Yahya ibn Abd Allah

Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (; –803) was an Alid and Zaydi leader who led a rebellion against the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid in Daylam in 792. He was soon obliged to capitulate, but his activity began the spread of Zaydi Islam in the remote mountains of Daylam. After his surrender, he was initially treated with much honour, but Harun remained deeply suspicious of his popularity and intentions, and recalled him to Baghdad, where he spent the remainder of his life in prison. In 802, the Barmakid Ja'far ibn Yahya helped him escape, but he was captured; the event led to the execution of the Barmakids, once Harun's closest companions. Yahya died in prison, probably in 803. Biography Origin and early life Yahya was a great-great-grandson of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the son-in-law of Muhammad and first Shi'a imam. His mother, Qurayba bint Rukayh, was one of the wives of his father, and niece of the mother of his half-brothers, Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya and Ibrahim. Yahya was born around 745/6. Shortly after his birth, in 748–750, the Abbasid Revolution overthrew the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750) and established the Abbasid dynasty at the helm of the Islamic world. The change of dynasty was not a mere succession struggle, but the culmination of a broad social and political movement that rejected the Umayyad regime, which was widely regarded as oppressive, too dependent on and favouring its Syrian heartland to the exclusion of other areas, and more concerned with the worldly aspects of the caliphate than the teachings of Islam. A widespread belief at the time favoured replacing Umayyad dynastic rule with that of a "chosen one from the Family of Muhammad", who alone would have the divine guidance necessary to interpret the Quran and create a truly Islamic government that would bring justice to the Muslim community, treating all Muslims equally regardless of their origin. In the first instance this meant the Alids, who claimed descent from Muhammad via Ali ibn Abi Talib, and to whom Yahya's family belonged. However, the Abbasids exploited the vagueness of the slogan by portraying themselves as also being members of the wider "Family of the Prophet" through their common descent from the Banu Hashim clan.