Zanj Rebellion - Revolt

Revolt

The actual revolt started with a descendant of slaves named ʻAlī b. Muhammad. He had grown up in Samarra, and not much else is known about his early life. Eventually, he moved to the "Abbasid capital, where he mixed with some of the influential slaves of Caliph al-Muntasir (861-862 A.D.)”. It was here that ʻAlī b. Muhammad learned the workings of the caliphate and financial differences between the Muslim citizens. From here, ʻAlī moved to Bahrain, where he pretended to be Shīʻī and started to rouse the people into rebellion against the caliphate. "Ali's following in the city grew so large that land taxes were collected in his name." The rebellion eventually failed, and ʻAlī relocated to Basra in 868. Also in 868, a leader of the Zanj Rebellion claimed to be the incarnated form of the former Alid rebel Yahya ibn Umar.

In Basra, ʻAlī b. Muhammad preached at the mosque, advocating against the caliphate and for the people.

His first actual contact with Basra's slaves seems to have been motivated by a vicious outbreak of hostilities between two Turkish regiments, the Bilaliyah and the Sa’diyah, which contributed to the weakening of Basra's political regime. Hoping to exploit the resultant anarchy to his advantage, he tried to win to his side members of one of these groups.

The Bilaliyyah and Saʻdiyyah were described by Tabari as guilds in the town or rivaling quarters.

When he heard news about another scuffle between Basra's factions, he "began to seek out black slaves working in the Basra marshes and to inquire into their working conditions and nutritional standards." He told the Zanj and other slaves that he was sent by God to liberate them from their bonds.

Origins have a large part in establishing oneself in Arab society, especially when dealing with slaves. Initially

‘Ali bin Muhammad's paternal grandfather was said to have been a member of the ‘Abd al-Qays lineage and his paternal grandmother a Sindhi slave woman. His mother, a free woman, was a member of the Asad bin Khuzaimah lineage... later commentators have presumed him to have been of Persian rather than Arab origin.

Sahib al-Zanj declared his rebellion at al-Basrah, during the reign of al-Muhtadi, in 255 A.H. He claimed that he was descended from ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, but most people recognize this as a false claim and reject it.

After ʻAlī's lineage was not accepted, he started to preach the "extremely egalitarian doctrine of the Kharijites, who preached that the most qualified man should reign, even if he was an Abyssinian slave."

This was not the only Kharijite influence in ʻAlī b. Muhammad's campaign. He started off his Friday sermons with the slogan "God is great, God is great, there is no God but God, and God is great; there is no arbitration except by God." "Everyone knew was the war cry used by the Kharijites when they defected from the ranks of Ali during the battle of Siffin." ʻAlī also took on the title Sāhib az-Zanj, which loosely translates to mean "Friend of the Zanj".

However, ʻAlī b. Muhammad was not just the friend of the Zanj but of many other socially downtrodden peoples. This included "semi-liberated slaves, clients of prestigious families, a number of small craftsmen and humble workers, some peasantry and some Bedouin peoples who lived around Basrah." "Hostilities began in and around Basrah in the area known formerly as Dajlah al-‘Awra’, but eventually spread to the whole area between Shatt al-‘Arab and Waset. Much of this area... was swampland". Since the revolutionaries were more mobile than the heavily armed caliphate army, it was easy for them to wage guerrilla warfare and overcome most of their former oppressors.

No sooner had they taken up arms against their exploiters that they became adept at night-raids on enemy territory, liberating weapons, horses, food and fellow slaves burning the rest to cinders to delay retaliation.

Over the course of time, the Zanj even

trained expert engineers who blocked the enemy's advance by constructing impenetrable fortresses, cocooned inside layers of water canals or conversely built rapid bridges and communication lines for uninvited courtesy calls to the citadels of the gods.

They even had somewhat of a navy to take on the caliph's ships. Their ultimate goal, however, was control over the whole Basra area, and they

finally accomplished their objective with a tight blockade that prevented goods and victuals from reaching the besieged inhabitants, and by exploiting the sectarian and ethnic differences among section of the population. Basra was finally taken in 871 A.D. and totally devastated, then burned.

Mas’udi provides even more gruesome details. "Most people hid in homes and wells appearing only at night, when they would search for dogs to slay and eat, as well as for mice.... They even ate their own dead, and he who was able to kill his companion, did so and ate him."

Ali's soldiers were so outrageous as to auction off publicly women from the lineage of al-Hassan and al-Hussein and al’Abbas as well as other from the lineage of Hashem, Qureish and the rest of the Arabs."

The caliphate eventually sent out a large military force led by the regent al-Muwaffaq.". After several encounters, the caliphate army started to make examples of rebellion leaders.

For instance, Yahya of Bahrain, a noted leader of the rebel troops, was taken with a small group of men and sent to Samarra. There he was flogged two hundred times while Caliph al-Mu'tamid watched. Both his arms and legs were amputated and he was slashed with swords. Finally, his throat was slit and he was burned.

This did nothing to hinder the Zanjī, and they continued to raid towns and villages. "When the caliphate became preoccupied with the Saffarid secessionist movement in Persia, the Zanjī extended their control further north with the aid of the surrounding Bedouin peoples." It was probably at this time that the Zanjī constructed their capital, which was called Moktara (the Elect City). The caliph sent vast armies and numerous commanders to suppress the rebellion, but most of them were slaughtered by guerilla warfare waged by the rebels.