الدعوة العباسية

The Abbasid da'wa was a secret movement built around an Imam of the Family of the Prophet ﷺ, Muhammad ibn Ali al-Abbasi, to whom the da'wa passed and who sought the caliphate. He oversaw the organisations and directed the chiefs (nuqaba') and missionaries (du'at). ¹

Its organisers set up a secret administrative structure in ranks. At the top were the twelve chiefs (nuqaba'), the only ones who knew the Imam's secret. Next came their deputies, equal in number, with a deputy taking the place of a chief on his death. ¹

Then came seventy missionaries (du'at), who acted on the chiefs' orders and prepared the supporters psychologically and culturally. Then the missionaries' own missionaries, and the agents who ran the secret apparatus, each missionary having a number of them. The apparatus ended in secret cells in the provinces. ¹

The logic of the apparatus rested on equality, on the imamate of al-Rida from the Family of Muhammad, and on a call to reform. ¹