Arab explorers and traders established ports and bases along Africa’s southeastern coast; a favorable wind pattern made it easy to sail from there to India, where they traded regularly. The Bantu-speaking tribes who settled southern Africa were mostly cattle herders with local, tribal government, in other words, sitting ducks for capture by slave traders. Millions of Africans were carried into other parts of the world, mostly into the Arab-Muslim heartland, but also to farther-away spots, often as gifts. There is still a black minority in most Muslim countries: Afro-Kuwaitis, Afro-Iranians, Afro-Turks, and, to the point at the moment, Afro-Iraqis.
In that region of Africa today, there is still an Arabic-speaking community centered around Dar es-Salaam. The Zanzibar region’s name is from Persian “black coast.” In this way, “Zanj” became the Arabic term for black Africans.
Basra, perched at the top of the Arabian/Persian Gulf, was a hub of the slave trade. It also needed slaves to work the salt out of marshlands. Valuable salt could be extracted and worthless salty topsoil removed, both grueling, laborious tasks. Additionally, there was a time when date and sugar were grown with plantation-style labor. So the area around Basra itself took in a huge number of Zanj Bantu-speaking slaves.
Slavery in the Muslim world was not racially-based like US Southern slavery, nor were slaves’ children necessarily slaves. Devout Muslim slaves were often freed, and pious Arab owners were encouraged to free slaves, though owning them had no stigma. We’ve already seen that among the Shi’ite descendants of Ali, they often chose to marry a pious slave so as to reinforce Muhammad’s message against social class stratification. Eventually, an area like Basra that had many African slaves would simply have many African-descent residents, but they would always stand out as outsiders. Afro-Iraqis today, who may still keep up a few African customs, say that they are an oppressed minority.
In the 9th century, the Zanj had close ties to Africa, being first or second generation and still mostly slaves. Their work was horrible; in spite of the difference between our past slavery and the Muslim model, it was probably at this time pretty close to the worst Deep South plantations. Basra, being a garrison city from way back, didn’t have a hard time keeping them under control, but during the period when the Caliphs were in Samarra and often fighting among themselves, who was going to keep Basra in line?
Around 863, a man named Ali rose to prominence in the Arab heartland. He was a man of his times, for sure. Nobody really knows what his family background was, some mix of Arab and Persian. He lived in Iran for a while, then in Samarra where he got to know a number of Turkish slave-soldiers. He moved to Bahrain, where he told people he was descended from Ali’s son Zayd. There were still groups of Shi’ites who believed Zayd’s line had the right to be Imams, so he gathered a following and began a rebellion, even collecting taxes in his own name for a while.
Ali moved to Basra, where an abortive rebellion got him arrested and moved to Iraq. While living in Baghdad, he realized that rebellion conditions in Basra were improving. On his return to Basra, he appealed to the thousands of Zanj, many of whom had adopted Islam. He spoke as a representative of the Prophet’s family. They didn’t accept him, but the Zanj didn’t know that.
Ali preached the same slogans as the Kharijites, the egalitarian anti-authority rebel movement that began in 657. Kharijites believed that the lowliest devout Muslim could decide matters as well as the Caliph or a scholar. It was always an appealing philosophy to the poor and all sorts of minorities. A variety of people joined Ali’s rebellion, though the largest number of them were Zanj, so we call it the Zanj Rebellion.
They fought guerilla-style, raiding at night, burning buildings and stealing arms. The war went on from 869 till 883, and the Zanj made some serious gains. At this same time, Ibn Tulun in Egypt was going independent. In Khurasan, an Iranian named Amr ibn al-Layth rebelled and was able to carve out a pretty large section of the east as an independent Emirate from 879 until 909, when his grandson was defeated. The Caliph’s forces could not fight all of these at once.
The high point of the Zanj Rebellion saw them winning the Battle of Basra in 871. They looted and burned the city, freely massacring its citizens. After this, they occupied most of southern Iraq, put together a small navy, and built their own capital city near Basra. In 883, the Caliph’s forces defeated them at this new city, The leader, Ali, was killed or captured, and the surviving fighters surrendered. Southern Iraq was in ruins: fields burnt, towns destroyed, many killed. For some time to come, famine and poverty followed the rebellion.