After "Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz", may God be pleased with him, we pass quickly over "al-Walid ibn Yazid".. and he was killed by his cousin "Yazid ibn Abd al-Malik".. who ascended to the seat of the caliphate in his place.. in a family coup.. of the kind that happens like it in "Qatar" the whole time.. and he put his severed head on a spear.. and they carried it around the lands.
And the truth is that with the death of "Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz" the power of the Kharijites grew strong again.. and the Umayyad state went back to internal conflicts and schism.. and the charming habit came back, in which they used to send their severed heads to one another.. until we arrive at the caliph "Marwan ibn Muhammad".. and he opened with a violent revolt, led by "Abd Allah ibn Mu'awiya", the grandson of "Ja'far ibn Abi Talib", in Iraq.. and simultaneously with it a revolt of the Kharijites led by "al-Dahhak ibn Qays".. and some of Banu Umayya joined this one.. they wanted to win power.. so they became at that time officially among the Kharijites.
And before he finished with these two stories, a revolt suddenly broke out in the south of the Arabian Peninsula led by "Abu Hamza the Kharijite".. and he came out of Yemen and marched on Mecca and Medina and conquered them and occupied them.. so "Marwan" sent against him an army at whose head was "Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad ibn Atiyya al-Sa'di".. he defeated him and brought the whole of the Hijaz back into the grip of the Umayyad state in that same year, 128 AH, corresponding to 745 AD.
And after that he defeats the Kharijites led by "al-Dahhak ibn Qays".. and recovers Kufa from them.
And at the same time a man named "Abu Muslim al-Khurasani" appears.. in Khurasan.. in order to announce a secret call and a long plan that they have been plotting for some time.. and a movement that now has followers and soldiers.
And without prior warning he announces publicly the establishment of the Abbasid caliphate in Khurasan.. and pledges allegiance to its new caliph "Abu al-Abbas Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Ali", who will later be known as "Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah".
And "Abu al-Abbas" fights the Umayyad governor of "Khurasan" and defeats him.. and occupies it.
And "Abu al-Abbas" moves to "Merv" in Turkmenistan and occupies it.. and from there he slips away secretly and alone.. without anyone noticing him, in the year 742 AD.. and hides himself among the people in Kufa.
And in Kufa, "Abu al-Abbas" remains in hiding for 8 years.. gathering the partisans of Imam "Ali" and the partisans of our master "al-Husayn" and every malcontent and hater of the Umayyad state.. until his movement takes shape and it too has soldiers and followers.. until 29 October 750 AD.. when he announces his existence, and the people of Kufa pledge allegiance to him as caliph.. and the matter turns into a catastrophe.. and a caliphate within the caliphate.
At that point "Marwan ibn Muhammad" moves against him with the army of Syria.. and "Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah" meets him with the army of Kufa and Khurasan and a great many of the soldiers of Egypt, who had travelled to Kufa in order to pledge allegiance to the caliph who was of the "Prophet's household".. and they meet at one of the tributaries of the "Tigris", which is the "Zab River".. and this time.. the Umayyad army is defeated.. and the caliph "Marwan ibn Muhammad" is killed and the Abbasids are victorious.. and this is the moment of the true birth of the Abbasid state.
"Abu al-Abbas" enters Syria and reassures its people, the lovers of the Prophet's household.. the phrase "the Prophet's household" was the cheque that granted him the support of the people.. and "Abu al-Abbas" entered Egypt with no resistance from its people at all, on the contrary they welcomed him as one of the "Prophet's household".. and they allowed him to hunt down the remnants of the Umayyads and kill them.. and he was fighting the Umayyads a war of extermination.. and shedding their blood without reckoning.. that is why they called him "al-Saffah".
With Egypt's support for "Abu al-Abbas", the rest of the provinces submit to him, and he enters Yemen and the Hijaz and everyone recognises him as caliph officially.. and history records this moment as the third Islamic caliphate to appear into existence.
And the official dress of the Abbasids was the colour black.. and their armies were vast and terrifying.. the Umayyads withdrew before them time after time.. until no refuge was left for them but al-Andalus.. and with the end of that same year, 750 AD, the Umayyad state comes to an end in the East.. and is besieged in al-Andalus.
And in al-Andalus a young man of the Umayyads arrives.. his name is "Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu'awiya ibn Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik".. or "Abd al-Rahman al-Dakhil".. he had fled to the Maghreb.. and its people hid him.. and there he began to rely on a loyal servant named "Badr".. who helped him a great deal.. and he sent him to al-Andalus secretly.. and there he made contact with the remnants of Banu Umayya.. and convinced them to unite their word under the banner of "Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu'awiya".
And this "Abd al-Rahman al-Dakhil" slips into al-Andalus by sea.. and gathers the word of the remnants of Banu Umayya.. and al-Andalus, with the collapse of the Umayyad state, was teeming with revolts.. so he begins to unite the word.. and gathers his forces.. and enters the cities one after another and suppresses all the revolts of al-Andalus.. and enters "Cordoba".. and its people pledge allegiance to him in obedience.
And in al-Andalus.. "Sulayman al-A'rabi", the ruler of Barcelona, and "al-Husayn ibn Yahya al-Ansari", the ruler of Zaragoza, discover.. that they too could become caliphs.. so each of them declares himself caliph.. so "Abd al-Rahman" moves against them and defeats both of them.. and while "al-Ansari" dies.. al-A'rabi flees and makes contact with the king of the Romans "Charlemagne" and invites him to occupy Barcelona, on condition that he make him its governor.
And indeed the forces of "Charles" reach Barcelona.. but the people of the city resist him fiercely.. until the forces of "Abd al-Rahman al-Dakhil" arrive.. and when the fighting and the siege and the noise and the aggravation drag on.. and "Charles" finds that he cannot occupy Barcelona.. he kills "Sulayman al-A'rabi" on the grounds that he dragged him into this matter to no avail.
"Abd al-Rahman al-Dakhil" did not try to expand the Umayyad state a second time.. he contented himself with al-Andalus.. and the truth is that the Abbasids were watching his rule and his victories and were anxious about him.. and they had named him "the Falcon of Quraysh" and "the Devil of Quraysh".. and they used to say, "Praise be to God who placed the sea between us and the Devil of Quraysh".
And after four years of his rule, "Abd Allah al-Saffah" dies of a mysterious illness.. it was said to be smallpox.. and it was said that he was poisoned like others.. and "Abd al-Rahman al-Dakhil" likewise died a death rare among the deaths of that era, which is that he died calmly on his bed without assassination.
And matters remained as they were.. two caliphates.. one in the East.. and one in the West centred in al-Andalus.. and caliphs coming and going here and there.. until a slave boy, a servant, named "Tulun" is sent to the Abbasid caliph "al-Ma'mun" as a gift from Turkey.
And the Abbasid caliph loved this boy greatly and promoted him quickly until he became a commander of the troops, and he married him and looked after him, so this servant who had become a commander begets a son on 20 September of the year 835, and he dies a few years later leaving behind his son, whose name began to shine exactly like his father's and who rose and excelled.. and the new Abbasid caliph "al-Mutawakkil" assigns him.. the administration of the Syrian and Egyptian ports.. so he moves to Egypt.. and it becomes decreed for him to make a new state.
And this boy's name was "Ahmad".
"Ahmad ibn Tulun", who will found in Egypt a third caliphate.. and call it "the Tulunid State".
And the story of the Tulunid state with the two caliphates existing at that time.. the Umayyads and the Abbasids, would take long.
And there remains more to be said.
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The previous posts are in the first comment.
(The image is of the palace of "Abd al-Rahman al-Dakhil" - al-Andalus)
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