History of Islam Vol 3 of 3 by Akbar Shah Najeebabadi

Ubaidullah Dynasty in Egypt and Tripoli
241
the upper hand in the army and the administration. Abu Abdullah
and his brother, Abul Abbas were active in governmental affairs. It
was Abu Abdullah who had brought such a great empire into
existence. He was instrumental behind uprooting the Aghlabi dynasty
and called Ubaidullah to take charge of the administration.
After coming to the throne and finding himself a
sovereign ruler,
Ubaidullah wanted to wipe out the influence of Abu Abdullah and his
brother, Abul Abbas. At this point Abu Abdullah's eyes opened. The
people of Kutama had more faith in Abu Abdullah and they had
accepted Ubaidullah as Imam Mahdi with the efforts of Abu
Abdullah. Abu Abdullah began to convince the people secretly that
the identification of Ubaidullah as Imam Mahdi was his mistake, and
that he was certainly not the Imam, the Innocent. He was, in fact, a
usurper and a man-eater. The real Imam Mahdi was yet to come. Most
of the people of Kutama sided with him and when Ubaidullah came to
know of this, he began to kill the people hatching the conspiracy
against him. With the mutual consultations of Abu Abdullah and the
people of
Kutama, Sheikh al-Mashaikh the leading religious leader of
Kutama, a very pious and noble person of the city, was sent to
Ubaidullah Mahdi. He went and asked him to show any sign of his
being Imam Mahdi. Ubaidullah foresaw the
lurking danger and he
signaled his slave and Sheikh al-Mashaikh was beheaded. The people
of Kutama were violently engaged and wanted to kill Ubaidullah.
Abu Abdullah Assassinated
In view of the deteriorating situation Ubaidullah invited two of the
most influential chiefs of Kutama named Aruba bin Yusuf and his
brother, Habasa bin Yusuf to his special place of retreat and talked to
them very sincerely and affectionately. Later, he asked them to kill
Abu Abdullah and his brother Abul Abbas. His order was duly
implemented and both the targets were attacked and done away with.
This event took place in 298 A.H.
Revolts
In the wake of this event the supporters of Abu Abdullah revolted
against Ubaidullah who faced the situation and put down the