There was once again a question of who really should be caliph. Many Muslims resented Hisham who ruled as a monarch, which strengthened the empire but they did not believe that the role of the caliph should be that of a monarch. To them the caliph was supposed to be a protector of Muslims and to act as an arbitrator when disputes arose among Muslims, he was not to be a king. Those Muslims that were dissenters were Shiis and Khirijites, who still believed that Mohammed’s relatives and not member of the Umayyid should be the caliph. They still wanted the caliph to be the most religiously devout Muslim not the most powerful. The Muslim Empire had grown to fast and the Umayyids were unsure as to how to rule the new territories. They left the new territories to be ruled by locals who supported the Umayyids, this angered other Muslims who wanted to be placed as governors of these new territories. The Abbasid faction used these reasons to gain the support of the Muslim dissenters. They claimed to be relatives of Mohammed and were able to fight a successful civil war against the Umayyids and overthrew the Umayyid rule by the year 750.
Written by Alex Boyce, 2003