Muḥammad ibn Jarīr (al-Ṭabarī) states in his History: “The beginning of the Abbasid cause was that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, according to what is reported, informed al-ʿAbbās that the caliphate would ultimately revert to his descendants, and so his children continually awaited that outcome.”

I (the author) say: This report is not authentic. Still, people cherished the House of al-ʿAbbās and the House of ʿAlī alike, and they wished that authority would pass to them—out of love for the family of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and loathing for the house of Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam. They kept working toward that goal for a time until the circumstances aligned, their state drew near, and it emerged from Khurāsān.

Rushdīn ibn Kurayb relates that Abū Hāshim ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah travelled to Syria, where he encountered Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās—the father of al-Saffāḥ—and said:

“Cousin, I hold some knowledge that I wish to entrust to you; do not reveal it to anyone. The authority for which people are hoping is yours.”

He replied, “I already know; let no one hear it from you.”

I say: We were glad that power should come to them, yet—by Allah—we were grieved by what ensued: torrents of blood, captivity, and plunder. Indeed, we belong to Allah and to Him we return. A tyrannical government that guarantees security and spares blood is preferable to the absence of any rule under which sacred limits are violated—and how could such a regime be just? Instead there arose a foreign, Khurāsānī, overbearing power; how very like yesterday is today!

Abū al-Ḥasan al-Madāʾinī transmitted, on the authority of a group of informants, that Imām Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh said to us: “There are three decisive moments: the death of Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah, the turn of the century, and a breach in Ifrīqiya. When those occur, our missionaries will summon people to our cause, and our supporters will advance from the East until their cavalry reaches the West.”

When Yazīd ibn Abī Muslim was slain in Ifrīqiya and the Berbers revolted, Imām Muḥammad dispatched a man to Khurāsān, instructing him to call people to ‘the one pleasing to the family of Muḥammad’ without naming anyone specifically.

He then sent Abū Muslim and wrote to the naqībs; they accepted his letters, but those letters subsequently fell into the hands of Marwān ibn