Fatima.Mernessi_The-Forgotten-Queens-of-Islam-EN

38 Queens and Courtesans
law set up as absolute master of souls and possessions. However,
in order to make a comparison, we must begin by looking at the
slave revolt that the Muslim historians have officially recorded as
the first one.
The zanj were black slaves from the Sudan who worked in very
harsh conditions in the salt marshes near Basra. They took up arms,
occupied the city, and set out on the road to Baghdad. For years
this cut the great communication routes that linked Baghdad to the
Persian Gulf. They were halted only 27 kilometres from the capital.
Their revolt lasted about 14 years, covering several reigns and
disturbing the life of more than one caliph. It began in a way that
Islam, as a government linked to the sacred, has been familiar with
right up to the present day: a group rebelling in the name of al-
'adl, divine justice. The zanj rebelled against the working conditions
imposed on them, which they declared unjust according to the
shari'a, divine law. In the name of that law they refused to obey
the caliph who, according to them, had violated Allah's covenant
with them. 3 In the beginning, the revolt was led by a certain 'Ali
Ibn Muhammad. According to Tabari, he was a troublemaker who
claimed descent from 'Ali Ibn Abi Talib. 4 He told his companions
that he could change their miserable conditions in the marshes, and
make them masters, rich and respected, if they would take up arms.
This they did. The slaves left their masters and rallied in large
numbers around the religious leader. The first time the people of
Basra heard about the revolt they could not believe their ears and
went to the 'preacher' to get back their fleeing slaves. To their great
surprise, the religious leader ordered each slave to give his master
500 blows before releasing him, to symbolize their purpose and
demonstrate the nature of their programme. 5 As a consequence,
the slaves organized themselves, named a commander, and launched
an assault on the cities under the nose of the government forces.
But, like many of the popular uprisings that continually shook the
Abbasid era (which is stubbornly presented to us as a golden age),
the revolt ended in a blood bath. It was finally crushed in 270/883
under the fifth Abbasid caliph, al-Mu'tamid. The revolt was such a
shocking event that so meticulous a historian as Tabari never manages
to call their leader by his name in the 17 pages of his Tarikh
al-umam wa al-muluk (History of nations and kings) devoted to the
event. He calls him either sahib al-zanj (the zanj fellow) or 'aduw
Allah (enemy of Allah) or even al-khabith (the wicked one). 6 Obviously
all the great names among the official historians took the
same line, with Ibn al-Athir in the lead. Centuries later, in his