shi’ite against the Umayyad because of their desire for an Alid to be a ruler,
but it was replied with murder of Zayn ibn Ali and Abdallah ibn Mu’awiya and it gave both the
sects of Muslim community a common rally to protest against them. Around the same time,
many Shi’ite opposition figures were captured and murdered. Thus when the Abbasids stated
their intention of having a ruler from the descendant of Muhammad, I think the Shi’ites assumed
that it meant an Alid ruler; I would admit of recognizing the tactics that Abbasids imposed in this
matter- they encouraged this thought of the Shi’ites strategically in order to gain support and got
what they wanted (Gibb). Currently, I am observing that several Kaysanite Shia are transferring
their allegiance to the dynasty of Abbasid; it seems like if this conversion goes on for longer than
a particular period of time, the Kaysanites will cease to exist. According to me, this strategy is a
cunning one but it is the need of the hour; I know there might be some upcoming consequences
which will lead to another conflict among the Abbasids and the Shi’ites, there will also be
discontent among them; but this would happen only after the Umayyad is overthrown and
overthrowing Umayyad is the top most priority for every person present here and participating in
this revolution along with me.
I believe that I am rebelling for a cause and the cause is a valid one. I do not believe that
in order to stay in a place, you need to convert into a religion of dominance. Moreover, the
religion discrimination that was executed by the Umayyad was also not acceptable for me. I am

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fighting for every such person who faced discrimination regarding their religion and I believe
that once the Umayyad is overthrown, Abu Muslim would be most applicable for being in the
position of caliph.

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References:
Gibb, Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen. "The fiscal rescript of ʿUmar II." Arabica (1955): 1-16.
Ira Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies, 3rd ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2014
Kennedy, Hugh. The Prophet and the age of the Caliphates: the Islamic Near East from the sixth
to the eleventh century. Routledge, 2015.
Watt, W. Montgomery. "Shi'ism under the Umayyads." Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society 92.3-4 (1960): 158-172.