Zanj Rebellion The Zanj Rebellion was the culmination of series of small revolts . It took place near the city of Basra , located in present - day southern Iraq , over a period of fifteen years ( 869−883 AD ) . The insurrection is believed to have involved enslaved Black Africans ( Zanj ) that had originally been captured from the African Great Lakes region and areas further south in East Africa . It grew to involve over 500 , 000 slaves who were imported from across the Muslim empire and claimed over " tens of thousands of lives in lower Iraq " . The precise composition of the rebels is debated among historians , both as regards their identity and as to the proportion of slaves and free among them – available historical sources being open to various interpretations . The revolt was said to have been led by Ali bin Muhammad , who claimed to be a descendent of Caliph Ali ibn Abu Talib . Several historians , such as Al - Tabari and Al - Masudi , consider this revolt one of the " most vicious and brutal uprisings " of the many disturbances that plagued the Abbasid central government . The Zanj Revolt helped Ahmad ibn Tulun to create an independent state in Egypt . It is only after defeating the Zanj Revolt that the Abbasids were able to turn their attention to Egypt and end the Tulunid dynasty with great destruction . Background . As the plantation economy boomed and the Arabs became richer during the Muslim Agricultural Revolution , agriculture and other manual - labor jobs were thought to be demeaning . The resulting labor shortage led to an increased slave market . It is certain that large numbers of slaves were exported from eastern Africa ; the best evidence for this is the magnitude of the Zanj revolt in Iraq in the 9th century , though not all of the slaves involved were Zanj . There is little evidence of what part of eastern Africa the Zanj came from , for the name is here evidently used in its general sense , rather than to designate the particular stretch of the coast , from about 3°N . to 5°S . , to which the name was also applied . The Zanj were needed to take care of : the Tigris - Euphrates delta , which had become abandoned marshland as a result of peasant migration and repeated flooding , [ which ] could be reclaimed through intensive labor . Wealthy proprietors " had received extensive grants of tidal land on the condition that they would make it arable . " Sugar cane was prominent among the products of their plantations , particularly in Khūzestān Province . Zanj also worked the salt mines of Mesopotamia , especially around Basra . Their jobs were to clear away the nitrous topsoil that made the land arable . The working conditions were also considered to be extremely miserable . Many other people were imported into the region , besides Zanj . Also around the time of the revolts , the Abbasid caliphate was mired in a period of financial weakness , both internally and externally … The financial strain imposed on the accession of each new caliph contributed to the ability of the Zanj revolt , which began in 868 AD , to sustain itself for as long as it did . The rise of the Shīʻa also occurred around this time , so the Abbasid government was fighting on two fronts . Some scholars believe that the Zanj revolt was not necessarily a slave revolt . In this view , there were also Zanj immigrants in Iraq who were a big part of the revolt . M . A . Shaban argued : " All the talk about slaves rising against the wretched conditions of work in the salt marshes of Basra is a figment of the imagination and has no support in the sources . On the contrary , some of the people who were working in the salt marshes were among the first to fight against the revolt . Of course there were a few runaway slaves who joined the rebels , but this still does not make it a slave revolt . The vast majority of the rebels were Arabs of the Persian Gulf supported by free East Africans who had made their homes in the region " Revolt . The actual revolt started with a descendant of slaves named ʻAlī b . Muhammad . He had grown up in Samarra , and not much else is known about his early life . Eventually , he moved to the " Abbasid capital , where he mixed with some of the influential slaves of Caliph al - Muntasir ( 861 - 862 A . D . ) ” . It was here that ʻAlī b . Muhammad learned the workings of the caliphate and financial differences between the Muslim citizens . From here , ʻAlī moved to Bahrain , where he pretended to be Shīʻī and started to rouse the people into rebellion against the caliphate . " Ali ' s following in the city grew so large that land taxes were collected in his name . " The rebellion eventually failed , and ʻAlī relocated to Basra in 868 . Also in 868 , a leader of the Zanj Rebellion claimed to be the incarnated form of the former Alid rebel Yahya ibn Umar . In Basra , ʻAlī b . Muhammad preached at the mosque , advocating against the caliphate and for the people . His first actual contact with Basra ' s slaves seems to have been motivated by a vicious outbreak of hostilities between two Turkish regiments , the Bilaliyah and the Sa ’ diyah , which contributed to the weakening of Basra ' s political regime . Hoping to exploit the resultant anarchy to his advantage , he tried to win to his side members of one of these groups . The Bilaliyyah and Saʻdiyyah were described by Tabari as guilds in the town or rivaling quarters . When he heard news about another scuffle between Basra ' s factions , he " began to seek out black slaves working in the Basra marshes and to inquire into their working conditions and nutritional standards . " He told the Zanj and other slaves that he was sent by God to liberate them from their bonds . Origins have a large part in establishing oneself in Arab society , especially when dealing with slaves . Initially ‘ Ali bin Muhammad ' s paternal grandfather was said to have been a member of the ‘ Abd al - Qays lineage and his paternal grandmother a Sindhi slave woman . His mother , a free woman , was a member of the Asad bin Khuzaimah lineage . . . later commentators have presumed him to have been of Persia n rather than Arab origin . Sahib al - Zanj [ ʻAlī ' s title ] declared his rebellion at al - Basrah , during the reign of al - Muhtadi , in 255 A . H . He claimed that he was descended from ‘ Ali ibn Abi Talib , but most people recognize this as a false claim and reject it . After ʻAlī ' s lineage was not accepted , he started to preach the " extremely egalitarian doctrine of the Kharijites , who preached that the most qualified man should reign , even if he was an Abyssinian slave . " This was not the only Kharijite influence in ʻAlī b . Muhammad ' s campaign . He started off his Friday sermons with the slogan " God is great , God is great , there is no God but God , and God is great ; there is no arbitration except by God . " " Everyone knew [ this ] was the war cry used by the Kharijites when they defected from the ranks of Ali during the battle of Siffin . " ʻAlī also took on the title " Sāhib az - Zanj " , which loosely translates to mean " Friend of the Zanj " . However , ʻAlī b . Muhammad was not just the friend of the Zanj but of many other socially downtrodden peoples . This included [ S ] emi - liberated slaves , clients of prestigious families , a number of small craftsmen and humble workers , some peasantry and some Bedouin peoples who lived around Basrah . . . . Hostilities began in and around Basrah in the area known formerly as Dajlah al - ‘ Awra ’ , but eventually spread to the whole area between Shatt al - ‘ Arab and Waset . Much of this area . . . was swampland . Since the revolutionaries were more mobile than the heavily armed caliphate army , it was easy for them to wage guerrilla warfare and overcome most of their former oppressors . No sooner had they taken up arms against their exploiters that they became adept at night - raids on enemy territory , liberating weapons , horses , food and fellow slaves burning the rest to cinders to delay retaliation . Over the course of time , the Zanj eventrained expert engineers who blocked the enemy ' s advance by constructing impenetrable fortresses , cocooned inside layers of water canals or conversely built rapid bridges and communication lines for uninvited courtesy calls to the citadels of the gods . They even had somewhat of a navy to take on the caliph ' s ships . Their ultimate goal , however , was control over the whole Basra area , and theyfinally accomplished their objective with a tight blockade that prevented goods and victuals from reaching the besieged inhabitants , and by exploiting the sectarian and ethnic differences among sections of the population . Basra was finally taken in 871 A . D . and totally devastated , then burned . Mas ’ udi provides even more gruesome detailsMost people hid in homes and wells appearing only at night , when they would search for dogs to slay and eat , as well as for mice . . . . They even ate their own dead , and he who was able to kill his companion , did so and ate him . Ali ' s soldiers were so outrageous as to auction off publicly women from the lineage of al - Hassan and al - Hussein and al ’ Abbas [ meaning descendants of Ali and the ruling ‘ Abbasids ] as well as other from the lineage of Hashem , Qureish [ the prophet ' s lineage ] and the rest of the Arabs . " The caliphate eventually sent out a large military force led by the regent al - Muwaffaq . " After several encounters , the caliphate army started to make examples of rebellion leaders . For instance , Yahya of Bahrain , a noted leader of the rebel troops , was taken with a small group of men and sent to Samarra . There he was flogged two hundred times while Caliph al - Mu ' tamid watched . Both his arms and legs were amputated and he was slashed with swords . Finally , his throat was slit and he was burned . This did nothing to hinder the Zanjī , and they continued to raid towns and villages . " When the caliphate became preoccupied with the Saffarid secessionist movement in Persia , the Zanjī extended their control further north with the aid of the surrounding Bedouin peoples . " It was probably at this time that the Zanjī constructed their capital , which was called Moktara ( the Elect City ) . The caliph sent vast armies and numerous commanders to suppress the rebellion , but most of them were slaughtered by guerilla warfare waged by the rebels . The revolt ends . Towards the end of the revolution , most of the former slaves themselves started to turn into the very masters they despised and started to break down as a community . In 879 , after the revolt in Persia was settled , al - Muwaffaq came back and continued to wage war on the rebels . In 881 , the better - trained and better - equipped Abbasid army surrounded and outnumbered the Zanj on all sides . With the capture and execution of ʻAlī after the fall of the Zanj capital city of al - Mukhtara , the revolt ended . In the end , " most of the Zanj joined al - Muwaffaq , but not all . Over 1000 died in the desert of exhaustion and thirst , trying to flee the embattled Iraqi territory . Others remained unsubdued in southern Iraq after their leader was killed ; they continued to rob , plunder , and murder throughout Abbasid space until they either joined the Abbasid or died refusing to be anyone ' s soldier . " By the tenth century , instead of using slaves as a sign of treaty between two cities , private trade was used . Historical revisionism . Ghada Hashem Talhami , a scholar of the Zanj revolt , argues that the Zanj rebellion is inaccurately named . In fact , most of the military were not Zanj to begin with . It was only after a time , after most of the other slaves were freed , that the actual Zanj - imported slaves took hold . Talhami cites from various historians and works to make her point that the rebellion was more of a religious / social uprising made by the lowly classed and suppressed citizens of the Basra area , which included a wide variety of people , including white and Indian slaves . She even says that the most significant element of the rebellion was not the Zanj slaves , but Bedouin from around Basra , who provided regular support throughout the conflict . " Despite much evidence to the contrary , including the absence of major Arab settlements along the coast , the silence of Arab and Persian geographers on an oceanic trade , and the generalized equation of Zanj with ' black , ' it has been used to infer an important commercial relationship between Africa and the Middle East several centuries before such an exchange can be proven to have existed … . The assumption that ‘ Abbasid writers used Zanj to mean specifically the East African coast , and that therefore the people they called Zanj originated in a specific part of that region , is completely unjustified . " Sources of information . Much of the current knowledge of the Zanj Rebellion comes from the historian Tabarī ' s work " History of the Prophets and Kings " . It has been the subject of research by such famous Orientalist s as Theodor Nöldeke ( " Sketches from Eastern History " ) and Louis Massignon ( " The Passion of al - Hallaj " ) ; Alexandre Popović has authored a more recent monograph on the subject .