The Abbasid Caliphs needed to work a little harder to remind people that their right to rule was legitimate. Perhaps for this reason, they began a tradition of ruling not in their own given names, but by their laqab name. We’ve looked before at the kunya name, like Abu Sufyan or Umm Salamah. The laqab name was a dignified sort of nickname that tried to capture some quality of the person. When Muhammad was a young man, they say he was given the laqab name “al-Amin,” The Just, to reflect his reputation for unusual honesty.
The first Abbasid to be proclaimed Caliph became known as al-Saffah, or as-Saffah (the L in al often changes to match the first sound of the next word). Al-Saffah meant The Shedder of Blood, because on coming to power, he instigated a bloodbath of Umayyads. Not just the royal family but anyone who had been part of the ruling structure was targeted. Mahdi Mahgreb, in his book on the Shi’ite imams, says that in Mosul, only 400 men survived the purge.
Al-Saffah was the clan chief of a branch of the Banu Hisham, an Arab among Arabians, and born in Syria. But he had a clear mandate to do something different with power. Where the Umayyads had favored Arabs above others, Caliph al-Saffah set out to equalize status among believers. Army officers had been only Arabs, and usually only Umayyad relatives if they were available. In the new Abbasid army, Muslims from Khurasan, Iran, and Iraq stepped into roles of command.
The equalizing went beyond just Muslims, though, and this brings us to a general point about new dynasties. A new dynasty needs friends. Anyone who was even neutral toward the new power can expect to be rewarded in some way. Ethnic minorities suddenly find the sun shining on them, since even their sliver of power is needed by the new ruler. We see the cycle many times in Muslim history: a new dynasty means temporary good times for Christians and Jews. In al-Saffah’s court, Jews and Christians were appointed to posts previously held only by Syrians and Umayyads.
Further, Caliph al-Saffah took up governing in Iraq, living first in Kufa, then in Hirah. This step moved the center of power away from Syria, which was necessary to break up the old dynasty’s grip and to reward new friends. But it also placed the center of power—therefore of money—in Kufa, the old stronghold of support for Ali. Many Shi’ites had been hoping that this revolution would bring in a great-grandson of Ali or Husayn as Caliph, so they were potentially disappointed to find it not so. By living among them, al-Saffah could observe, thwart, and influence them. The leading Shi’ite Imam, Jafar al-Saddiq, was ordered to move to Hira where he could be watched.
The most significant action in al-Saffah’s four years was the far-away victory over the Chinese in the Battle of Talas. Soon after the battle, the first Muslim paper mill was set up in Samarkand. Paper technology was carried eastward by stages during the early Abbasid years.
Caliph al-Saffah died of disease after only a few years. He appointed his brother to be his successor.
- Caliphate: The History of an Idea, by Hugh Kennedy
- A Historical Research on the Lives of the Twelve Shi’a Imams. Mahdi Mahgrebi