15 – Abū Muslim al-Khurāsānī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muslim *
His given name was ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muslim.
Others say it was ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿUthmān ibn Yasār al-Khurāsānī, the commander, the architect of the revolutionary summons, the vanquisher of the Umayyad armies, and the man who laid the foundations of the ʿAbbāsid state.
He was counted among the greatest kings in the history of Islam, a figure of astonishing career and extraordinary tale (1): a man who left Syria riding a donkey with a simple pack-saddle, entered Khurasan, and nine years later ruled that province; then he returned at the head of battalions as massive as mountains, overturned one dynasty and raised up another!

Qāḍī Shams al-Dīn Ibn Khallikān writes: He was short of stature, brown-skinned, handsome and pleasant-looking, of clear complexion, with bright wide eyes, a broad forehead, a fine beard, long hair, a long back, a low voice, eloquent in both Arabic and Persian, and sweet-tongued.
He was a connoisseur of poetry and well versed in affairs; no one ever saw him laugh or jest except at its proper time.
Hardly ever did he frown in any circumstance: great conquests would reach him and no sign of joy appeared on him; crushing calamities would descend upon him and he was not seen despondent.
Whenever he became angry, anger did not provoke him … until he said:
He would not approach women during the entire year except once, alluding to the nobility of his soul and its preoccupation with the burdens of sovereignty.
It is said that he was born in the year 100 AH, and that his first public appearance was in Marw, in the month of Ramaḍān, on the day