Zanj Rebellion
A series of slave uprisings took place between 869 and 883 CE in Basra, a city of present-day Iraq, referred to as the Zanj Rebellion. The enslaved Zanj were likely transported from the more southern areas of East Africa. The uprising grew to more than 500,000 slaves and free men as well, who were used in strenuous agriculture labor. The Zanj Rebellion was a guerilla war mounted by slaved against the Abbasids. This revolt lasted 14 years. Slaves with numbers as high as 15,000 would raid towns, set slaves free, and seize weapons and food. These revolts greatly destabilized the grip that the Abbasids had over slaves. During the Rebellion, the slaves, under the leadership of Ali ibn Muhammad, captured Basra and even threatened to raid the capital, Baghdad. The vast majority of the slave rebels were Black Africans, and the 9th century Zanj revolts in Iraq is some of the best evidence of a large number of people being sold into slavery from Eastern Africa. As a result of this uprising, Abbasid Caliphate largely abandoned the large-scale importation of slaves from East Africa.