Overview
The passage you have been assigned describes the culmination of the Abbasid revolution in which Abu al- `Abbas, known as al-Saffah (the bloodshedder) was proclaimed caliph in the presence of his kinsmen, followers, and the public at the mosque of Kufa, in southern Iraq. This passage is an excerpt from the History of Messengers (Prophets) and Kings by Abu Jarir al-Tabari (839-923), a work that organizes human history around the lives of God’s Messengers and, especially, the caliphs who ruled the Muslim community after Muhammad’s death. It is the most widely read account of early Islamic history from this period, and was written as Abbasid authority began to disintegrate in the late ninth century, something that may not have been a coincidence. Your task is to analyze the sermon delivered by the new caliph and the speech given by his uncle Dawud ibn `Ali. The speeches are notable for their invocation of history to assert the claims of the Abbasids to the caliphate and to cast aspersions on the legitimacy of their opponents, the Umayyads and the early Shi`a (here called Saba’iya). Identify the main historical arguments used by the Abbasids. How does history vindicate their claim? Length: 3 pages (circa 900 words)
Please use this article for reference.