Abbasid Revolution
Abu Muslim publicly raises the Abbasid revolt near Merv
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗The revolution surfaced under two banners with names — The Shadow and The Clouds — raised on lances of fourteen and thirteen cubits.
The night of 25 Ramadan
On the night of 25 Ramadan 129 AH — converted in the published translation as 9 June 747 — Abu Muslim publicly unfurled two banners at Safidhanj, a village in the Merv oasis.
The banners had been sent by the Abbasid imam Ibrahim al-Imam and were named The Shadow and The Clouds. Abu Muslim raised them on separate lances and recited Qur'an 22:39, the verse granting permission to fight to people who had been wronged.
Abu Muslim, Sulayman ibn Kathir, their associates and responding villagers put on black clothing.
A village, not a battle in the city
This was an organized public proclamation in the Merv oasis rather than a battle inside Merv itself, and agents had been assigned to proclaim the movement elsewhere in Khurasan.
Ibrahim al-Imam had ordered Abu Muslim to expose the clandestine daʿwa, which had operated secretly for years. Abu Muslim moved while Umayyad authority in Khurasan was weakened by rivalry among the governor Nasr ibn Sayyar, al-Kirmani's faction and other rebels.
Groups of supporters began arriving at Safidhanj within days, and Abu Muslim ordered its fort repaired and strengthened.
Who actually turned out
The ethnic composition of those first adherents is debated. Scholarly accounts emphasise Arab settlers alongside Persian mawali rather than an overwhelmingly Persian force, and Abu Muslim's own origins remain uncertain.
Encyclopaedia Iranica identifies 2,200 early supporters as joining in the opening phase.
The consulted primary and scholarly sources do not substantiate a figure near 10,000 present when the banners first went up.
Sources
Researched 23 Aug 2026 4 sources not yet audited
How this was checked
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What the sources leave uncertain
- The source describes “Wednesday night,” reflecting an Islamic day beginning at sunset; the published conversion is 9 June 747.
- The exact ethnic composition of Abu Muslim's first adherents is debated. Scholarly accounts emphasize Arab settlers as well as Persian mawali, not an overwhelmingly Persian force.
- The consulted primary and scholarly sources do not substantiate the listed figure of nearly 10,000 men present when the banners were first raised.