Abd al-Malik was a native Persian from Jurjan, who had become a mawla of the tribe of Huna'a. According to Patricia Crone, despite his support of the Abbasids, "his names reveal a pro-Umayyad background". He was the leader of the Abbasid missionary movement in his native Jurjan, and one of the senior members of the movement in Khurasan in general. Indeed, he was the first recipient of the black banners which came to symbolize the Abbasid dynasty. 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. He participated in the westwards campaign against the Umayyads under Qahtaba ibn Shabib al-Ta'i, and reached with him the borders of Iraq. There Qahtaba sent him north to Shahrazur to counter an Umayyad army under Uthman ibn Sufyan threatening his right flank. Abu Awn joined forces with another Abbasid force under Amir ibn Isma'il, and a local tribal chieftain, but his forces, some 4,000 men, remained inferior to the Umayyad army. Nevertheless, he decided to attack, and on 10 August 749, his army routed the forces of Uthman and captured the district of Shahrazur. Despite the presence of Caliph Marwan II with the main Umayyad army nearby in the Jazira, Abu Awn was not molested by the Umayyads, and was able to join the new Abbasid general, Abdallah ibn Ali, in the decisive Battle of the Zab on 25 January 750, which resulted in the defeat and flight of Marwan II and the capitulation of the Umayyad heartland, Syria. While Abdallah ibn Ali remained in Palestine, he dispatched his brother, Salih ibn Ali, along with Abu Awn to continue the pursuit of Marwan II, who fled to Egypt in May/June 750. Salih and Abu Awn invaded the country, and in August 750 the last Umayyad resistance was crushed at Busir, with Marwan II and many of his followers being killed. Salih became the new governor of Egypt, and was succeeded by Abu Awn in 751. Abu Awn served as governor until 753, when Salih returned to the post, and again in 755–758. Abu Awn re-appears in 766/67, when he participated in the suppression of the revolt of Ustadhsis in Khurasan. When Ustadhsis, hard-pressed by the armies of Khazim ibn Khuzayma al-Tamimi, decided to surrender, he chose to submit himself and his followers to the arbitration of Abu Awn. Abu Awn ordered the arrest and deportation of Ustadhsis and his family to Baghdad, but let the remainder of his followers, some 30,000 men, to go free. He was named governor of Khurasan in 775/76, but was dismissed the following year for failing to suppress the rebellion of al-Muqanna, and replaced by Mu'adh ibn Muslim. According to Hugh N. Kennedy, he died ca. 784/785.
