Page:Arabic Thought and Its Place in History.djvu/113

 partly exterminated, and so "the butcher" became the first of the 'Abbasid Khalifs, so called as being of the family of al-'Abbas the son of 'Abdu l-Muttalib.

As soon as the Khalif Abu l-'Abbas was seated on the throne his chief aim was to secure the establishment of his dynasty by getting rid of all possible rivals, and it was the vigour he showed in doing this which earned for him the title of "the Butcher." First of all he hunted down and slew all the representatives he could find of the 'Umayyad family. One of these escaped, 'Abdu r-Rahman, and went to Africa where he endeavoured to form a body of supporters without success, and then crossed over to Spain where in 138 he established himself at Cordova, and there he and his descendants ruled until 422 A.H. These Spanish 'Umayyads claimed to be legitimist rulers, but never assumed the divine claims of the 'Alid section.

Abu Muslim, who had done most to establish the 'Umayyad dynasty, next provoked the Khalif's jealousy, probably with good cause for he was indignant to find that "the Butcher" was no sooner on the throne than he entirely discarded the Shi'ites who had helped to place him there, and so within the first year of the 'Abbasid rule Abu Muslim was put to death.

The fall of the 'Umayyads brought an end to the tyranny of the Arab minority, as it now was, and placed the preponderance for a clear century (A.H. 132–232) in Persian hands. The government was