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The Zanj Slave Revolt and Black African Freedom Struggle, 869-883 A.D. (Placeholder page)

This page is a placeholder for my future Zanj revolt web-page, including all the graphics that will appear in the final page.

Go up to "Symbolic Truth Middle East Graphics Site" main page.

The "Zanj" were black African slaves who revolted against their enslavement, and against the corrupt and oppressive Arab `Abbasid regime, and conducted an armed resistance struggle in southern Iraq between the years 869 and 883 A.D. (255-270 in the Islamic calendar). This web page chronicles the history of their rebellion of liberation, and is dedicated to their memory.

Brief Introductory Summary

The Zanj revolt was launched in 869 A.D. by `Ali ´bn Muhammad -- a professional revolutionary who had attempted to launch revolts against the `Abbasid caliphs on several previous occasions, and who found success for a time by taking advantage of turmoil within the `Abbasid government, and by freeing and recruiting the Black African slaves who had been forced to do the hard labor of extracting the crust of salt and nitrates ("sabakh" or saltpetre etc.) from the surface of the soil of southern Iraq. The Zanj Revolt was soon successful in conquering the southernmost portion of Iraq, and `Ali ´bn Muhammad founded a large fortified city called al-Mukhtâra ("the chosen") which was located somewhere not too far from modern Khorramshahr, and which was strongly defended by natural features (waterways etc.) and could control the waterborne trade routes between the Persian Gulf and central Iraq. The Zanj Revolt was in part a political rebellion against the decaying and stultifyingly rigid Late `Abbasid ossified political system, but like all political movements which appealed for popular support during that historical period, it also had a religious dimension -- so that Zanj leader `Ali ´bn Muhammad necessarily claimed that his interpretation of Islam was the only valid one (since to concede that the authorities were able to correctly interpret Islam would have been to deny himself the right to revolt). The Zanj Revolt didn't really have an explicit "Black power" ideology in the modern sense, and many of its leaders were not themselves Blacks -- but the Zanj Revolt did have a strong ideology of the full social equality of all faithful Muslim believers (and so outlawed holding any of its supporters as slaves), and the Blacks formed the hard core of the Zanj army.

For a number of years the Zanj were successful in maintaining their independence, and were sporadically able to extend their power beyond their home region of southernmost Iraq (gaining the support or passive acquiescence of many for the legitimacy of Zanj rule, and raiding and pillaging those who were not willing to accept them). The central `Abbasid authorities were distracted at times by political turbulence and factionalism within their army, and by various threats to their borders (the Tulunids in Egypt, the Saffarids in Persia, etc.). The first `Abbasid commanders sent against the Zanj found that their cavalry was generally militarily ineffective in the terrain of southernmost Iraq (often swampy and/or crossed by many broad waterways) -- and the Blacks had a strong motivation to fight to the death, since they could expect only reenslavement or death if captured. However, once strong Caliphal authority was restored at the heart of the `Abbasid state, and the `Abbasids managed to temporarily stabilize their borders (so as to be able to devote their full attention and resources to the Zanj problem), and they conceived a realistic military plan (not primarily dependent on the use of cavalry), and they declared a policy of amnesty (so that Blacks who freely surrendered -- i.e. were not captured in battle -- joined the `Abbasid army rather than being reenslaved), then the defeat of the Zanj was only a matter of time.

A reconstruction of the banner of the Zanj Revolt. This flag below contains the first part of verse 9:111 from the Qur'an (Koran), a quotation which can be interpreted as guaranteeing the equal status of all believers in true Islam (and so forbidding their enslavement); the names of the Shi`ite Muslim progenitor `Ali and the Muslim prophet Muhammad (also containing an implicit reference to the leader of the Zanj revolt, whose name was `Ali son of Muhammad); and the Kharijite slogan "Judgement belongs to God alone" (adapted from Qur'an verse 6:57). For various other vector and rendered versions of this Zanj flag reconstruction (with and without the selected vowel diacritics, which probably would not have been included on the original Zanj banner), see the Symbolic Truth home page.

This banner is reconstructed from the description of at-Tabari and from the Zanj coin illustrated below. The exact details of the arrangement of the lettering, and which words were in which colors, are somewhat doubtful, and there may have been more text on the banner than shown here. However, the reconstructed vesion above includes all the most important text that would have been on the banner, using the colors (red and green on white) described by at-Tabari.

Photograph of examples of the coin issued by the Zanj Revolt (top: coin now in London; bottom: coin now in Paris), from an article by J. Walker:

The inscriptions on these coins include the Qur'an quotations and names of `Ali and Muhammad which I placed on my reconstructed version of the Zanj banner above, as well as declarations that the family of `Alî ´bn Muhammad, the leader of the Zanj revolt, is rightfully entitled to the leadership of Muslim believers (`Alî ´bn Muhammad apparently did not himself claim to be Commander of the Faithful or Caliph -- probably because senior members of his family were still living -- but did claim to be the Mahdi, or Shi`ite "messiah"). See the illustration at the end of this page below for a transcription of the Arabic inscriptions on these coins into conventional modern printed Arabic script, followed by a more detailed explanation of the contents of the inscriptions.

The following map details the area within which the Zanj revolt took place (note that the courses of natural waterways and artificial canals in southern Iraq shifted periodically, and that this map does not necessarily show the exact locations of the most important waterways during the Zanj revolt):

The post-Zanj-revolt Political Situation:

The following map, taken from Colin McEvedy's Atlas of Medieval History, shows the broad political situation a few years after the suppression of the Zanj revolt; here area shadings and boundary symbols indicate the ethnicity/language of ruling elites (or, where there are no centrally-organized states, the predominant ethnicity/language of the population as a whole). Horizontal lines indicate Persian ethnicity, diagonal cross-hatching Arabic, close horizontal lines Armenian (Tiflis or Tblisi was an Arab fortress within the vassal kingdom of Armenia, established 885), open-circle boundaries speakers of Turkic languages, solid-circle boundaries speakers of Altaic languages, heavy diagonal lines slanting left Slavic-speakers, light diagonal lines slanting right speakers of Baltic languages, dotted areas speakers of Finnish languages, heavy vertical lines Hungarian-speakers, and dotted boundaries speakers of Germanic languages (at this date Russia, with Tmutorokan, was still to some degree ruled over by Scandinavian elites). The area labeled "Abbasid Caliphate" on the map was that under the more-or-less direct control of the `Abbasid rulers, but in addition, the Samanid Emirate in Central Asia, the Saffarid Emirate in Persia, the Tulunid Emirate in Egypt and the Levant, the Aghlabid Emirate in Tunisia, and the Umayyad Emirate in Spain all recognized to some degree the theoretical claim of the `Abbasids to be the rightful commanders of all the Islamic faithful (i.e. did not want to be seen as too blatantly contributing to the disunity of the Islamic world) -- but did not subject themselves to effective `Abbasid authority. The Shi`ite states in the southern Caspian coast (a region often free from central control) and in Morocco (the Idrisid "Sayyids") did not recognize even nominal `Abbasid suzerainty.

Transcriptions of the inscriptions on the coins shown above, from Walker (1933):

The Obverse Center contains a declaration of Islamic monotheism (including the first half of the standard Islamic declaration of faith or "shahada"), and an apparent claim that a senior member of Zanj leader `Ali ´bn Muhammad's family (his grandfather??) was the rightful "commander of the faithful" or Caliph.

The Obverse Inner Margin states that "This dinar was struck, in the name of God, in the city al-Mukhtara in the year 261" (= 874-75 A.D.).

The Obverse Outer Margin contains the first part of Qur'an verse 9:111 (as on the reconstructed Zanj banner above). The phrase "in the path (i.e. cause) of God" appears as "bi-sabîl Allâh" rather than "fî sabîl Allâh" (as in standard modern editions of the Qur'an).

The Reverse Center contains first the names of the Shi`ite progenitor `Ali and the Muslim prophet Muhammad (as on the reconstructed Zanj banner above), where the name Muhammad is part of the second half of the standard Islamic declaration of faith ("shahada"). Crammed in at the end -- in more closely-packed writing -- is a proclamation that Zanj leader `Ali ´bn Muhammad is the Mahdî (or Shi`ite "messiah").

The Reverse Margin includes the last clause of Qur'an verse 5:44 (which the Zanj used to claim that all those who did not follow `Ali ´bn Muhammad's teachings were not true Muslims), as well as the Kharijite slogan "Judgement belongs to God alone" (adapted from Qur'an verse 6:57), which I've also put on the reconstructed Zanj banner above.

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