The First Dynasty of Islam: The Umayyad Caliphate ad 661-750

party of a son of ‘Ali and whose propaganda continued to stress
relationship to the Prophet as a qualification for the imamate,
winning the support of many who no doubt thought it was still
working for an imam from among ‘Ali’s descendants. It is important
to remember, though, that in the Umayyad period, although most of
those who stressed the importance of relationship to the Prophet
naturally looked for a leader from among the ‘Alids, attitudes were
not so exclusive as they became later. After the ‘Abbasids attained
the caliphate, most supporters of the ‘Alids came to insist that there
was only one imam in each generation and that he was only to be
found in a line of descent from ‘Ali through his wife Fatima, the
daughter of the Prophet. Previously, ideas had been more flexible.
Imams had been looked for in the line of descent from ‘Ali through
another wife, the Hanafi woman, as well as through Fatima, and
‘Abd Allah b. Mu‘awiya, who had rebelled against the Umayyads in
the third civil war, had not been a descendant of ‘Ali but of his
brother Ja‘far. In this situation it was not difficult for the ‘Abbasids
to stretch the concept of ‘the family of the Prophet’ a little more and
say that they too should be included in it as descendants of the
Prophet’s uncle. When supporters of the ‘Alids argued that the
‘Abbasids were more remote relatives than the descendants of ‘Ali,
they replied that according to Arab custom the paternal uncles of a
deceased man had greater rights of inheritance than the daughters —
in others words, al-‘Abbas, Muhammad’s uncle, came before his
daughter Fatima.
12
The early stages of the propaganda 
(da‘wa)
 of the Hashimiyya as
the vehicle of the ambitions of the ‘Abbasids are still somewhat
obscure. At the time of the death of Abu Hashim the main centre of

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The Overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate
the movement was Kufa, but it seems that its following even there
was rather small. Kufa continued to be the supervisory centre of the
movement, although the ‘Abbasid imams themselves remained in
Humayma and its main activity was to centre more and more on
Khurasan. From about the year 719 we read in the sources of
missions being sent from Kufa to Khurasan to wage propaganda and
recruit on behalf of the Hashimiyya, and from time to time we hear
of the government in the province arresting and even executing
propagandists who had come to its attention. Because the year 718–
19 is the year 100 according to the Muslim calendar, and because the
turn of the century is often vested with particular importance in
Muslim tradition, scholars have been suspicious of these reports and
pointed out that there is little sign that the 
da‘wa
 made much
progress in the province until some time later. A particularly
important episode is associated with one Khidash who, at a date
variously given between 727 and 738, propagandised on behalf of
the Hashimiyya in Khurasan, was arrested and executed, and was
then disowned by the ‘Abbasid imam Muhammad b. ‘Ali. It seems
possible that Khidash was the first to win widespread support for the
movement in the province, but there are some indications that he did
not regard himself as a proponent of the ‘Abbasids but rather of the
‘Alids, and it may be that in his time the Hashimiyya in Khurasan
had still not accepted the ‘Abbasid takeover of the movement.
13
In spite of the obscurities and conflicting reports, two points in