The Rebellion of Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya in 1451762: Talibis and Early 'Abbasis in Conflict.

• Author: Bernheimer, Teresa
• Position: Book review

The Rebellion of Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya in 1451762: Talibis and Early 'Abbasis in Conflict. By AMIKAM ELAD. Islamic History and Civilization, vol. 118. Leiden: BRILL, 2016. Pp. xi + 527. $245, [euro]176.

When the Abbasids came to power in 750, they defeated the Umayyads with a revolutionary call for the return of the caliphate to the family of the Prophet Muhammad, al Muhammad, from where, they argued, the legitimate leader of the Muslim community must come. The family was broadly defined to include all of the Banu Hashim, the wider clan of both the Abbasid and Talibid branches of the family. Once an Abbasid candidate had been enthroned, many supporters of the movement claimed to have expected that "the chosen one from the Family of Muhammad" (al-rida min al Muhammad) would be a closer relative of the Prophet than an Abbasid--such as a Talibid or, even more narrowly, an 'Alid, an actual descendant of Muhammad's through his daughter Fatima and his cousin 'Ali.

A more serious challenge to Abbasid authority came only a few years after the revolution, early in the reign of the second caliph al-Mansur (r. 754-775). Muhammad b. 'Abdallah b. al-Hasan b. al-Hasan b. 'Ali, known as al-Nafs al-Zakiyya (the Pure Soul), rose up in Medina in 145/762f., while his brother Ibrahim revolted in Basra shortly after. These uprisings were a watershed in the history of the Hashimite family. As the fourth/tenth-century historian al Mas'udi put it: "It caused a split between the descendants of al-'Abbas b. 'Abd al-Muttalib and the family of Abu Talib; prior to this, their cause was one."

Amikam Elad has now presented a most thorough study--the result of some ten years of meticulous research--of the first part of the uprisings, the rebellion led by al-Nafs al-Zakiyya in Medina. As Elad says at the beginning of the book, this rebellion was more important for its questioning of Abbasid authority than for its military might (Ibrahim's revolt in Basra was probably the more serious military threat). He shows that this questioning of Abbasid authority was considerable: the rebellion was supported not only by a number of Talibids, but also by many other notable Arab families, as well as several important scholars of the period. Elad's approach is to give an extremely thorough analysis of the accounts of the rebellion, based on an examination of all of the source material available on CDs and databases. Elad has been a pioneer in using these digital resources, and the...