Abu'l-Saraya

'''Abu'l-Sarāyā al-Sarī ibn Manṣūr al-Shaybānī''' (d. 18 October 815) was leader of a Zaydi revolt against the Abbasid Caliphate in Kufa and Iraq in 815. The revolt spread quickly across southern Iraq, and his agents even took over Mecca and Medina. At one point, the rebels threatened even Baghdad, but the Abbasid general Harthama ibn A'yan drove them back to Kufa in a series of victories. Forced to abandon Kufa in late August, Abu'l-Saraya and his followers tried to flee, but were pursued, defeated, and captured. Abu'l-Saraya himself was executed at Baghdad on 18 October. The uprising continued in the Hejaz for a few months under Muhammad ibn Ja'far al-Sadiq as anti-caliph at Mecca, until this too was suppressed by the Abbasid troops.

==Life== Abu'l-Saraya's early life is obscure. His hometown was Ras al-Ayn, and claimed descent from the pre-Islamic Shabani chieftain Hani ibn Qabisa, but is said to have been a donkey driver and a bandit, before he entered the service of Yazid ibn Mazyad al-Shaybani, the Abbasid governor of Armenia. Under Yazid's command, he fought against the Khurramites. In the Abbasid civil war of al-Amin and al-Ma'mun, he initially sided with the former, and fought against al-Ma'mun's general Harthama ibn A'yan, before switching sides.