For about ten years between 871-881, a revolt in today’s southern Iraq destabilized an entire empire. The death toll resulting from this revolt may have been as “low” as 100,000 and as high as a million and a half; historians are not exactly sure and might never be. Some people today believe that “The Zanj Rebellion” was a revolt of enslaved African people against their Arab masters in a bid for freedom, but the truth behind this brutal period is a bit more complicated. Like the other great religions of the world, Islam is divided into different sects. Many, but not all, of the differences involve the line of succession following the death of the Prophet Muhammad.