Abd al-Malik was a native Persian from Jurjan, who had become a mawla of the tribe of Huna'a (a part of the Azdi group). According to Patricia Crone, despite his support of the Abbasids, "his names reveal a pro-Umayyad background".[1] He was the leader of the Abbasid missionary movement (the Da'wa) in his native Jurjan (along with Amir ibn Isma'il and Khalid ibn Barmak), and one of the senior members of the movement in Khurasan in general.[2][3] Indeed, he was the first recipient of the black banners which came to symbolize the Abbasid dynasty.[4] When the Abbasid Revolution broke out in June 747, he was named as the commander of a unit recruited from Jurjan, and sent to suppress the Kharijites in the region, a task which he carried out with success.[2][5]