Yusuf al-Barm

Yusuf al-Barm was a rebel leader against the Abbasid Caliphate in Khurasan in the 770s.

Few details are known of his origin: his father was called Ibrahim, and according to Ya'qubi he was a mawla of the Banu Thaqif tribe in Bukhara.[1][2] Yusuf's own religious beliefs are left unmentioned; likewise the meaning of the sobriquet "al-Barm" is unknown.[2]

Yusuf's uprising was one of a series of revolts in Khurasan during the early Abbasid period,[1] such as the roughly contemporaneous rebellion of al-Muqanna.[3] The revolt's motivations are somewhat obscure. Medieval sources give religious grounds, including the traditional call to "command good and forbid wrong", but they are contradictory: some call him a Kharijite, while others accuse him of unbelief (kafir) and of claiming to be a prophet.[1][4] According to C. E. Bosworth, "it appears that the revolt was basically political and directed against the arbitrary power of the caliph and his governors".[1] It is unknown when exactly the revolt broke out, except that it was during the governorship in Khurasan of Humayd ibn Qahtaba, which began in 768.[3] It spread across southern Khurasan (what is now northern Afghanistan), namely the regions of Badhghis, Marw al-Rudh, Juzjan, and Talaqan.[1][4]

He spurred offers of a pardon (aman) from Caliph al-Mahdi (r. 775–785),[4] but was finally defeated and captured in 776/7 by either Yazid ibn Mazyad or Sa'id ibn Salm. Yusuf was brought to Baghdad, where he was executed through crucifixion by Harthama ibn A'yan, who had lost a brother to Yusuf's rebellion.[1][4]

A grandson of Yusuf, Mansur ibn Abdallah, led an unsuccessful revolt in Khurasan during the caliphate of al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833). He was defeated and killed.[1][5] Another grandson, Yusuf ibn Mansur, is attested along with a son of Yusuf, al-Husayn, during the Abbasid civil war of 865–866.[4]

References
  1. Bosworth 2002, p. 358.
  2. Crone 2012, p. 157.
  3. Crone 2012, pp. 157–158.
  4. Crone 2012, p. 158.
  5. Crone 2012, pp. 158–159.

Sources
  • Bosworth, C. E. (2002). "Yūsuf al-Barm". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. & Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume XI: W–Z (2nd ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 358. ISBN 978-90-04-12756-2.
  • Crone, Patricia (2012). The Nativist Prophets of Early Islamic Iran: Rural Revolt and Local Zoroastrianism. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-01879-2.
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