Black Banners from the East: The Establishment of the Abbasid State: Incubation of a Revolt Paperback – June 10, 2013

Black Banners from the East Prof. Moshe Sharon Volume I: The Establishment of the ‘Abb'sid State - Incubation of a RevoltMonograph II, [ISBN 965-223-501-6] 265 pp., 1983 Volume II: Revolt - the Social and Military aspects of the ‘Abb'sid RevolutionMonograph V, 335 pp., 1990Black Banners from the East tells the story of the first revolution in Islam which caused not merely the change of dynasties, but the end of the formative period of Islamic civilization. It is the story of a messianic movement striving and succeeding in establishing the throne of its Caliph-Messiah. The two volumes of Black banners from the East describe the two stages of the revolution from its early Sh'‘' roots to the major military victories over the Umayyad army and the establishment of the ‘Abb'sid state. While the two volumes form a coherent study, each one of them is independent and can be read on its own.Volume I, The establishment of the ‘Abb'sid state - Incubation of a revolt, describes the clandestine activity of the movement that began after the collapse of al-Mukht'r's venture. It describes the methods, ideology, and system of activity which the members of the movement followed in order to prepare the hearts and minds and create the wide popular support for its goals. The mechanism of the incubation of this revolt is a fascinating story, describing in detail the development of a pure Sh'’' movement, the H'shimiyya, into an ‘Abb's' propaganda machine which prepared the revolt.Volume II, Revolt – the social and military aspects of the ‘Abb'sid revolution, deals with the revolt itself and with it social and military aspects. It describes the rather short but decisive phase of the change that an ideological movement undergoes in order to be able to achieve its political Goal - capturing the government. The book follows step by step the emergence of the H'shimiyyah-‘Abb'siyyah from hiding into the open political and military arena, under the leadership of Ab' Muslim, the character of the army it created, its social origins, its structure and the institutions which supported it. The success of the ‘Abb's' movement relied completely on the special features of this military power whose creation revolutionized, as a by-product, the whole military system in Islam."Dr. Sharon's study is by far the best rectification and continuation of the finalpart of Wellhausen's monumental opus 'The Arab Kingdom and its Fall'. A number ofrecent studies on the same subject, some of them quite important, do not detract fromthe originality and great significance of Dr. Sharon's work."From the Preface by Prof. David AyalonPrice: US$ 20 for each volumeSee: [...]

One of the most interesting and important books in Islamic studies. It furnishes the details necessary to understanding the most central development in Islamic history. The book is incisive and fascinating. It does not take the final step of identifying the secret players in that grand game of a revolution which took fully one hundred years to play out its Act I and another two hundred years for Act II, and a further two hundred years for Act III. But it does make it possible to unveil them in the end: the Manicheans of Iraq, Khorasan, and North Africa.

This is the seminal work on the Abbasid revolution, and tragically it is almost impossible to locate. Moshe Sharon, a former advisor to Israeli Prime Ministers, Presidents, professor and international man of letters is the author of this original study that has never been replicated. For students interested in the early Islamic period this is the only text availbile discussing this essential topic and all other works on the Abbasic revolution use this as the source(for instance Islamic Imperialism: A History.)The Abbasid's raised the black flag, hence the title of the book, to sweep away the Ummayid dynasty. They recruited Turkish troops and other mercenaries from the east beggining around 750, eventually founding Baghdad. A must have for scholars of the period.Seth Frantzman