The first was a military revolution begun by his brother, al-Mu'tasim. The constant
revolutions and the deep division in Islamic society convinced al-Ma'mun that he needed
a military force whose only loyalty was to him. So his brother, who would later become
caliph (833-842 / 218-27), assembled a military force of slaves, called Mamluks. Many of
the Mamluks were Turkish, who were famous for the horsemanship. But the Mamluk
military also consisted of Slavs and some Berbers. By the middle of al-Wathiq's reign,
the Mamluk army had completely displaced the Arabian and Persian army under the
caliph. This army, and al-Mu'tasim's abandonment of Baghdad for Samarra, caused bitter
resentment among Muslims and would irreperably sever the protective bond between the
Islamic sovereign and the Islamic people. It also introduced a new ethnic group in the
Islamic world, the Mamluks, who would eventually play a powerful role in the drama of
power and decline in medieval Islam.

The first Muslim military attack on an Indian kingdom was in response to attacks on Muslim sea traders which began in 711. An army under Muhammad ibn Qasim conquered the kingdom of Sind on the western coast of India. The kingdom was temporarily added to the Umayyad Empire. Populations of conquered territories were treated as people of the book and granted religious toleration of their Hindu beliefs in return for payment of the poll tax on non- believers. Most of the administrative elite of conquered territories continued to serve new Muslim masters. The Muslims continued to recognize the Brahmin caste system. Little conversion of conquered populations was attempted.

Abu Muslim al Khorasani
-abbasid general – son of a Persian Zoroastrian
-Gained fame by defeating a peasant rebellion led by a leader of a fused shia/mazdakite cult
-led the abbasid armies which overthrew the umayyads in 750
-He was beloved as governor of Khorasan for his conciliatory policies toward shias , sunis, Christians , jews , Zoroastrians.

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