Sumbad-Mag Uprising

a popular uprising that took place in 755 against the Abbasid dynasty in northeastern and central Iran. The insurgents, mainly peasants, were led by Sumbad-mag. The chief cause of the uprising was the failure of the Abbasids to keep their promise to liberate the peasants from paying the kharaj (land tax) and from forced labor, including construction work on palaces and canals. The immediate reason was the order given by the Abbasid caliph, Mansur, to kill Abu Muslim, the leader of an uprising against the Umayyad dynasty. Participants in the Sumbad-mag uprising included Zoroastrians, Shiites, and Khurramites; thus the uprising was also directed against Sunnism, the official religion of the Abbasids. According to al-Tabari, the uprising lasted more than two months. The rebels were defeated by the caliph’s forces near Hamadan, and Sumbad-mag was killed.