Thread by @ccsahner

1/ A thread on the most famous slave revolt in Islamic history: the Zanj of #Iraq (869-83), who brought the Abbasid caliphate to its knees, followed a messianic preacher and even held slaves of their own

@HenryLouisGates has compared them to Spartacus & Toussaint Louverture

2/ The Arabic term "Zanj" refers to the inhabitants of East Africa, especially along the coast. Many were taken captive in the early Islamic period and brought as slaves to southern Iraq

3/ Slavery was ubiquitous in the early Islamic empire (as it was in many pre-industrial societies around the world). This included black slaves from Sub-Saharan Africa, Berbers from North Africa, Slavs from Eastern Europe, and Turks from Central Asia

4/ Southern Iraq, where the Tigris and Euphrates meet, was an agricultural powerhouse. But in order to keep the land going, it had to be constantly cleared of the nitrous topsoil. The Zanj were responsible for this back-breaking work, toiling in gangs of 500-5,000 men

5/ Large-scale agricultural slavery (typical of the Caribbean and US in later periods) was uncommon in the medieval Middle East

The Zanj revolted twice in the 7th century, but their most famous and devastating revolt occurred in the 9th century under one ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad

6/ ʿAlī was not a slave himself, but a freeborn Arab from Iran. He spent time at the Abbasid court before travelling to Bahrain, where he tried to stir up several quasi-Shīʿī revolts among the local tribesmen

7/ Unsuccessful, ʿAlī found his way to the Zanj. He provoked them to revolt against their masters, drawing on a curious blend of revolutionary ideas from Shīʿism and Khārijism. His followers called him the "Mahdī," a messianic title

8/ The sources claim that the Zanj were extremely violent, inspiring fear everywhere they fought. They ended up conquering several major cities, including Baṣra, Wāsiṭ, and Ahwāz. After much effort, the Abbasids crushed the revolt, and ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad was killed

9/ One reason for the success of the Zanj was the weakness of the Abbasid caliphate, which was too distracted by palace intrigue at the time to quell the revolt. The second was the marshy terrain where the Zanj fought, which was hard to control and well suited to guerrilla war

10/ Interestingly, despite the abuse they suffered, the Zanj did not fundamentally question the institution of slavery. In fact, they took slaves of their own throughout the revolt, and ʿAlī is said to have promised the Zanj slaves as part of his religious preaching

11/ The ancestors of the Zanj (and other black slaves) still live around Basra in Iraq. You can read more about them here: medium.com/culture-shock-…

12/ If you want to learn more about the Zanj, the best book is that of Alexandre Popovic, The Revolt of African Slaves in Iraq, 1999 (French original 1976):

amazon.com/Revolt-African…

13/ The photos at the top portray the marshes of southern Iraq, where the revolt took place; a coin which ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad minted while he was in power; and a scene of a battle between Alexander the Great and the Zanj in the mythical poem of Niẓāmī Ganjavī, the Iskandar-Nāma