Anyhow the slogan of Rida aal-Muhammad (to please the...

Anyhow the slogan of Rida aal-Muhammad (to please the Descendants of the Prophet) proved a success and people gathered behind the agents of Bani Hashim, thinking that they wanted to remove Bani Umayya and install a descendant of the Prophet as Khalifa. Bani Umayya were overthrown in 132 A.H. But when the time came to install a Khalifa from Aal-Muhammad, the Abbasids forgot all their pledges and their bay'a to Muhammad Nafs al-Zakiyya. They put Abu'l-Abbas Saffah on the throne.

Abu'l-'Abbas died after four years, and his brother Mansur came to power. Muhammad Nafs al-Zakiyya did not forget that Mansur was under obligation to accept him as Khalifa; neither could Mansur forget it. The solution, according to Muhammad Nafs al-Zakiyya, was to rise against Mansur. The solution, according to Mansur, was to annihilate all the descendants of Imam Hasan.

"The same fierce jealousy with which the Bani-Omeyya had pursued or persecuted the Bani-Fatima, characterised the conduct of Bani-Abbas towards the descendants of Muhammad. They had no claim to the Caliphate themselves; they made the affection of the people for the children of Fatima the means for their own elevation, and when they had attained the desired end they rewarded the Fatimids with bitter persecution." (Ibid, p.304.) Mansur came to Medina in 144 A.H.

and in one sweeping operation arrested all the family of Imam Hasan and took them to Baghdad. It is not the place to enumerate the torture - physical and mental - meted out to the descendants of Imam Hasan. Now Mansur wanted to absolve himself from the legal,and moral obligations of that oath of allegiance. It was not only the question of his own conscience; he had to assure the public also that he was the constitutional and rightful Khalifa.

For this purpose, he gave a public address after that mass arrest, in which he shamelessly said: "By God, we left the descendants of Abu Talib and the Khilafat; we did not interfere at all. `Ali ibn Abi Talib became Khalifa. After him Hasan ibn `Ali became Khalifa. By God, he did not deserve it. He was offered money, which he accepted; Mu'awiya sent him a message that he would make him his successor. So, Hasan abdicated the Khilafat and left the government and power.

He left everything to Mu'awiya, and turned his attention, to women, marrying one woman today, divorcing another one tomorrow.