Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

infuriated with the Umayyads. 1 This heated atmosphere of Khurāsān was one of
the reasons why it was chosen as the starting point of the Abbasid campaign. 2
So the Abbasids, out of fear for their kingdom, entertained the possibilities
which had caused the end of the Umayyads before them. Hence they sensed in
the Alawids a threat which could not be ignored at all, especially because they
were continuously active 3 and mentally prepared to take over. 4 This is what
had prompted them to, alongside being good to those whom they did not fear,
exercise caution with the others in order to put a limit to their ambitions, as in
the era of al-Saffāḥ. 5
1 Tārīkh al-Yaʿqūbī 2/362.
2 Al-ʿIlāqāt Bayn al-ʿAlawiyyīn wa al-ʿAbbāsiyyīn p. 60.
3 For example, when al-Muʿtaḍid decided to prepare a book which contained curses against
Muʿāwiyah I, the only thing which averted him from preparing it was the fear that the Alawids,
who were revolting in all the places, would use it to their advantage. See: al-ʿIbar fī Khabar man Ghabar
2/78; Tārīkh al-Islām 21/19; al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 11/76; Tārīkh al-Khulafāʾ p. 371.
4 The following poem of al-Sharīf al-Raḍī in which he addresses the Khalīfah al-Qādir bī Allāh alludes
to this:
عطفا أمري املؤمنني فإننا يف دوحة العلياء ل نتفرق
ما بيننا يوم الفخار تفاوت أبدا كالنا يف املعايل معرق
إل خالفة ميزتك فإنني إنا عاطل منها وانت مطوق
Be easy, O Amīr al-Muʾminīn, for surely in the tree of highness we do not differ.
On the day of boasting and displaying pride we are not distinct. Never can that be for each
one of us is deeply steeped in heights.
With the exception of the Khilāfah which has distinguished you, for I do not possess it and
your neck is beautified with it. Dīwān al-Sharīf al-Raḍī 2/39.
5 Tārīkh al-Yaʿqūbī 2/360. Al-Saffāḥ was ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ʿAbd Allāh, Abū al-ʿAbbās
al-Saffāḥ al-Hāshimī. The first ruler of the Abbasids. He was a person with awe. He was dignified,
generous and quick to shed blood. He was appointed as the Khalīfah in Kūfah in 132 A.H. He thus
arrived with black flags and eliminated Marwān ibn Muḥammad. He then strove toward cementing
his rule and putting an end to his opponents. But his days never last long and he passed away in
136 A.H. He lived for twenty eight years. See: al-Badʾ wa al-Tārīkh 6/88; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 6/77; al-
Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 6/247; Tārīkh al-Khulafāʾ p. 256.
369