Abbas is the son of Caliph al-Walid I.

Little is known about his early life, and Arab and Byzantine sources are often at odds concerning details of his career.

He first appears in the 707 campaign against the important imperial fortress of Tyana in Cappadocia, where he led the Arab army alongside his uncle Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik.

The town withstood a long siege over the winter of 707–708, and surrendered only after an imperial relief army was defeated in spring.

During the latter battle, Abbas is said by Arab chroniclers to have distinguished himself for the crucial role he played in stopping the wavering Arabs from fleeing and driving them on to victory.

Abbas has participated regularly in the almost annual expeditions launched into Roman Asia Minor.

In 713, the Arabs under Abbas sack Antioch in Pisidia, which will never recover.

Yazid ibn al-Muhallab, the former governor of Iraq, leads a rebellion against Caliph Umar in 719-720.

Defeated by the Caliph's forces under Al-Abbas ibn al-Walid and Maslamaibn Abd al-Malik, Al-Muhallab is killed at Basra, the center of his revolt.

Basra remains a focus of the political strife that has arisen between the competing religious factions in Islam, a political friction intensified by a volatile social situation.

Whereas the Arab army constitutes an aristocracy in Basra, the local and various migrant peoples who have settled there (Indians, Persians, Africans, Malays) are merely mawali, or clients attached to Arab tribes.