Arabs, Persians, and the Advent of the Abbasids Reconsidered

Over the past twenty-five years, scholarship on the era of the Abbasid revolution and the changes which took place during the transition from Umayyad to Abbasid rule has increased dramatically. Three recent publications continue this trend. Roberto Marín-Guzmán provides a convenient review of earlie...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the American Oriental Society 1997-07, Vol.117 (3), p.542-548
Main Author: Daniel, Elton L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abbasids
Ancient history
Arabs
Criticism and interpretation
Islamic literature
Middle East
Persians
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Summary:Over the past twenty-five years, scholarship on the era of the Abbasid revolution and the changes which took place during the transition from Umayyad to Abbasid rule has increased dramatically. Three recent publications continue this trend. Roberto Marín-Guzmán provides a convenient review of earlier literature on the topic and adds some ideas about the sectarian and "popular" aspects of the revolt. Moshe Sharon, in his second book on the subject, gives a detailed account of the overt phase of the Abbasid revolt and analyzes its military dimensions and implications. Mohsen Zakeri, in the process of examining broader questions about Persian involvement in and influence on the development of early Islamic society, also offers some new insights into the character of the Abbasid movement in Khurasan. All these books help advance our understanding of the Abbasid revolution, but they also reflect some of the limitations of current paradigms and indicate the need for constructing a new model for interpreting this important event.
ISSN:0003-0279
2169-2289
DOI:10.2307/605252