Although some of them had Zaydi inclination so much so that...

Although some of them had Zaydi inclination so much so that, according to some sources, some of the Sadat were even Nasibis (7), it can certainly be stated that most of the Sadat had been Shi‘ah, their suffering at the hands of anti-Shi‘ah governments clearly substantiate this contention. The Sadat [i.e., Prophet descendants] were scattered in many regions of the Muslim territories stretching from Transoxiana and India to Africa.

Although these migrations had started during the time of Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, they were accelerated during the ‘Abbasid period owing to the uprisings of the ‘Alawis that mostly ended in failure. The north of Iran and the difficult-to-reach regions of Gilan and Mazandaran as well as the mountainous places and far-flung lands of Khurasan were considered secure places for the ‘Alawis.

For the first time, during the time of Harun ar-Rashid, Yahya ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Hasani went to Mazandaran which was then called Tabaristan. Although he held power and flourished in his work, through his vizier Fadhl ibn Yahya who brought a letter, Harun was able to convince him to conclude a peace treaty (8). Many ‘Alawis settled there after him and Shi‘ism spread there day by day.

The people there embraced Islam through the ‘Alawis so much so that during the second half of the third century AH, the ‘Alawi rule in Tabaristan was established by Hasan ibn Zayd al-‘Alawi. At the time, it is regarded as a conducive place for the Sadat just as Ibn Asfandiyar says: At the time, so many ‘Alawi and Hashimite Sadat from Hijaz, suburbs of Sham, and Iraq went to him.

Verily, he had so much authority there that whenever he would ride, three hundred ‘Alawis armed with swords were around him. (9) When Imam ar-Ridha ( ‘a ) was appointed by Ma’mun as his heir-apparent, the brothers and relatives of the Imam went to Iran. As Mar‘ashi writes: Because of the rumour of the heir-apparency spread by Ma’mun about the Imam (‘a), many Sadat came here (Iran) and the Imam had twenty-one brothers.

This group of the Imam’s brothers and {their} sons consisting of Hasani and Husayni Sadat arrived in the villages of Rey (old Tehran) and Iraq. And as they heard of the treachery Ma’mun committed against Hadhrat Ridha, they took refuge in the mountainous Daylamistan and Tabaristan.