The Formation of Islam Religion and Society in the Near East, 600–1800

As we have seen, the issue of leadership was a point of serious contention in early Islamic society, so it comes as no surprise that the cAbbasid state was plagued from the beginning by disputes over the identity and legitimacy of the ruler. There was a bloody tone to these disputes, for which the cAbbasids themselves are partly responsible, since upon coming to power they set an unfortunate precedent with their slaughter of as many members of the Umayyad family as they could find. To some extent the violence was simply a product of inter- and intra-dynastic disputes, without any particular ideological significance: when al-Mansur had the chief cAbbasid propagandist and the prime organizer of the cAbbasid revolt Abu Muslim murdered, on one level he was simply removing a dangerous alternative locus of power. But the violence and the challenges to the persons and authority of the cAbbasid caliphs also had a deeply religious coloring. The bloody treatment of the Umayyads was partly the product of the apocalyptic overtones of the movement which swept the cAbbasids to power. The assassination of Abu Salama, another leading propagandist and servant of that movement, at the instigation of the first caliph al-Saffah, probably reflected lingering tensions over who the ruler should be and disappointment among some in the movement's ranks that the “chosen one from the family of Muhammad” had turned out not to be a descendant of cAli ibn Abi Talib.