Oppressive practices towards the Shiites during the Abbasid Caliphate(123-448AH/749-1056AD)

Abstract

During the Abbasid era ,the Shiites were exposed to difficult periods in Islamic history ,as the Abbasid caliphs used many methods to get rid of them because they were the holders of the legitimate right to caliphate ,but they used Shiism as cover to achieve their goals of reaching power and ruling the Islamic word ,There was adiscrepancy in the treatment of the Shiites by the Abbasid caliphs during their various periods of rule .At the beginning of the era , they were more cautious in dealing with them to win them over and benefit from their support in the success of their revolution and the overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate, so they had more space in political participation , but in later stages of the Abbasid caliphs took repressive policies towards the Shiites ,due to political and ideological fears. Some sought to bring them closer together and push them away at other times . There was fluctuation in the position of the Abbasid caliphs towards the Shiites between restrictions and tolerance according to the political circumstances and different considerations at each stage we will explain in our tagged research. The Abbasids exploited this matter at the beginning of their call to overthrow the Umayyads, but after that it began to take a different character from what they called for, as they followed various methods of killing in all its forms and torturing the symbols of the Shiites, and following the method of threats and intimidation, which pushed many of them to leave the country for fear for themselves. They did not stop at this point, but rather proceeded to confiscate their money and property and to physically and morally disable them. They were also fought intellectually and doctrines were spread that contradicted their ideas and principles.