Alid Revolt (762–63)

Alid Revolt of 762–63
Date September 762 – February 763 Location Hejaz and southern Iraq Result Abbasid victory, death of the Alid leaders
Belligerents
Alids	Abbasid Caliphate
Commanders and leaders
Muhammad † Ibrahim (DOW)	al-Mansur Isa ibn Musa

The Alid Revolt of 762–63 or Revolt of Muhammad the Pure Soul was an uprising by the Hasanid branch of the Alids against the newly established Abbasid Caliphate. The Hasanids, led by the brothers Muhammad (called "the Pure Soul") and Ibrahim, rejected the legitimacy of the Abbasid family's claim to power. Reacting to mounting persecution by the Abbasid regime, in 762 they launched a rebellion, with Muhammad rising in revolt at Medina in September and Ibrahim following in Basra in November. The lack of co-ordination and organization, as well as the lukewarm support of their followers, allowed the Abbasids under Caliph al-Mansur to react swiftly. The Caliph contained Muhammad's rebellion in the Hejaz and crushed it only two weeks after Ibrahim's uprising, before turning his forces against the latter. Ibrahim's rebellion had achieved some initial successes in southern Iraq, but his camp was riven by dissent among rival Shi'a groups as to the prosecution of the war and future political objectives. In the end, Ibrahim's army was decisively defeated at Bakhamra in January 763, with Ibrahim dying of his wounds shortly after. The failure of the rebellion did not mark the end of Alid unrest, but it consolidated the power of the Abbasid dynasty.

Following the death of Muhammad in 632, a strong body of opinion within the nascent Muslim community—the antecedents of the Shi'a—held the Family of Muhammad (Al Muhammad) to be the only rightful leaders, who would have the divine guidance necessary to rule according to the Quran and bring justice. These sentiments were fed by the increasing discontent against the Umayyad dynasty, which ruled the Caliphate from 661 until 750. Initially, they were expressed by a succession of failed risings—most notably the Battle of Karbala in 680 and the uprising of Zayd ibn Ali in 740—in support of various Alid claimants, i.e. the descendants of Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad and fourth Caliph (r. 656–661), whose death had marked the rise of the Umayyad family to power. Iraq and Kufa in particular became centres of pro-Alid support. It was the Abbasids, however, and their supporters, the Hashimiyya, who launched the revolution that overthrew the Umayyad regime. The Abbasids claimed authority based on their membership in the extended Al Muhammad through Muhammad's uncle Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib; unlike later Shi'a doctrine, membership of the Family was not strictly limited to the Alids at that time, but encompassed the entire Banu Hashim. The Abbasids were able to exploit the weakening of the Alid cause after Zayd's failure in 740, as well as the widespread anti-Umayyad sentiment and lack of pro-Alid agitation among the numerous Arabs settlers of Khurasan, to gain their backing and secure the leadership of the anti-Umayyad movement for themselves. Nevertheless, in the first stages of their uprising, they were careful not to antagonize the Alids' supporters, and merely called for a "chosen one from the Family of Muhammad" (al-rida min Al Muhammad) to become the new Muslim leader.

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