The Zanj Rebellion, Revolt Of African Slaves Against The Abbasid Caliphate
Tucked away in an obscure chapter of medieval history, the Zanj rebellion, which raged between 869 to 883 AD, originating in the city of Basra in present-day Iraq, remains relatively unknown to the West. The rebellion pitted African slaves against their Arab masters in a series of events so disruptive it plunged the Abbasid Caliphate into 15 years of turmoil. Led by their charismatic Persian leader Ali, the Zanj insurgency was one of the largest slave mutinies ever recorded and certainly one of the most brutal, featuring horrendous acts of violence perpetrated in equal measure by both sides. While the slave-masters were angered by the disobedience of human beings they considered as animals, those bound in chains were inspired by a distinct sense of revenge, harnessing it to perform grisly atrocities against those who had wronged them.
Zanzibar slave market by Edwin Stocqueler (1860) (Public Domain)
The Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasid Caliphate came to power in 749 after exterminating the men, women, and children of the Umayyad Dynasty in an infamously violent coup. The Abbasid’s hatred for the Umayyads extended even to long-dead monarchs, with the corpse of previous sultan Caliph Hisham exhumed, whipped, crucified, and immolated. Centering their government in Baghdad from 762, the Abbasid caliphs began a process of organization and cultural development lasting until the reign of Caliph al-Ma’mun from 813 to 833, who most notably commissioned the translation of Classical Greek scientific and philosophical treatises into Arabic.
