Episode 39: Nasr ibn Sayyar

While the Umayyads fought among themselves in distant Syria, dangerous developments were underway in Khurasan. The umma’s divisions in the Eastern province were deep enough to give the coming revolution its first foothold in the caliphate. Its final Umayyad governor, Nasr ibn Sayyar, bore witness to the entire transformational era in the region, and he did an admirable job holding things together until his final breath.

Glossary

• Nasr ibn Sayyar: our man today was Hisham’s final governor of the restive Eastern province of Khurasan. He ascended to that lofty position late in his career, after a lifetime of service in the umma’s armies. He really was the ideal witness of the social and political evolution of Khurasan following its conquest by the Arabs. He comes off really well in the sources, and is only criticized in quotes from jealous detractors, like Hisham’s governor of Iraq Yusuf il Thaqafi for example.
• Hareth ibn Surayj: the Arab rebel in the East who made common cause with the Turgesh because he saw more justice in championing the mawali than in solidarity with the umma. The sources are more ambivalent about Hareth, though overall they don’t like him. He does come off sympathetically at the start, and when he first rebels against Hisham’s governors. That sympathy disappears in time. He’s often associated with a “misguided” preacher called Jahm, who held some heterodox ideas about divinity.
• Juday’ al Kirmani: he was the leader of a southern, Yemeni, or Qahtani coalition in Khurasan. More importantly, he had been Asad il Qasri’s right-hand man, and was a pretty active lieutenant at that, trusted with all sorts of important things. Many expected him to succeed Asad, and when Nasr was chosen instead al Kirmani began to assert more autonomy, and he finally tried ousting Nasr after the Umayyad coup in the third fitna. He was the biggest danger to Nasr early on. After al Kirmani’s death, his children allied with Abu Muslim to avenge him, and they were ultimately betrayed and assassinated by Abu Muslim.
• Abu Muslim il Khurasani: the mysterious Abu Muslim showed up in Khurasan one day and before too long the da’wa was ascendent all around the province. His lightning-fast success gives the impression that he was a local, because how else would he have been so well received? We hear all sorts of stories about him and it’s difficult to form a single image. He coaxed, convinced, and cajoled people into supporting the da’wa. He is presented as the ideal muslim in his struggle against Nasr, but is later praised for his cunning when he tricks his opponents into fighting each other or when he kills al Kirmani’s children. Ultimately, the only thing about him that isn’t contested is how effective he was at achieving his ends. 
• Asad il Qasri: Asad’s brother Khalid was Hisham’s governor of Iraq, and he appointed Asad as Hisham’s first governor of Khurasan. Before he was removed for punishing some Adnani elders and stoking the flames of the tribal feud, Asad managed to round up some preachers of the da’wa and he had them tortured and killed publicly for their heretical speech. This must have been some time in the late 720’s, and he did it again during his encore as governor in the late 730’s. It really hurt the da’wa both times, something which reveals how weak the project remained even late during Hisham’s reign.