Abū Hāshim Bukayr b. Māhān (d. 126/744) was the true father of the clandestine organisation al-Hāshimiyya, which toppled the Umayyads and in 132/750 instated the ʿAbbāsids; a veteran of the Umayyad establishment, yet its deadliest enemy; a resourceful and relentless man of stature, generosity, altruism, diligence, secretiveness, political finesse, and formidable organisational ability (Agha, 8); and a Persian mawlā of the proto-Shīʿī Banū Musliya in Kufa. There is little consensus on Bukayr and on many other aspects of the history of the Hāshimiyya (cf. Agha, xv-