Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

was due to latter promising office for him, 1 and also because they had popularised
that Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah had informed that the Khilāfah will be shifted
to the progeny of Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī. 2 Al-Dhahabī has alluded to some of this
broadly. 3
continued from page 354
Secondly, the propagandist would give Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās
a fifth of their wealth, something which only the Shīʿah do, as is known. See: Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī 4/291;
al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh 5/15; al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 10/25. Thirdly, the rulers of the Abbasids would
dub themselves ‘Imāms’, a title which was coined by the Shīʿah, as is stated in Maʾāthir al-Ināqah
1/21. Fourthly, the Shīʿī affiliations of the Abbasid propagandists, amongst them was Abū Salamah
al-Khallāl al-Kūfī who tried to overthrow the Abbasids and put one of the household of ʿAlī into office.
See: al-Wāfī bi al-Wafayāt 17/232; al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 10/40. Fifthly, When Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī
ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās stated the reason for why he chose Khurāsān as a base for his campaign,
he enumerated various places, like Baṣrah and Shām, and stated the obstacles therein. One of the
obstacles in Kūfah was that its people were ardent supporters of ʿAlī I and his children. If he
really was a Shīʿī this type of circumstance would not avert him from Kūfah but would rather propel
him to act there. But he feared the rejection of people because it was popularised that ʿAbd Allāh
ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah, who was known as Abū Hāshim, had bequeathed rulership for
Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī. See: al-Muntaẓam 7/56. Sixthly, the message which featured in the first sermon
of al-Saffāḥ after assuming rulership. In it he said, “O the people of Kūfah, you are the mainstay of
our love and the station of our affection. You did not change from that… till you witnessed our rule
rise. You will be the most fortunate of people with us and the most honoured by us.” (Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī
4/347; al-Muntaẓam 7/299; al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 10/41; Tārīkh al-Khulafāʾ p. 257. The following poem
of ʿAlī ibn al-Jahm, which appears in his compilation p. 34, also alludes to this:
ن أولو قوة وبأس شديد
نحن أشياعكم من أهل خراسا
د وأهل التشيع املحمود
نحن أبناء هذه اخلرق السو
We are your partisans from Khurāsān, the people of strength and might.
We are the sons of these black cloths and the people of Shiasm which is praiseworthy.
As for the view of al-Maʿṣūmī, it is inaccurate, unless his intent was that it was a Shīʿī dynasty in terms
of its initial propagandists and supporters. This is understandable, as is stated by Ibn Khaldūn in his
Tārīkh 4/6, “From amongst them, i.e. the Kaysāniyyah, were the partisans of the Abbasids.”
1 Tārīkh Madīnah Dimashq 54/365; al-ʿIbar fī Khabar man Ghabar 1/116; al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 10/16;
Tārīkh Ibn Khaldūn 6/58.
2 Al-ʿIbar fī Khabar man Ghabar 1/116.
3 Tārīkh al-Khulafāʾ p. 367.
355