Revolt of Zayd ibn Ali

In 740, Zayd ibn Ali led an unsuccessful rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphate, that had taken over the Rashidun Caliphate since the death of his great-grandfather, Ali.

The revolt

Unlike his brother, Muhammad al-Baqir, the fifth Imam of the Twelver Shi'as, Zayd ibn Ali believed the time was ripe for renewing the rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphs in support of the claims of his own Hashemite clan. On his trip to Iraq, he was persuaded by pro-Alids of Kufa that he had support of 10,000 warriors and could easily drive out a few hundred Umayyad soldiers stationed there.[1] Kufa had previously been the capital of his great-grandfather Ali, and the place where his grandfather Husayn also sought support for his own rebellion in 680. He started his propaganda in Kufa, Basra and Mosul and 15,000 people were enlisted on his army register.[1] The Umayyad governor of Kufa, however, learned of the plot, and commanded the people to gather at the great mosque, locked them inside and began a search for Zayd. Zayd with some troops fought his way to the mosque and called on people to come out.[1]

However, in events that echoed Husayn's own abandonment by the Kufans decades earlier, the bulk of Zayd's supporters deserted him and joined the Umayyads, leaving Zayd with only a few dozen outnumbered followers. Accounts differ slightly on the circumstances of the desertion. Sunni sources attribute the desertion to Zayd's refusal to speak ill of the first two Caliphs, Abu Bakr and Umar, who most Shi'a don't follow and instead force their own point of view opposing their own Imams. Zaydi sources on the other hand attribute it to Zayd's refusal to acknowledge the authority of his nephew, Ja'far al-Sadiq (the sixth Imam according to the Twelver Shi'ites). In both accounts, Zayd bitterly scolds the "rejectors" (Rāfiḍah) who desert him, an appellation used by some Sunnis to describe non-Zaydi Shi'ites to this day.

Twelver Shia sources such as al-Kashi's al-Rijal state the opposite, that Zayd called the rejectors Batriyyah as they apparently refused to speak ill of the two caliphs. It was said they cut (Batri) the origin of the cause of Zayd's uprising. Zaydi hadith sources however do not discuss the issue of speaking ill of the two caliphs. Instead they simply state that Zayd named them Rejectors due to them not being willing to launch an uprising against the Umayyad government. It is likely that the Sunni and Shia narrations which concern speaking ill of the caliphs are a result of sectarian tensions like much of the hadith literature.

Nevertheless, Zayd fought on. His small band of followers was soundly defeated by the much larger Umayyad force, and Zayd fell in battle to an arrow that pierced his forehead. The arrow's removal led to his death. He was buried in secret outside Kufa, but the Umayyads were able to find the burial place, and, in retribution for the rebellion, exhumed Zayd's body and crucified it.[1] The corpse remained on the cross for three years. After the death of Hisham, the new caliph ordered his corpse to be burned. The ashes were scattered in the Euphrates. When the Abbasids, who, like Zayd, were Hashemites, overthrew the Umayyads in 750, they in turn exhumed Hisham's body, crucified it, and burned it, out of revenge for Zayd.[2]

Consequences

Zayd's desperate rebellion became the inspiration for the Zaydi sect, a school of Shi'a Islam that holds that any learned descendant of Ali can become an Imam by asserting and fighting for his claim as Zayd did (the rest of the Shi'as believe, in contrast, that the Imam must be divinely appointed). However, all schools of Islam, including the majority Sunnis, regard Zayd as a righteous martyr (shahid) against what is regarded as the corrupt leadership of the Umayyads. It is even reported that Abu Hanifa, founder of the largest school of Sunni jurisprudence, gave financial support to Zayd's revolt and called on others to join Zayd's rebellion.

Zayd's rebellion inspired other revolts by members of his clan, especially in the Hejaz, the most famous among these being the revolt of Muhammad al-Nafs az-Zakiyya against the Abbasids in 762. Zaydi agitation continued until 785 and re-erupted in Tabaristan under the leadership of the Zayd's son, Hasan ibn Zayd ibn Ali His revolt attracted many supporters, among them the ruler of Rustamids, the son of Farīdūn (a descendant of Rostam Farrokhzād), Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rustam.

See also

• Zayd ibn Ali
• Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik
• Zaydism
• Husayn ibn Ali
• Alids
• Hashemites
• Shi'a
• Rafida
• Rustamids
• Farīdūn (the father of Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rustam, a descendant of Rostam Farrokhzād)

References

1. Wellhausen, Julius (1901). Die religiös-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam (in German). Berlin: Weidmannsche buchhandlung. pp. 96–97. OCLC 453206240.
2. Madelung, Wilferd (2002). "Zayd b. ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. & Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume XI: W–Z. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 473–474. ISBN 978-90-04-12756-2.