Then, when al-Mutawakkil was assassinated (1), followed by the slaying of al-Muʿtazz (2), and thereafter al-Mustaʿin (3) and al-Muhtadī (4), the authority of the caliphate crumbled. Seizing the moment, the two Saffārid brothers—men who had once earned their living as coppersmiths—rose up, conquered Khurasan, and advanced on Iraq with the intention of toppling al-Muʿtamid.

At the same time a crafty brigand from the Zanj (5) seized Basra, massacred its inhabitants, routed the armies sent against him, and was fought for over a dozen years before he was finally killed. A renegade in every sense, his followers eventually numbered one hundred thousand.

From that point on, anyone with ambitions of leadership began to imitate such rebels, plotting against the ummah to ruin the people in both their faith and their worldly affairs. Thus a man in Kūfa gathered his forces: he affected extreme piety and asceticism, wove mats from palm fronds and gave alms, all the while summoning the populace to an imam from the Prophet’s Household. A crowd rallied to him and treated him as a saint until the year 286 AH.

That same year Abu Saʿīd al-Jannābī emerged in Bahrain. Once a grain-merchant, he amassed a large army; they plundered, committed atrocious acts, and sank into outright heresy.

Meanwhile, two brothers travelled to the Maghrib to proclaim the advent of the Mahdī. The Berbers rose with them until ʿAbd Allāh—styled “the Mahdī”—came to rule most of the Maghrib. He openly espoused Rāfiḍī doctrine while secretly nurturing zandaqa, and he rose