The Abbasid Caliphate • 81death. Some Arabs called Abu-Muslim a zindiq ("heretic"), meaning that
he may have practiced a pre-Islamic Persian religion. He remains a contro¬
versial figure.
Abu-Muslim's execution brought the Abbasids no peace. Revolts soon
broke out in Khurasan. One of his friends, possibly a Zoroastrian, tried to
destroy the Ka'ba. Then a "veiled prophet" claiming to be Abu-Muslim be¬
gan a rebellion that lasted almost twenty years. Backed by thousands, he
robbed caravans, wrecked mosques, and virtually ruled Khurasan. Years
later, Azerbaijan saw another reincarnation of Abu-Muslim, a Persian
named Babak whose rebellion also lasted twenty years. These uprisings
were inspired by Persia's pre-Islamic religions, such as Zoroastrianism (the
faith of the Sasanid rulers) and a peasant movement called Mazdakism.
Moreover, the Manichaeans' philosophical dualism survived or revived in
Persia among the Zindiqs, but this group is hard to define, as pious Mus¬
lims used that name for most dissidents.
Persians in Power
The resurrection of Persian influence did not always take dissident forms.
Hundreds of Persians, mainly from Iraq and Khurasan, rose to high posts
within the army and the civil administration, replacing the Arabs and Syr¬
ians favored by the Umayyads. These men may have been more interested
in the Sanskrit and Persian classics than their Arab colleagues would have
liked them to be, but they also learned Arabic and carefully toed the Ab¬
basid line on religious matters. Some Persians became ulama and helped
to shape Islam. Loyal to their Abbasid masters, they helped them suppress
dissenting ideas and movements, but in fact they Persianized the state
from within.
As the central administration grew more complex, Persian bureaucratic
families rose to power. The greatest of these was the Barmakids, of whom
three generations served the Abbasids from Mansur to Harun al-Rashid as
bursars, tax collectors, provincial governors, military commanders, tutors,
companions, and chief ministers. The title they bore, pronounced wazir in
Arabic and vizier in Persian, came to be applied to any high-ranking offi¬
cial. Originally meaning "burden-bearer," it now is used to mean "cabinet
minister" in most Middle Eastern languages. Harun unloaded many of his
burdens onto his Barmakid viziers (one of whom, Ja'far, you may recall
from Aladdin), until he realized that he had let them take too much of his
power and wealth. Then he dramatically killed the one to whom he was
most attached and locked up his father and brother. So sudden was the