Abū Muslim's Conquest of Khurasan: Preliminaries and Strategy in a Confusing Passage of the Akhbār Al-Dawlah Al- ʿAbbāsiyyah

Abstract

The Akhbdr al-dawlah al- c Abbāsiyyah is a major source of information in any understanding of the c Abbāsid revolution. However, one critically important passage in it that describes the initial eruption and the steps leading up to it has been misunderstood and has given rise to an erroneous perception of the exact strategy of Abu Muslim in regard to the role Marw played vis-a-vis the outlying districts of Khurasan. Once the meaning of this key section of the text is clarified, a proper appreciation of the precise sequence of events follows and the highly significant role of the Iranian populace in this revolt becomes quite obvious.