View source for Qahtaba ibn Shabib al-Ta'i

{{Short description|Abbasid general (died 749)}}
{{No footnotes|date=August 2011}}
'''Qahtaba ibn Shabib al-Ta'i''' ({{langx|ar|قحطبة بن شبيب الطائي}}) (died 27 August 749) was a follower of the [[Abbasids]] from [[Khurasan]] who played a leading role in the [[Abbasid Revolution]] against the [[Umayyad Caliphate]].
Qahtaba was a [[Arabs in Khorasan|Khurasani Arab]], belonging to the [[Tayy]] tribe. He had journeyed to [[Mecca]], where the imam of the [[Hashimiyya]] Ibrahim ibn Muhammad appointed him as the military leader for the upcoming anti-Umayyad uprising in Khorasan. This appointment was accepted by the main Abbasid leader, [[Abu Muslim]], and following the fall of [[Merv]] to the Abbasids and their supporters in February 748, Qahtaba was placed in command of the Abbasid forces that pursued the last Umayyad governor of Khurasan, [[Nasr ibn Sayyar]]. His army took [[Nishapur]], where Nasr had sought refuge, defeated a 10,000-strong Umayyad force at Gurgan in August and subsequently took [[Rayy]]. There he wintered, and in March 749 he defeated a larger Umayyad army under [[Amir ibn Dubara]], allegedly 50,000 strong, near [[Isfahan]]. [[Nihavand]] fell after a short siege and the Abbasid army began moving towards [[Iraq]]. Qahtaba's army advanced swiftly with the aim of taking [[Kufa]], but was confronted by the Umayyad governor, [[Yazid ibn Hubayra]]. Qahtaba was able to launch a surprise night attack on the Umayyad camp, forcing Yazid and his troops to flee to [[Wasit, Iraq|Wasit]]. Qahtaba himself fell in this battle, but his son [[al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba]] assumed command and took possession of Kufa on 2 September. Both al-Hasan and his brother, [[Humayd ibn Qahtaba]], were important military leaders in the early decades of the Abbasid regime.
== Sources ==
* {{citation | title = The First Dynasty of Islam: The Umayyad Caliphate AD 661–750 (2nd Edition) | last = Hawting | first = G. R.| authorlink = G. R. Hawting | publisher = Routledge | year = 2000 | isbn = 0-415-24072-7 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=KNczPUUdTbsC | pages = 115–117}}
* {{citation | title = The Abbasid Revolution | first = M. A. | last = Shaban | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 1979 | isbn = 0-521-29534-3 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=1_03AAAAIAAJ | pages =160–161}}
* {{EI2 | volume = 4 | title=Ḳaḥṭaba b. Shabib b. Khālid b. Ma'dān | first = Moshe | last = Sharon | pages = 445–447 | url = http://www.encquran.brill.nl/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/kahtaba-SIM_3789}}
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[[Category:749 deaths]]
[[Category:Generals of the Abbasid Caliphate]]
[[Category:People of the Abbasid Revolution]]
[[Category:Medieval Arabs killed in battle]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:8th-century Arab people]]
[[Category:Tayy]]
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