Fragrance of Ramadan already in the air vanguardngr.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from vanguardngr.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Zanj rebellion of Black slaves, which took place in lower Iraq from 868 to 883 CE, is one of the remarkable episodes of Medieval Islamic history that often goes untold. Much of what we know about the rebellion comes from the historical works of Al-Tabari (
Annals of Prophets and Kings) and Al Mas’udi Murudj al-Dahab.
According to these accounts, in about 869 CE, Ali bin Muhammad, a slave-descended Arab, journeyed into the slave quarters in the marshlands East to Basrah, where Black slaves were employed by large landowners to dig away at the nitrous surface soil, reclaiming the land beneath it for future sugarcane cultivation. It was exacting work, and the slaves were expected to obtain saltpetre from the upper layers of the soil for their master’s profit. Their well-being was often neglected and their oppression was gruesome. Al-Tabari recounts that Ali received an audience among these slaves by claiming that he was an agent acting on behalf of a Caliph’s son. Having alre