 In addition, Khurasan was a major center of early Shiism, and specifically of the Kaysanite sect of the Hashimiyya, which had gained wide acceptance in the province, especially among the mawali. In 742 – 743, Nasr confronted and defeated a revolt led by Yahya, son of Zayd ibn Ali and the leader of the Hashimiyya in Khurasan. Yahya was captured and executed, and the resulting vacuum in Hashimi leadership opened the path for the Khurasani branch of the movement to come under the control of the Abbasid family. It is however, a testament to the "respect and even affection" (Gibb) with which Nasr was regarded by the native population in Transoxiana, that in contrast to Khurasan no native city there welcomed the Hashimi missionaries, and that they remained loyal to him even during the later Abbasid Revolution.
