Successful revolutions must sacrifice their messianic radicalism to consolidate power.

Evidence

Both the Abbasids and the Fa¯tfiimids, in their hour of victory, confronted the dilemma which sooner or later faces all successful rebels—the conflict between the responsibilities of power and the expectations of those who brought them to it. The Abbasids, after a brief attempt to persuade the Muslims that their accession had really brought the promised millennium, chose the path of stability and orthodoxy. The radical doctrines were forgotten, the radical leaders murdered. The messianic epithets became regnal titles, the black banners of revolt became a dynastic livery—even the very word dawla, which originally connoted revo­ lution and change, came to mean the dynasty and then the state. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 381

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Connects to the general theory that revolutions inevitably betray their own radical phase (echoes of Robespierre, Stalin, the French Revolution in The Defeat of the Spanish Armada’s ‘decisive battles only validate already probable outcomes’ theme).
• DEFINE: The word dawla shifting from revolution to dynasty to state is a striking piece of linguistic evidence for this institutionalization process.

Related

• Successful revolutionary movements must betray their millennial promises (similarity 0.94)
• Revolutionary dynasties toned down messianic titles once in power. (similarity 0.84)
• Islamic revolutions are driven by a recurring conflict between ideologues and pragmatists. (similarity 0.81)
• Political upheaval created receptivity to Isma’ili messianic ideology. (similarity 0.79)
• The concept of revolution as legitimacy was alien to Islamic tradition (similarity 0.79)
• A partially victorious revolutionary movement must keep its radical missionaries active. (similarity 0.79)
• An incomplete revolutionary victory prevents a clean break from doctrine (similarity 0.78)