Zanj rebellion

Zanj Rebellion
Map of Iraq and al-Ahwaz at the time of the Zanj revolt.
Date 869–883 Location Southern Iraq and Khuzestan Province Result Abbasid victory
Belligerents
Zanj rebels Banu Tamim Banu Asad ibn Khuzaymah Bahila	Abbasid Caliphate
Commanders and leaders
'Ali ibn Muhammad Yahya ibn Muhammad al-Bahrani 'Ali ibn Aban al-Muhallabi Sulayman ibn Jami' Sulayman ibn Musa al-Sha'rani Ankalay ibn 'Ali ibn Muhammad	Abu Ahmad al-Muwaffaq Abu al-'Abbas ibn al-Muwaffaq Musa ibn Bugha Abu al-Saj Masrur al-Balkhi Ahmad ibn Laythawayh

Zanj rebels

The Zanj Rebellion (Arabic: ثورة الزنج‎‎ Thawrat al-Zanj / Zinj) was a major uprising against the Abbasid Caliphate, which took place from 869 until 883. Begun near the city of Basra in present-day southern Iraq and led by one 'Ali ibn Muhammad, the insurrection is traditionally believed to have involved some enslaved Bantu-speaking people (Zanj) who had originally been captured from the coast of East Africa and transported to the Middle East. It grew to involve many slaves and free men from several regions of the Caliphate, and claimed tens of thousands of lives before it was finally defeated.

Several Muslim historians, such as al-Tabari and al-Mas'udi, consider the Zanj revolt to be one of the "most vicious and brutal uprisings" of the many disturbances that plagued the Abbasid central government. Modern scholars have characterized the conflict as being "one of the bloodiest and most destructive rebellions which the history of Western Asia records," while at the same time praising its coverage as being among the "most fully and extensively described campaign[s] in the whole of early Islamic historical writing." The precise composition of the rebels remains a subject of debate, both as regards their identity and as to the proportion of slaves and free among them – available historical sources being open to various interpretations.

The Zanj were Bantu-speaking slaves who had been imported from Africa and who were primarily utilized for agricultural labor as part of the plantation economy of southern Iraq. The demand for servile labor during this period was fueled by wealthy residents of the port city of Basra, who had acquired extensive marshlands in the surrounding region. These lands had been abandoned as a result of peasant migration and repeated flooding over time, but they could be converted back into cultivatable status through intensive labor.

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