Terribly Obscure Battles, Wars and Revolutions A-Z (and back again?)

OK a new series to go along with the ECW history stuff. I will try and pick out battles and wars that may not be mainstream and give a bit of detail of them. It's not meant to be in depth or long, just a bit of an interest read for you.

Typical troops of the period.

Abbasid Revolution of A.D.747-50

Northeastern Persia was controlled by the Ummayyad family but the Abbasid's who claimed to be descendants of Addas, Uncle of The Prophet Muhammad and led by Abu Muslim (they were Muslim Arabs) openly revolted in 747 and seized the strategically important City of Merv that sat on the silk roads. Marwan II the last Ummayyad caliph tried to smash the rebellion but suffered defeats at the battles of Nishapur, Jurjan, Nehawand and Kerbela. Up to this point the rebellion was contained in the province of Khorasan but with these defeats the revolt spread across other provinces in the Muslim empire. A further and decisive battle was fought at the Great Zab River in 750 which ended the revolt in the Abbasid's favour with Abu al-Abbas as-Saffan proclaiming himself  the first Abbasid caliph at Kufa, a Mesopotamian city near the Euphrates River. As for Marwan he fled to Egypt but was soon murdered.