Abu Muslim Enters Marw and His Partisans Fall upon Mudar

دخول أبي مسلم مرو وانقضاض شيعته على مضر

c. 748 CE · 9 Jumada I 130 AH

In 130 Abu Muslim entered the wall of Marw and took up residence in the governor's house on Thursday, 9 Jumada I. The cause was that Sulayman ibn Kathir objected to Ali ibn al-Kirmani's reconciliation with Nasr ibn Sayyar: 'Are you not ashamed to make peace with Nasr, when he killed your men and your companions only yesterday?' Ali ibn al-Kirmani was seized by anger, reversed his position, and the truce among the Arabs broke. Nasr ibn Sayyar sent to Abu Muslim asking him to join Mudar, and Rabi'a and Qahtan sent the same request. Abu Muslim ordered that envoys of both sides come before him to choose between them, and told the Shi'a to choose Rabi'a and Qahtan, since authority lay with Mudar, who were Marwan's agents and the killers of Yahya ibn Zayd. When his letter was read to the seventy assembled, Mazid ibn Shaqiq al-Sulami stood and said: 'Mudar are the killers of the Family of the Prophet ﷺ and helpers of the Umayyads and partisans of Marwan al-Ja'di; our blood is on their necks and our wealth in their hands, and Nasr ibn Sayyar, Marwan's governor in Khurasan, has the khutba given for him from his pulpit and calls him amir al-mu'minin; we are innocent of that before God.' The seventy agreed with him; he rose, and humiliation and dejection came upon Mudar, while Ali ibn al-Kirmani and his companions returned glad and victorious. Abu Muslim had stayed at Alin for twenty-nine days, then moved on to al-Makhwan, stayed three months at Khunda, and then entered the wall of Marw ¹.