Sunpadh

Sunpadh or Sinbad or Sinbad the Magus (Persian and Arabic: سندباد مجوس‎, died 755) was a Persian cleric from a small village called Āhan near Nishapur who incited an uprising against the Abbasid Caliphate in the 8th century.

Sunpadh was a friend and confidant of the Persian general Abu Muslim Khorasani, who had begun the Abbasid revolt in 747. Nizam al-Mulk states in his Siyāsatnāma that Abu Muslim had delegated his authority and coffers in Rayy to Sunpadh prior to journeying to Baghdad, where he was eventually murdered by order of the second Abbasid Caliph, al-Mansur.

Following the betrayal and subsequent death of the general in 755, the enraged Sunpadh swore to march on Mecca and destroy the Kaaba. Sunpadh further preached that "Abu Muslim has not died, and when Mansur meant to slay him, he chanted God's great name (Persian: نام مهين خداى تعالى), turned into a white dove and flew away. Now he is standing with Mahdi and Mazdak in a castle of copper and they shall emerge by and by." His doctrine received wide support among Persian Shi'i Muslims, Zoroastrians and Mazdakites and revolts occurred in Rayy, Herat and Sistan. Within only 70 days, Sunpadh's forces were however defeated by one of Caliph al-Mansur's generals, Juhar ibn Murad, and the cleric was captured and slain.

Sunpadh also preached a syncretism melding Islam and Zoroastrianism. In combination with his unusual and heretical vow to advance towards Hijaz and raze the Kaaba, this led to the belief that he was in fact a Zoroastrian, rather than a Muslim.

Bibliography

• Goldschmidt, Arthur; Davidson, Lawrence (2005), A Concise History of the Middle East, Boulder: Westview Press 
• Abdolhossein Zarrinkoob, Two Centuries of Silence (1999), pp. 146-152, ISBN 964-5983-33-6.