Abu al-Saraya

Abu al-Saraya was in charge of organising the rising of Ibn Tabataba in Kufa in 199 AH. ¹ He fled from Kufa in 200 AH, and was killed in Rabi al-Awwal of that year. ^{2 3}

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.), signed by H. A. R. Gibb, describes Abu l-Saraya al-Shaybani as a Shi'ite rebel. He was said to have been a donkey-driver and later a bandit, entered the service of Yazid b. Mazyad al-Shaybani in Armenia, and was engaged against the Khurramiyya. In the civil war between al-Amin and al-Ma'mun he commanded Yazid's vanguard against Harthama, then changed sides and joined Harthama. After a pilgrimage he openly revolted, and at al-Raqqa he met the 'Alid Muhammad b. Ibrahim b. Tabataba, whom he persuaded to go to Kufa; there he joined him on 10 Jumada II 199/26 January 815, and within weeks defeated al-Hasan b. Sahl's army sent to put down the revolt. ⁴

The 'Alid Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Zayd was chosen imam, but the power remained with Abu l-Saraya, who had dirhams coined in Kufa and sent detachments to Wasit, Basra, al-Ahwaz and Mecca. When al-Hasan b. Sahl appealed to Harthama and besieged him in Kufa, the Kufans refused to support him, and he fled with 800 horsemen. He was defeated and wounded at Susa by the governor of Khuzistan, and captured at Dialula by Hammad al-Kundaghush, who handed him over to al-Hasan b. Sahl at Nahrawan. He was beheaded on 10 Rabi' I 200/18 October 815, and his body was hung at the bridge of Baghdad. The article notes that the Sunni sources accuse him of poisoning Ibn Tabataba, which the Shi'ite tradition does not bear out. ⁴