Abbasid Revolution

Between 747 and 750 a movement launched in Khorasan overthrew the Umayyad Caliphate and installed the Abbasid dynasty.

Overview

Many non-Arab Muslims, known as mawali, resented their unequal status under the Umayyads, and many Muslims looked for leadership from the family of the Prophet. The Abbasid family organized a secret network of propagandists and, in 747, their agent Abu Muslim raised the black banners of revolt in Khorasan in eastern Iran. Rebel armies advanced west, and in 750 the last Umayyad caliph Marwan II was defeated at the Battle of the Zab and later killed in Egypt. Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah became caliph. The new dynasty moved the capital to Baghdad, built on Persian administrative traditions, and presided over the Islamic Golden Age, though a surviving Umayyad prince founded a rival state in Spain.