Umayyad Caliphate

The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (Template:IPAc-en,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:IPAc-en;<ref>Template:Cite American Heritage DictionaryTemplate:*{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}

Template:*Template:Cite Merriam-Webster</ref> Template:Langx)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty.<ref group="pron">(Template:Langx, or Template:Langx).</ref> Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a member of the clan. The family established dynastic, hereditary rule with Mu'awiya I, the long-time governor of Greater Syria, who became caliph after the end of the First Fitna in 661. After Mu'awiya's death in 680, conflicts over the succession resulted in the Second Fitna,<ref name="Bukhari">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and power eventually fell to Marwan I, from another branch of the clan. Syria remained the Umayyads' main power base thereafter, with Damascus as their capital.

The Umayyads continued the Muslim conquests, conquering Ifriqiya, Transoxiana, Sind, the Maghreb and Hispania (al-Andalus). At its greatest extent (661–750), the Umayyad Caliphate covered Template:Convert,<ref name="Taagepera496">Template:Cite journal</ref> making it one of the largest empires in history in terms of area. The dynasty was toppled by the Abbasids in 750. Survivors of the dynasty established themselves in Córdoba which, in the form of an emirate and then a caliphate, became a world centre of science, medicine, philosophy and invention during the Islamic Golden Age.<ref name="Barton2009">Template:Cite bookTemplate:Dead link</ref><ref name="Venable1894">Template:Cite book</ref>

The Umayyad Caliphate ruled over a vast multiethnic and multicultural population. Christians, who still constituted a majority of the caliphate's population, and Jews were allowed to practice their own religion but had to pay the jizya (poll tax) from which Muslims were exempt.Template:Sfn Muslims were required to pay the zakat, which was earmarked or hypothecated explicitly for various alms programmesTemplate:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> for the benefit of Muslims or Muslim converts.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Under the early Umayyad caliphs, prominent positions were held by Christians, some of whom belonged to families that had served the Byzantines. The employment of Christians was part of a broader policy of religious accommodation that was necessitated by the presence of large Christian populations in the conquered provinces, as in Syria. This policy also boosted Mu'awiya's popularity and solidified Syria as his power base.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Umayyad era is often considered the formative period in Islamic art.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

History

Origins

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

Early influence

During the pre-Islamic period, the Umayyads or Banu Umayya were a leading clan of the Quraysh tribe of Mecca.Template:Sfn By the end of the 6th century, the Umayyads dominated the Quraysh's increasingly prosperous trade networks with Syria and developed economic and military alliances with the nomadic Arab tribes that controlled the northern and central Arabian desert expanses, affording the clan a degree of political power in the region.Template:Sfn The Umayyads under the leadership of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb were the principal leaders of Meccan opposition to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, but after the latter captured Mecca in 630, Abu Sufyan and the Quraysh embraced Islam.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn To reconcile his influential Qurayshite tribesmen, Muhammad gave his former opponents, including Abu Sufyan, a stake in the new order.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Abu Sufyan and the Umayyads relocated to Medina, Islam's political centre, to maintain their new-found political influence in the nascent Muslim community.Template:Sfn

Muhammad's death in 632 left open the succession of leadership of the Muslim community.Template:Sfn Leaders of the Ansar, the natives of Medina who had provided Muhammad safe haven after his emigration from Mecca in 622, discussed forwarding their own candidate out of concern that the Muhajirun, Muhammad's early followers and fellow emigrants from Mecca, would ally with their fellow tribesmen from the former Qurayshite elite and take control of the Muslim state.Template:Sfn The Muhajirun gave allegiance to one of their own, the early, elderly companion of Muhammad, Abu Bakr (Template:Reign), and put an end to Ansarite deliberations.Template:Sfn Abu Bakr was viewed as acceptable by the Ansar and the Qurayshite elite and was acknowledged as caliph (leader of the Muslim community).Template:Sfn He showed favor to the Umayyads by awarding them command roles in the Muslim conquest of Syria. One of the appointees was Yazid, the son of Abu Sufyan, who owned property and maintained trade networks in Syria.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Abu Bakr's successor Umar (Template:Reign) curtailed the influence of the Qurayshite elite in favor of Muhammad's earlier supporters in the administration and military, but nonetheless allowed the growing foothold of Abu Sufyan's sons in Syria, which was all but conquered by 638.Template:Sfn When Umar's overall commander of the province Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah died in 639, he appointed Yazid governor of Syria's Damascus, Palestine and Jordan districts.Template:Sfn Yazid died shortly after and Umar appointed his brother Mu'awiya in his place.Template:Sfn Umar's exceptional treatment of Abu Sufyan's sons may have stemmed from his respect for the family, their burgeoning alliance with the powerful Banu Kalb tribe as a counterbalance to the influential Himyarite settlers in Homs who viewed themselves as equals to the Quraysh in nobility, or the lack of a suitable candidate at the time, particularly amid the plague of Amwas which had already killed Abu Ubayda and Yazid.Template:Sfn Under Mu'awiya's stewardship, Syria remained domestically peaceful, organized and well-defended from its former Byzantine rulers.Template:Sfn

Caliphate of Uthman

File:Syria in the 9th century.svg

Map of Islamic Syria (Bilad al-Sham), the metropolis of the Umayyad Caliphate. The founder of the Umayyad Caliphate, Mu'awiya I, had originally been governor of the junds (military districts) of Damascus (Dimashq) and Jordan (al-Urdunn) in 639 before gaining authority over the rest of Syria's junds during the caliphate of Uthman (644–656), a member of the Umayyad family

Umar's successor, Uthman ibn Affan, was a wealthy Umayyad and early Muslim convert with marital ties to Muhammad.Template:Sfn He was elected by the shura council, composed of Muhammad's cousin Ali, al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, Talha ibn Ubayd Allah, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas and Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, all of whom were close, early companions of Muhammad and belonged to the Quraysh.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He was chosen over Ali because he would ensure the concentration of state power into the hands of the Quraysh, as opposed to Ali's determination to diffuse power among all of the Muslim factions.Template:Sfn From early in his reign, Uthman displayed explicit favouritism to his kinsmen, in stark contrast to his predecessors.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He appointed his family members as governors over the regions successively conquered under Umar and himself, namely much of the Sasanian Empire, i.e. Iraq and Iran, and the former Byzantine territories of Syria and Egypt.Template:Sfn In Medina, he relied extensively on the counsel of his Umayyad cousins, the brothers al-Harith and Marwan ibn al-Hakam.Template:Sfn According to the historian Wilferd Madelung, this policy stemmed from Uthman's "conviction that the house of Umayya, as the core clan of Quraysh, was uniquely qualified to rule in the name of Islam".Template:Sfn

Uthman's nepotism provoked the ire of the Ansar and the members of the shura.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In 645/46, he added the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) to Mu'awiya's Syrian governorship and granted the latter's request to take possession of all Byzantine crown lands in Syria to help pay his troops.Template:Sfn He had the surplus taxes from the wealthy provinces of Kufa and Egypt forwarded to the treasury in Medina, which he used at his personal disposal, frequently disbursing its funds and war booty to his Umayyad relatives.Template:Sfn Moreover, the lucrative Sasanian crown lands of Iraq, which Umar had designated as communal property for the benefit of the Arab garrison towns of Kufa and Basra, were turned into caliphal crown lands to be used at Uthman's discretion.Template:Sfn Mounting resentment against Uthman's rule in Iraq and Egypt and among the Ansar and Quraysh of Medina culminated in the killing of the caliph in 656. In the assessment of the historian Hugh N. Kennedy, Uthman was killed because of his determination to centralize control over the caliphate's government by the traditional elite of the Quraysh, particularly his Umayyad clan, which he believed possessed the "experience and ability" to govern, at the expense of the interests, rights and privileges of many early Muslims.Template:Sfn

First Fitna

After Uthman's assassination, Ali was recognized as caliph in Medina, though his support stemmed from the Ansar and the Iraqis, while the bulk of the Quraysh was wary of his rule.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The first challenge to his authority came from the Qurayshite leaders al-Zubayr and Talha, who had opposed Uthman's empowerment of the Umayyad clan but feared that their own influence and the power of the Quraysh, in general, would dissipate under Ali.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Backed by one of Muhammad's wives, A'isha, they attempted to rally support against Ali among the troops of Basra, prompting the caliph to leave for Iraq's other garrison town, Kufa, where he could better confront his challengers.Template:Sfn Ali defeated them at the Battle of the Camel, in which al-Zubayr and Talha were slain and A'isha consequently entered self-imposed seclusion.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Ali's sovereignty was thereafter recognized in Basra and Egypt and he established Kufa as the caliphate's new capital.Template:Sfn

Although Ali was able to replace Uthman's governors in Egypt and Iraq with relative ease, Mu'awiya had developed a solid power-base and an effective military against the Byzantines from the Arab tribes of Syria.Template:Sfn Mu'awiya did not claim the caliphate but was determined to retain control of Syria and opposed Ali in the name of avenging his kinsman Uthman, accusing the caliph of culpability in his death.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Ali and Mu'awiya fought to a stalemate at the Battle of Siffin in early 657. Ali agreed to settle the matter with Mu'awiya by arbitration, though the talks failed to achieve a resolution.Template:Sfn The decision to arbitrate fundamentally weakened Ali's political position as he was forced to negotiate with Mu'awiya on equal terms, while it drove a significant number of Ali's supporters, who became known as the Kharijites, to revolt.Template:Sfn Ali's coalition steadily disintegrated and many Iraqi tribal nobles secretly defected to Mu'awiya, while the latter's ally Amr ibn al-As ousted Ali's governor from Egypt in July 658.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In July 660 Mu'awiya was formally recognized as caliph in Jerusalem by his Syrian tribal allies.Template:Sfn Ali was assassinated by a Kharijite dissident in January 661.Template:Sfn His son Hasan succeeded him but abdicated in return for compensation upon Mu'awiya's arrival to Iraq with his Syrian army in the summer.Template:Sfn At that point, Mu'awiya entered Kufa and received the allegiance of the Iraqis.Template:Sfn

Sufyanid period

Caliphate of Mu'awiya

File:Greek Muawiya inscription of Hammat Gader, 663 AD.png

A Greek inscription crediting Mu'awiya for restoring Roman bathhouses at Hammat Gader near Tiberias in 663, the only known epigraphic attestation to Mu'awiya's rule in Syria

The recognition of Mu'awiya in Kufa, referred to as the "year of unification of the community" in the Muslim traditional sources, is generally considered the start of his caliphate.Template:Sfn With his accession, the political capital and the caliphal treasury were transferred to Damascus, the seat of Mu'awiya's power.Template:Sfn Syria's emergence as the metropolis of the Umayyad Caliphate was the result of Mu'awiya's twenty-year entrenchment in the province, the geographic distribution of its relatively large Arab population throughout the province in contrast to their seclusion in garrison cities in other provinces, and the domination of a single tribal confederation, the Kalb-led Quda'a, as opposed to the wide array of competing tribal groups in Iraq.Template:Sfn The long-established, formerly Christian Arab tribes in Syria, having been integrated into the military of the Byzantine Empire and their Ghassanid client kings, were "more accustomed to order and obedience" than their Iraqi counterparts, according to the historian Julius Wellhausen.Template:Sfn Mu'awiya relied on the powerful Kalbite chief Ibn Bahdal and the Kindite nobleman Shurahbil ibn Simt alongside the Qurayshite commanders al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri and Abd al-Rahman, the son of the prominent general Khalid ibn al-Walid, to guarantee the loyalty of the key military components of Syria.Template:Sfn Mu'awiya preoccupied his core Syrian troops in nearly annual or bi-annual land and sea raids against Byzantium, which provided them with battlefield experience and war spoils, but secured no permanent territorial gains.Template:Sfn Toward the end of his reign the caliph entered a thirty-year truce with Byzantine emperor Constantine IV (Template:Reign),Template:Sfn obliging the Umayyads to pay the Empire an annual tribute of gold, horses and slaves.Template:Sfn

File:Umayyad Caliphate. temp. Mu'awiya I ibn Abi Sufyan. AH 41-60 AD 661-680.jpg

Arab-Sasanian-style Umayyad coin minted under Mu'awiya I rule in Basra in 675/76 in the name of the Umayyad governor Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad. The latter's governorship later spanned all of the eastern caliphate. His father Ziyad ibn Abihi was adopted as a half-brother by Mu'awiya I, who made him his practical viceroy over the eastern caliphate.

Mu'awiya's main challenge was reestablishing the unity of the Muslim community and asserting his authority and that of the caliphate in the provinces amid the political and social disintegration of the First Fitna.Template:Sfn There remained significant opposition to his assumption of the caliphate and to a strong central government.Template:Sfn The garrison towns of Kufa and Basra, populated by the Arab immigrants and troops who arrived during the conquest of Iraq in the 630s–640s, resented the transition of power to Syria.Template:Sfn They remained divided, nonetheless, as both cities competed for power and influence in Iraq and its eastern dependencies and remained divided between the Arab tribal nobility and the early Muslim converts, the latter of whom were divided between the pro-Alids (loyalists of Ali) and the Kharijites, who followed their own strict interpretation of Islam.Template:Sfn The caliph applied a decentralized approach to governing Iraq by forging alliances with its tribal nobility, such as the Kufan leader al-Ash'ath ibn Qays, and entrusting the administration of Kufa and Basra to highly experienced members of the Thaqif tribe, al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba and the latter's protege Ziyad ibn Abihi (whom Mu'awiya adopted as his half-brother), respectively.Template:Sfn In return for recognizing his suzerainty, maintaining order, and forwarding a token portion of the provincial tax revenues to Damascus, the caliph let his governors rule with practical independence.Template:Sfn After al-Mughira's death in 670, Mu'awiya attached Kufa and its dependencies to the governorship of Basra, making Ziyad the practical viceroy over the eastern half of the caliphate.Template:Sfn Afterward, Ziyad launched a concerted campaign to firmly establish Arab rule in the vast Khurasan region east of Iran and restart the Muslim conquests in the surrounding areas.Template:Sfn Not long after Ziyad's death, he was succeeded by his son Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad.Template:Sfn Meanwhile, Amr ibn al-As ruled Egypt from the provincial capital of Fustat as a virtual partner of Mu'awiya until his death in 663, after which loyalist governors were appointed and the province became a practical appendage of Syria.Template:Sfn Under Mu'awiya's direction, the Muslim conquest of Ifriqiya (central North Africa) was launched by the commander Uqba ibn Nafi in 670, which extended Umayyad control as far as Byzacena (modern southern Tunisia), where Uqba founded the permanent Arab garrison city of Kairouan.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Succession of Yazid I and collapse of Sufyanid rule

File:Sufyanid dynasty genealogy.png

Genealogical tree of the Sufyanids. The names in red indicate caliphs.

In contrast to Uthman, Mu'awiya restricted the influence of his Umayyad kinsmen to the governorship of Medina, where the dispossessed Islamic elite, including the Umayyads, was suspicious or hostile toward his rule.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn However, in an unprecedented move in Islamic politics, Mu'awiya nominated his own son, Yazid I, as his successor in 676, introducing hereditary rule to caliphal succession and, in practice, turning the office of the caliph into a kingship.Template:Sfn The act was met with disapproval or opposition by the Iraqis and the Hejaz-based Quraysh, including the Umayyads, but most were bribed or coerced into acceptance.Template:Sfn Yazid acceded after Mu'awiya's death in 680 and almost immediately faced a challenge to his rule by the Kufan partisans of Ali who had invited Ali's son and Muhammad's grandson Husayn to stage a revolt against Umayyad rule from Iraq.Template:Sfn An army mobilized by Iraq's governor Ibn Ziyad intercepted and killed Husayn outside Kufa at the Battle of Karbala. Although it stymied active opposition to Yazid in Iraq, the killing of Muhammad's grandson left many Muslims outraged and significantly increased Kufan hostility toward the Umayyads and sympathy for the family of Ali.Template:Sfn

The next major challenge to Yazid's rule emanated from the Hejaz where Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, the son of al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam and grandson of Abu Bakr, advocated for a shura among the Quraysh to elect the caliph and rallied opposition to the Umayyads from his headquarters in Islam's holiest sanctuary, the Ka'aba in Mecca.Template:Sfn The Ansar and Quraysh of Medina also took up the anti-Umayyad cause and in 683 expelled the Umayyads from the city.Template:Sfn Yazid's Syrian troops routed the Medinans at the Battle of al-Harra and subsequently plundered Medina before besieging Ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca.Template:Sfn The Syrians withdrew upon news of Yazid's death in 683, after which Ibn al-Zubayr declared himself caliph and soon after gained recognition in most provinces of the caliphate, including Iraq and Egypt.Template:Sfn In Syria Ibn Bahdal secured the succession of Yazid's son and appointed successor Mu'awiya II, whose authority was likely restricted to Damascus and Syria's southern districts.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Mu'awiya II had been ill from the beginning of his accession, with al-Dahhak assuming the practical duties of his office, and he died in early 684 without naming a successor.Template:Sfn His death marked the end of the Umayyads' Sufyanid ruling house, called after Mu'awiya I's father Abu Sufyan.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

Early Marwanid period

Marwanid transition and end of Second Fitna

File:Second Fitna Territorial Control Map ca 686.svg

Map of the caliphate during the Second Fitna in Template:Circa. The area shaded in red represents the approximate territory of the Umayyads, while the areas shaded in blue, green and yellow respectively represent the territories of the Mecca-based caliph Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, the pro-Alid ruler of Kufa Mukhtar al-Thaqafi, and the Kharijites

Umayyad authority nearly collapsed in their Syrian stronghold after the death of Mu'awiya II.Template:Sfn Al-Dahhak in Damascus, the Qays tribes in Qinnasrin (northern Syria) and the Jazira, the Judham in Palestine, and the Ansar and South Arabians of Homs all opted to recognize Ibn al-Zubayr.Template:Sfn Marwan ibn al-Hakam, the leader of the Umayyads expelled to Syria from Medina, was prepared to submit to Ibn al-Zubayr as well but was persuaded to forward his candidacy for the caliphate by Ibn Ziyad. The latter had been driven out of Iraq and strove to uphold Umayyad rule.Template:Sfn During a summit of pro-Umayyad Syrian tribes, namely the Quda'a and their Kindite allies, organized by Ibn Bahdal in the old Ghassanid capital of Jabiya, Marwan was elected caliph in exchange for economic privileges to the loyalist tribes.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn At the subsequent Battle of Marj Rahit in August 684, Marwan led his tribal allies to a decisive victory against a much larger Qaysite army led by al-Dahhak, who was slain.Template:Sfn Not long after, the South Arabians of Homs and the Judham joined the Quda'a to form the tribal confederation of Yaman.Template:Sfn Marj Rahit led to the long-running conflict between the Qays and Yaman coalitions. The Qays regrouped in the Euphrates river fortress of Circesium under Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi and moved to avenge their losses.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Although Marwan regained full control of Syria in the months following the battle, the inter-tribal strife undermined the foundation of Umayyad power: the Syrian army.Template:Sfn

In 685, Marwan and Ibn Bahdal expelled the Zubayrid governor of Egypt and replaced him with Marwan's son Abd al-Aziz, who would rule the province until his death in 704/05.Template:Sfn Another son, Muhammad, was appointed to suppress Zufar's rebellion in the Jazira.Template:Sfn Marwan died in April 685 and was succeeded by his eldest son Abd al-Malik.Template:Sfn Although Ibn Ziyad attempted to restore the Syrian army of the Sufyanid caliphs, persistent divisions along Qays–Yaman lines contributed to the army's massive rout and Ibn Ziyad's death at the hands of the pro-Alid forces of Mukhtar al-Thaqafi of Kufa at the Battle of Khazir in August 686.Template:Sfn The setback delayed Abd al-Malik's attempts to reestablish Umayyad authority in Iraq,Template:Sfn while pressures from the Byzantine Empire and raids into Syria by the Byzantines' Mardaite allies compelled him to sign a peace treaty with Byzantium in 689 which substantially increased the Umayyads' annual tribute to the Empire.Template:Sfn During his siege of Circesium in 691, Abd al-Malik reconciled with Zufar and the Qays by offering them privileged positions in the Umayyad court and army, signaling a new policy by the caliph and his successors to balance the interests of the Qays and Yaman in the Umayyad state.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn With his unified army, Abd al-Malik marched against the Zubayrids of Iraq, having already secretly secured the defection of the province's leading tribal chiefs, and defeated Iraq's ruler, Ibn al-Zubayr's brother Mus'ab, at the Battle of Maskin in 691.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Afterward, the Umayyad commander al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf besieged Mecca and killed Ibn al-Zubayr in 692, marking the end of the Second Fitna and the reunification of the caliphate under Abd al-Malik's rule.Template:Sfn

Domestic consolidation and centralization

File:First Umayyad gold dinar, Caliph Abd al-Malik, 695 CE.jpg

Abd al-Malik introduced an independent Islamic currency, the gold dinar, in 693, which originally depicted a human figure, likely the caliph, as shown in this coin minted in 695. In 697, the figural depictions were replaced solely by Qur'anic and other Islamic inscriptions

Iraq remained politically unstable and the garrisons of Kufa and Basra had become exhausted by warfare with Kharijite rebels.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In 694 Abd al-Malik combined both cities as a single province under the governorship of al-Hajjaj, who oversaw the suppression of the Kharijite revolts in Iraq and Iran by 698 and was subsequently given authority over the rest of the eastern caliphate.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Resentment among the Iraqi troops towards al-Hajjaj's methods of governance, particularly his death threats to force participation in the war efforts and his reductions to their stipends, culminated with a mass Iraqi rebellion against the Umayyads in Template:Circa. The leader of the rebels was the Kufan nobleman Ibn al-Ash'ath, grandson of al-Ash'ath ibn Qays.Template:Sfn Al-Hajjaj defeated Ibn al-Ash'ath's rebels at the Battle of Dayr al-Jamajim in April.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The suppression of the revolt marked the end of the Iraqi muqātila as a military force and the beginning of Syrian military domination of Iraq.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Iraqi internal divisions, and the utilization of more disciplined Syrian forces by Abd al-Malik and al-Hajjaj, voided the Iraqis' attempt to reassert power in the province.Template:Sfn

To consolidate Umayyad rule after the Second Fitna, the Marwanids launched a series of centralization, Islamization and Arabization measures.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn These measures included the creation of multiple classes of Arabic-inscribed administrative media as a way to proliferate their particular political, cultural, and religious disposition to both Arab and non-Arab audiences.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> To prevent further rebellions in Iraq, al-Hajjaj founded a permanent Syrian garrison in Wasit, situated between Kufa and Basra, and instituted a more rigorous administration in the province.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Power thereafter derived from the Syrian troops, who became Iraq's ruling class, while Iraq's Arab nobility, religious scholars and mawālī became their virtual subjects.Template:Sfn The surplus from the agriculturally rich Sawad lands was redirected from the muqātila to the caliphal treasury in Damascus to pay the Syrian troops in Iraq.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The system of military pay established by Umar, which paid stipends to veterans of the earlier Muslim conquests and their descendants, was ended, salaries being restricted to those in active service.Template:Sfn The old system was considered a handicap on Abd al-Malik's executive authority and financial ability to reward loyalists in the army.Template:Sfn Thus, a professional army was established during Abd al-Malik's reign whose salaries derived from tax proceeds.Template:Sfn

In 693, the Byzantine gold solidus was replaced in Syria and Egypt with the dinar.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Initially, the new coinage contained depictions of the caliph as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community and its supreme military commander.Template:Sfn This image proved no less acceptable to Muslim officialdom and was replaced in 696 or 697 with image-less coinage inscribed with Qur'anic quotes and other Muslim religious formulas.Template:Sfn In 698/699, similar changes were made to the silver dirhams issued by the Muslims in the former Sasanian Persian lands of the eastern caliphate.Template:Sfn Arabic replaced Persian as the language of the dīwān in Iraq in 697, Greek in the Syrian dīwān in 700, and Greek and Coptic in the Egyptian dīwān in 705/706.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Arabic ultimately became the sole official language of the Umayyad state,Template:Sfn but the transition in faraway provinces, such as Khurasan, did not occur until the 740s.Template:Sfn Although the official language was changed, Greek and Persian-speaking bureaucrats who were versed in Arabic kept their posts.Template:Sfn According to Gibb, the decrees were the "first step towards the reorganization and unification of the diverse tax-systems in the provinces, and also a step towards a more definitely Muslim administration".Template:Sfn Indeed, it formed an important part of the Islamization measures that lent the Umayyad Caliphate "a more ideological and programmatic coloring it had previously lacked", according to Blankinship.Template:Sfn

In 691/692, Abd al-Malik completed the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn It was possibly intended as a monument of victory over the Christians that would distinguish Islam's uniqueness within the common Abrahamic setting of Jerusalem, home of the two older Abrahamic faiths, Judaism and Christianity.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn An alternative motive may have been to divert the religious focus of Muslims in the Umayyad realm from the Ka'aba in Zubayrid Mecca (683–692), where the Umayyads were routinely condemned during the Hajj.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn In Damascus, Abd al-Malik's son and successor al-Walid I (Template:Reign) confiscated the cathedral of St. John the Baptist and founded the Great Mosque in its place as a "symbol of the political supremacy and moral prestige of Islam", according to historian Nikita Elisséeff.Template:Sfn Noting al-Walid's awareness of architecture's propaganda value, historian Robert Hillenbrand calls the Damascus mosque a "victory monument" intended as a "visible statement of Muslim supremacy and permanence".Template:Sfn

Renewal of conquests

File:Caliphate 750.jpg

The expansion of the Muslim Caliphate until 750, from William R. Shepherd's Historical Atlas.
Template:Legend2 Template:Legend2 Template:Legend2 Template:Legend-line

Under al-Walid I the Umayyad Caliphate reached its greatest territorial extent.Template:Sfn The war with the Byzantines had resumed under his father after the civil war,Template:Sfn with the Umayyads defeating the Byzantines at the Battle of Sebastopolis in 692.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Umayyads frequently raided Byzantine Anatolia and Armenia in the following years.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn By 705, Armenia was annexed by the caliphate along with the principalities of Caucasian Albania and Iberia, which collectively became the province of Arminiya.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn In 695–698 the commander Hassan ibn al-Nu'man al-Ghassani restored Umayyad control over Ifriqiya after defeating the Byzantines and Berbers there.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Carthage was captured and destroyed in 698,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn signaling "the final, irretrievable end of Roman power in Africa", according to Kennedy.Template:Sfn Kairouan was firmly secured as a launchpad for later conquests, while the port town of Tunis was founded and equipped with an arsenal on Abd al-Malik's orders to establish a strong Arab fleet.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Hassan ibn al-Nu'man continued the campaign against the Berbers, defeating them and killing their leader, the warrior queen al-Kahina, between 698 and 703.Template:Sfn His successor in Ifriqiya, Musa ibn Nusayr, subjugated the Berbers of the Hawwara, Zenata and Kutama confederations and advanced into the Maghreb (western North Africa), conquering Tangier and Sus in 708/709. Musa's Berber mawla, Tariq ibn Ziyad, invaded the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula) in 711 and within five years most of Hispania was conquered.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

File:Umayyad Caliphate coinage temp Suleiman ibn Abd al-Malik al-Hind (possibly Multan) mint. Dated AH 97 (AD 715-6).jpg

lang}} l'Hind) in the year seven and ninety".

Al-Hajjaj managed the eastern expansion from Iraq.Template:Sfn His lieutenant governor of Khurasan, Qutayba ibn Muslim, launched numerous campaigns against Transoxiana (Central Asia), which had been a largely impenetrable region for earlier Muslim armies, between 705 and 715.Template:Sfn Despite the distance from the Arab garrison towns of Khurasan, the unfavorable terrain and climate and his enemies' numerical superiority,Template:Sfn Qutayba, through his persistent raids, gained the surrender of Bukhara in 706–709, Khwarazm and Samarkand in 711–712 and Farghana in 713.Template:Sfn He established Arab garrisons and tax administrations in Samarkand and Bukhara and demolished their Zoroastrian fire temples.Template:Sfn Both cities developed as future centers of Islamic and Arabic learning.Template:Sfn Umayyad suzerainty was secured over the rest of conquered Transoxiana through tributary alliances with local rulers, whose power remained intact.Template:Sfn From 708/709, al-Hajjaj's kinsman Muhammad ibn al-Qasim conquered northwestern South Asia and established out of this new territory the province of Sind.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The massive war spoils netted by the conquests of Transoxiana, Sind and Hispania were comparable to the amounts accrued in the early Muslim conquests during the reign of Caliph Umar.Template:Sfn

Al-Walid I's successor, his brother Sulayman (Template:Reign), continued his predecessors' militarist policies, but expansion mostly ground to a halt during his reign.Template:Sfn The deaths of al-Hajjaj in 714 and Qutayba in 715 left the Arab armies in Transoxiana in disarray. For the next 25 years, no further eastward conquests were undertaken and the Arabs lost territory.Template:Sfn The Tang Chinese defeated the Arabs at the Battle of Aksu in 717, forcing their withdrawal to Tashkent.Template:Sfn Meanwhile, in 716, the governor of Khurasan, Yazid ibn al-Muhallab, attempted to conquer the principalities of Jurjan and Tabaristan along the southern Caspian coast.Template:Sfn His Khurasani and Iraqi troops were reinforced by Syrians, marking their first deployment to Khurasan, but the Arabs' initial successes were reversed by the local Iranian coalition of Farrukhan the Great. Afterward, the Arabs withdrew in return for a tributary agreement.Template:Sfn

File:47-cropped-manasses-chronicle.jpg

A 14th-century illustration of the siege of Constantinople

On the Byzantine front, Sulayman took up his predecessor's project to capture Constantinople with increased vigor.Template:Sfn His brother Maslama besieged the Byzantine capital from the land,Template:Sfn while Umar ibn Hubayra al-Fazari launched a naval campaign against the city.Template:Sfn The Byzantines destroyed the Umayyad fleets and defeated Maslama's army, prompting his withdrawal to Syria in 718.Template:Sfn The massive losses incurred during the campaign led to a partial retrenchment of Umayyad forces from the captured Byzantine frontier districts,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn but already in 720, Umayyad raids against Byzantium recommenced. Nevertheless, the goal of conquering Constantinople was effectively abandoned, and the frontier between the two empires stabilized along the line of the Taurus and Anti-Taurus Mountains, over which both sides continued to launch regular raids and counter-raids during the next centuries.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Caliphate of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz

Contrary to expectations of a son or brother succeeding him, Sulayman had nominated his cousin, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, as his successor and he took office in 717. After the Arabs' severe losses in the offensive against Constantinople, Umar drew down Arab forces on the caliphate's war fronts, though Narbonne in modern France was conquered during his reign.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn To maintain stronger oversight in the provinces, Umar dismissed all his predecessors' governors, his new appointees being generally competent men he could control. To that end, the massive viceroyalty of Iraq and the east was broken up.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Umar's most significant policy entailed fiscal reforms to equalize the status of the Arabs and mawali,Template:Sfn thus remedying a long-standing issue which threatened the Muslim community.Template:Sfn The jizya (poll tax) on the mawali was eliminated.Template:Sfn Hitherto, the jizya, which was traditionally reserved for the non-Muslim majorities of the caliphate, continued to be imposed on non-Arab converts to Islam, while all Muslims who cultivated conquered lands were liable to pay the Template:Transliteration (land tax). Since avoidance of taxation incentivized both mass conversions to Islam and abandonment of land for migration to the garrison cities, it put a strain on tax revenues, especially in Egypt, Iraq and Khurasan.Template:Sfn Thus, "the Umayyad rulers had a vested interest in preventing the conquered peoples from accepting Islam or forcing them to continue paying those taxes from which they claimed exemption as Muslims", according to Hawting.Template:Sfn To prevent a collapse in revenue, the converts' lands would become the property of their villages and remain liable for the full rate of the Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn

In tandem, Umar intensified the Islamization drive of his Marwanid predecessors, enacting measures to distinguish Muslims from non-Muslims and inaugurating Islamic iconoclasm.Template:Sfn His position among the Umayyad caliphs is unusual, in that he became the only one to have been recognized in subsequent Islamic tradition as a genuine caliph (khalifa) and not merely as a worldly king (malik).Template:Sfn

Late Marwanid period

After the death of Umar II, another son of Abd al-Malik, Yazid II (Template:Reign) became caliph. Not long after his accession, another mass revolt against Umayyad rule was staged in Iraq, this time by the prominent statesman Yazid ibn al-Muhallab. The latter declared a holy war against the Umayyads, took control of Basra and Wasit and gained the support of the Kufan elite. The caliph's Syrian army defeated the rebels and pursued and nearly eliminated the influential Muhallabids, marking the suppression of the last major Iraqi revolt against the Umayyads.Template:Sfn

Yazid II reversed Umar II's equalization reforms, reimposing the jizya on the Template:Transliteration, which sparked revolts in Khurasan in 721 or 722 that persisted for some twenty years and met strong resistance among the Berbers of Ifriqiya, where the Umayyad governor was assassinated by his discontented Berber guards.Template:Sfn Warfare on the frontiers was also resumed, with renewed annual raids against the Byzantines and the Khazars in Transcaucasia.Template:Sfn

Caliphate of Hisham and end of expansion

File:Resafa, Sergiopolis 3, Syria.jpg

The city of Resafa, site of Hisham's palace and court

File:Arabischer Maler um 730 002.jpg

Musicians and hunting cavalier, circa 730 CE. Floor fresco from Hisham's Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi, Syria. National Museum, Damascus.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The final son of Abd al-Malik to become caliph was Hisham (Template:Reign), whose long and eventful reign was above all marked by the curtailment of military expansion. Hisham established his court at Resafa in northern Syria, which was closer to the Byzantine border than Damascus, and resumed hostilities against the Byzantines, which had lapsed following the failure of the last siege of Constantinople. The new campaigns resulted in a number of successful raids into Anatolia, but also in a major defeat (the Battle of Akroinon), and did not lead to any significant territorial expansion.

From the caliphate's north-western African bases, a series of raids on coastal areas of the Visigothic Kingdom paved the way to the permanent occupation of most of Iberia by the Umayyads (starting in 711), and on into south-eastern Gaul (last stronghold at Narbonne in 759). Hisham's reign witnessed the end of expansion in the west, following the defeat of the Arab army by the Franks at the Battle of Tours in 732. Arab expansion had already been limited following the Battle of Toulouse in 721. In 739 a major Berber Revolt broke out in North Africa, which was probably the largest military setback in the reign of Caliph Hisham. From it emerged some of the first Muslim states outside the caliphate. It is also regarded as the beginning of Moroccan independence, as Morocco would never again come under the rule of an eastern caliph or any other foreign power until the 20th century. It was followed by the collapse of Umayyad authority in al-Andalus. In India, the Umayyad armies were defeated by the south Indian Chalukya dynasty and by the north Indian Pratiharas, stagnating further eastward Arab expansion.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

File:Caliphate 740-en.svg

The Umayyad Caliphate in 740 CE

In the Caucasus, the confrontation with the Khazars peaked under Hisham: the Arabs established Derbent as a major military base and launched several invasions of the northern Caucasus, but failed to subdue the nomadic Khazars. The conflict was arduous and bloody, and the Arab army even suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Marj Ardabil in 730. Marwan ibn Muhammad, the future Marwan II, finally ended the war in 737 with a massive invasion that is reported to have reached as far as the Volga, but the Khazars remained unsubdued.

Hisham suffered still worse defeats in the east, where his armies attempted to subdue both Tokharistan, with its centre at Balkh, and Transoxiana, with its centre at Samarkand. Both areas had already been partially conquered but remained difficult to govern. Once again, a particular difficulty concerned the question of the conversion of non-Arabs, especially the Sogdians of Transoxiana. Following the Umayyad defeat in the "Day of Thirst" in 724, Ashras ibn 'Abd Allah al-Sulami, governor of Khurasan, promised tax relief to those Sogdians who converted to Islam but went back on his offer when it proved too popular and threatened to reduce tax revenues.

Discontent among the Khorasani Arabs rose sharply after the losses suffered in the Battle of the Defile in 731. In 734, al-Harith ibn Surayj led a revolt that received broad backing from Arabs and natives alike, capturing Balkh but failing to take Merv. After this defeat, al-Harith's movement seems to have been dissolved. The problem of the rights of non-Arab Muslims would continue to plague the Umayyads.

Third Fitna

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Hisham was succeeded by Al-Walid II (743–744), the son of Yazid II. Al-Walid is reported to have been more interested in earthly pleasures than in religion, a reputation that may be confirmed by the decoration of the so-called "desert palaces" (including Qusayr Amra and Khirbat al-Mafjar) that have been attributed to him. He quickly attracted the enmity of many, both by executing a number of those who had opposed his accession and by persecuting the Qadariyya.

In 744, Yazid III, a son of al-Walid I, was proclaimed caliph in Damascus, and his army tracked down and killed al-Walid II. Yazid III has received a certain reputation for piety and may have been sympathetic to the Qadariyya. He died a mere six months into his reign.

Yazid had appointed his brother, Ibrahim, as his successor, but Marwan II (744–750), the grandson of Marwan I, led an army from the northern frontier and entered Damascus in December 744, where he was proclaimed caliph. Marwan immediately moved the capital north to Harran, in present-day Turkey. A rebellion soon broke out in Syria, perhaps due to resentment over the relocation of the capital, and in 746 Marwan razed the walls of Homs and Damascus in retaliation.

Marwan also faced significant opposition from Kharijites in Iraq and Iran, who put forth first Dahhak ibn Qays and then Abu Dulaf as rival caliphs. In 747, Marwan managed to reestablish control of Iraq, but by this time a more serious threat had arisen in Khorasan.

Abbasid Revolution and fall

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

File:Revolt.png

The caliphate at the beginning of the Abbasid revolt, before the Battle of the Zab

The Hashimiyya movement (a sub-sect of the Kaysanites Shia), led by the Abbasid family, overthrew the Umayyad caliphate. The Abbasids were members of the Hashim clan, rivals of the Umayyads, but the word "Hashimiyya" seems to refer specifically to Abu Hashim, a grandson of Ali and son of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya. According to certain traditions, Abu Hashim died in 717 in Humeima in the house of Muhammad ibn Ali, the head of the Abbasid family, and before dying named Muhammad ibn Ali as his successor. This tradition allowed the Abbasids to rally the supporters of the failed revolt of Mukhtar, who had represented themselves as the supporters of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya.

Beginning around 719, Hashimiyya missions began to seek adherents in Khurasan. Their campaign was framed as one of proselytism (dawah). They sought support for a "member of the family" of Muhammad, without making explicit mention of the Abbasids. These missions met with success both among Arabs and non-Arabs (mawali), although the latter may have played a particularly important role in the growth of the movement.

Around 746, Abu Muslim assumed leadership of the Hashimiyya in Khurasan. In 747, he successfully initiated an open revolt against Umayyad rule, which was carried out under the sign of the black flag. He soon established control of Khurasan, expelling its Umayyad governor, Nasr ibn Sayyar, and dispatched an army westwards. Kufa fell to the Hashimiyya in 749, the last Umayyad stronghold in Iraq, Wasit, was placed under siege, and in November of the same year Abul Abbas as-Saffah was recognized as the new caliph in the mosque at Kufa.Template:Citation needed At this point Marwan mobilized his troops from Harran and advanced toward Iraq. In January 750 the two forces met in the Battle of the Zab, and the Umayyads were defeated. Damascus fell to the Abbasids in April, and in August, Marwan was killed in Egypt.Template:Citation needed Some Umayyads in Syria continued to resist the takeover. The Umayyad princes Abu Muhammad al-Sufyani, al-Abbas ibn Muhammad, and Hashim ibn Yazid launched revolts in Syria and the Islamic–Byzantine frontier around late 750, but they were defeated.Template:Sfn

The victors desecrated the tombs of the Umayyads in Syria, sparing only that of Umar II, and most of the remaining members of the Umayyad family were tracked down and killed. When Abbasids declared amnesty for members of the Umayyad family, eighty gathered to receive pardons, and all were massacred. One grandson of Hisham, Abd al-Rahman I, survived, escaped across North Africa, and established an emirate in Moorish Iberia (Al-Andalus). In a claim unrecognized outside of al-Andalus, he maintained that the Umayyad Caliphate, the true, authentic caliphate, more legitimate than the Abbasids, was continued through him in Córdoba. It was to survive for centuries.

Some Umayyads also survived in Syria,Template:Sfn and their descendants would once more attempt to restore their old regime during the Fourth Fitna. Two Umayyads, Abu al-Umaytir al-Sufyani and Maslama ibn Ya'qub, successively seized control of Damascus from 811 to 813, and declared themselves caliphs. However, their rebellions were suppressed.Template:Sfn

Previté-Orton argues that the reason for the decline of the Umayyads was the rapid expansion of Islam. During the Umayyad period, mass conversions brought Persians, Berbers, Copts, and Aramaic to Islam. These mawalis (clients) were often better educated and more civilised than their Arab overlords. The new converts, on the basis of equality of all Muslims, transformed the political landscape. Previté-Orton also argues that the feud between Syria and Iraq further weakened the empire.Template:Sfn

Administration

The first four caliphs created a stable administration for the empire, following the practices and administrative institutions of the Byzantine Empire which had ruled the same region previously.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> These consisted of four main governmental branches: political affairs, military affairs, tax collection, and religious administration. Each of these was further subdivided into more branches, offices, and departments.

Provinces

Geographically, the empire was divided into several provinces, the borders of which changed numerous times during the Umayyad reign. Each province had a governor appointed by the caliph. The governor was in charge of the religious officials, army leaders, police, and civil administrators in his province. Local expenses were paid for by taxes coming from that province, with the remainder each year being sent to the central government in Damascus. As the central power of the Umayyad rulers waned in the later years of the dynasty, some governors neglected to send the extra tax revenue to Damascus and created great personal fortunes.Template:Sfn

Government workers

As the empire grew, the number of qualified Arab workers was too small to keep up with the rapid expansion of the empire. Therefore, Muawiya allowed many of the local government workers in conquered provinces to keep their jobs under the new Umayyad government. Thus, much of the local government's work was recorded in Greek, Coptic, and Persian. It was only during the reign of Abd al-Malik that government work began to be regularly recorded in Arabic.Template:Sfn

Military

The Umayyad army was mainly Arab, with its core consisting of those who had settled in urban Syria and the Arab tribes who originally served in the army of the Eastern Roman Empire in Syria. These were supported by tribes in the Syrian desert and in the frontier with the Byzantines, as well as Christian Syrian tribes. Soldiers were registered with the Army Ministry, the Diwan Al-Jaysh, and were salaried. The army was divided into junds based on regional fortified cities.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Umayyad Syrian forces specialised in close order infantry warfare, and favoured using a kneeling spear wall formation in battle, probably as a result of their encounters with Roman armies. This was radically different from the original Bedouin style of mobile and individualistic fighting.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfn

Coinage

The Byzantine and Sassanid Empires relied on money economies before the Muslim conquest and that system remained in effect during the Umayyad period. Byzantine coinage was used until 658; Byzantine gold coins were still in use until the monetary reforms Template:Circa.Template:Sfn In addition to this, the Umayyad government began to mint its own coins in Damascus, which were initially similar to pre-existing coins but evolved in an independent direction. These were the first coins minted by a Muslim government in history.Template:Sfn

Early Islamic coins re-used Byzantine and Sasanian iconography directly but added new Islamic elements.<ref name=":0" /> So-called "Arab-Byzantine" coins replicated Byzantine coins and were minted in Levantine cities before and after the Umayyads rose to power.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> Some examples of these coins, likely minted in Damascus, copied the coins of Byzantine emperor Heraclius, including a depiction of the emperor and his son Heraclius Constantine. On the reverse side, the traditional Byzantine cross-on-steps image was modified to avoid any explicitly non-Islamic connotation.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>

In the 690s, under Abd al-Malik's reign, a new period of experimentations began.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">Template:Cite book</ref> Some "Arab-Sasanian" coins dated between 692 and 696, associated with the mints in Iraq under governor Bishr ibn Marwan, stopped using the Sasanian image of the fire altar and replaced it with three male figures standing in Arab dress. This was possibly an attempt to depict the act of Muslim prayer or the delivery of the khutba (Friday sermon).<ref name=":2" /> Another coin minted probably between 695 and 698 features the image of a spear under an arch. This has been variously interpreted as representing a mihrab or a "sacral arch", the latter being a late antique motif. The spear is believed to be the spear ('anaza) that Muhammad carried before him when entering the mosque.<ref name=":2" />

Between 696 and 699, the caliph introduced a new system of coinage of gold, silver, and bronze.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> The coins generally featured Arabic inscriptions without any images, ending the earlier iconographic traditions.<ref name=":1" /> The main gold unit was the dinar (from Roman denarius), which was worth 20 silver coins. It was most likely modeled on the Byzantine solidus.<ref name=":1" /> The silver coin was called a dirham (from Greek drachma). Its size and shape was based on Sasanian coins and they were minted in much larger quantities than in the earlier Byzantine era.<ref name=":1" /> The bronze coin was called a fals or fulus (from Byzantine follis).<ref name=":1" />

One group of bronze coins from Palestine,Template:Sfn dated after the coinage reform of the late 690s, features the image of a seven-branched menorah and then later of a five-branched menorah, topped by an Arabic inscription of the shahada.<ref name=":0" /> These images may have been based on Christian representations of the menorah<ref name=":0" /> or on earlier Hasmonean models.Template:Sfn The switch to a five-branched version may have been intended to further differentiate this depiction from Jewish and Christian versions.<ref name=":0" />

Central diwans

{{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B= {{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B= Template:Ambox }} }} To assist the caliph in administration there were six boards at the centre: Diwan al-Kharaj (the Board of Revenue), Diwan al-Rasa'il (the Board of Correspondence), Diwan al-Khatam (the Board of Signet), Diwan al-Barid (the Board of Posts), Diwan al-Qudat (the Board of Justice) and Diwan al-Jund (the Military Board).

Diwan al-Kharaj

The Central Board of Revenue administered the entire finances of the empire. It also imposed and collected taxes and disbursed revenue.

Diwan al-Rasa'il

A regular Board of Correspondence was established under the Umayyads. It issued state missives and circulars to the Central and Provincial Officers. It coordinated the work of all Boards and dealt with all correspondence as the chief secretariat.

Diwan al-Khatam

In order to reduce forgery, Diwan al-Khatam (Bureau of Registry), a kind of state chancellery, was instituted by Mu'awiyah. It used to make and preserve a copy of each official document before sealing and dispatching the original to its destination. Thus in the course of time a state archive developed in Damascus by the Umayyads under Abd al-Malik. Under the Umayyads, lead seals bearing Arabic text became an important tool in the construction of a distinct Arab and Muslim political entity and which were critical to the proliferation of the state's Islamic orientation.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Diwan al-Barid

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

Mu'awiyah introduced the postal service, Abd al-Malik extended it throughout his empire, and Walid made full use of it. Umar bin Abdul-Aziz developed it further by building caravanserais at stages along the Khurasan highway. Relays of horses were used for the conveyance of dispatches between the caliph and his agents and officials posted in the provinces. The main highways were divided into stages of Template:Convert each and each stage had horses, donkeys, or camels ready to carry the post. Primarily the service met the needs of government officials, but travelers and their important dispatches were also benefited by the system. The postal carriages were also used for the swift transport of troops. They were able to carry fifty to a hundred men at a time. Under governor Yusuf ibn Umar al-Thaqafi, the postal department of Iraq cost 4,000,000 dirhams a year.

Diwan al-Qudat

In the early period of Islam, justice was administered by Muhammad and the orthodox caliphs in person. After the expansion of the Islamic State, Umar al-Faruq had to separate the judiciary from the general administration and appointed the first qadi in Egypt as early as AD 643/23 AH. After 661, a series of judges served in Egypt during the caliphates of Hisham and Walid II.

Diwan al-Jund

The Diwan of Umar, assigning annuities to all Arabs and to the Muslim soldiers of other races, underwent a change in the hands of the Umayyads. The Umayyads meddled with the register and the recipients regarded pensions as the subsistence allowance even without being in active service. Hisham reformed it and paid only to those who participated in the battle. On the pattern of the Byzantine system, the Umayyads reformed their army organization in general and divided it into five corps: the centre, two wings, vanguards, and rearguards, following the same formation while on the march or on a battlefield. Marwan II (740–50) abandoned the old division and introduced the Kurdus (cohort), a small compact body. The Umayyad troops were divided into three divisions: infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Arab troops were dressed and armed in Greek fashion. The Umayyad cavalry used plain and round saddles. The artillery used the arradah (ballista), the manjaniq (mangonel), and the dabbabah or kabsh (battering ram). The heavy engines, siege machines, and baggage were carried on camels behind the army.

Social organization

File:Humeima ivory.jpg

Ivory (circa 8th century) discovered in the Abbasid homestead in Humeima, Jordan. The style indicates an origin in northeastern Iran, the base of Hashimiyya military power.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The Umayyad Caliphate had four main social classes:

1. Muslim Arabs
2. Muslim non-Arabs (clients of the Muslim Arabs)
3. Dhimmis (non-Muslim free persons such as Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians)
4. Slaves

The Muslim Arabs were at the top of the society and saw it as their duty to rule over the conquered areas. The Arab Muslims held themselves in higher esteem than Muslim non-Arabs and generally did not mix with other Muslims.

As Islam spread, more and more of the Muslim population consisted of non-Arabs. This caused social unrest, as the new converts were not given the same rights as Muslim Arabs. Also, as conversions increased, tax revenues (peasant tax) from non-Muslims decreased to dangerous lows. These issues continued to worsen until they helped cause the Abbasid Revolt in the 740s.Template:Sfn

Non-Muslims

Non-Muslim groups in the Umayyad Caliphate, which included Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, and pagans, were called dhimmis. They were given a legally protected status as second-class citizens as long as they accepted and acknowledged the political supremacy of the ruling Muslims. More specifically, non-Muslims had to pay a tax, known as jizya, which the Muslims did not have to pay; Muslims would instead pay the zakat tax. If non-Muslims converted to Islam, they would cease paying jizya and would instead pay zakat.

Although the Umayyads were harsh when it came to defeating their Zoroastrian adversaries,<ref name=ibid1>Template:Cite journal</ref> they did offer protection and relative religious tolerance to the Zoroastrians who accepted their authority.<ref name=ibid1/> As a matter of fact, Umar II was reported to have said in one of his letters commanding not to "destroy a synagogue or a church or temple of fire worshippers (meaning the Zoroastrians) as long as they have reconciled with and agreed upon with the Muslims".<ref>Recorded by Ibn Abu Shayba in Al-Musanaf and Abu 'Ubaid Ibn Sallam in his book Al-Amwal, pp.123</ref> Fred Donner says that Zoroastrians in the northern parts of Iran were hardly penetrated by the "believers", winning virtually complete autonomy in-return for tribute-tax or jizyah.<ref name=ibid2>Template:Cite book</ref> Donner adds "Zoroastrians continued to exist in large numbers in northern and western Iran and elsewhere for centuries after the rise of Islam, and indeed, much of the canon of Zoroastrian religious texts was elaborated and written down during the Islamic period."<ref name=ibid2/>

Christians and Jews still continued to produce great theological thinkers within their communities, but as time wore on, many of the intellectuals converted to Islam, leading to a lack of great thinkers in the non-Muslim communities.Template:Sfn Important Christian writers from the Umayyad period include the theologian John of Damascus, bishop Cosmas of Maiuma, Pope Benjamin I of Alexandria and Isaac of Nineveh.<ref name="PMBZ">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Although non-Muslims could not hold the highest public offices in the empire, they held many bureaucratic positions within the government. An important example of Christian employment in the Umayyad government is that of Sarjun ibn Mansur. He was a Melkite Christian official of the early Umayyad Caliphate. The son of a prominent Byzantine official of Damascus, he was a favourite of the early Umayyad caliphs Mu'awiya I and Yazid I, and served as the head of the fiscal administration for Syria from the mid-7th century until the year 700, when Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan dismissed him as part of his efforts to Arabicize the administration of the caliphate. According to the Muslim historians al-Baladhuri and al-Tabari, Sarjun was a mawla of the first Umayyad caliph, Mu'awiya I (Template:Reign),Template:Efn serving as his "secretary and the person in charge of his business".<ref name="PMBZ"/>Template:Sfn The hagiographies, although less reliable, also assign to him a role in the administration, even as "ruler" (archon or even amir), of Damascus and its environs, where he was responsible for collecting the revenue.<ref name="PMBZ"/> In this capacity, he is attested in later collections of source material such as that of al-Mas'udi.Template:Sfn Sarjun ibn Mansur was replaced by Sulayman ibn Sa'd al-Khushani, another Christian.Template:Sfn

Muawiya's marriage to Maysun bint Bahdal (Yazid's mother) was politically motivated, as she was the daughter of the chief of the Kalb tribe, which was a large Syriac Orthodox Christian Arab tribe in Syria.Template:Sfn The Kalb tribe had remained largely neutral when the Muslims first went into Syria.Template:Sfn After the plague that killed much of the Muslim army in Syria, by marrying Maysun, Muawiyah used the Syriac Orthodox Christians against the Byzantines.

Tom Holland writes that Christians, Jews, Samaritans and Manichaeans were all treated well by Muawiyah.Template:Sfn Muawiyah even restored Edessa's cathedral after it had been toppled by an earthquake.Template:Sfn Holland also writes that, "Savagely though Muawiyah prosecuted his wars against the Romans, yet his subjects, no longer trampled by rival armies, no longer divided by hostile watchtowers, knew only peace at last. Justice flourished in his time, and there was great peace in the regions under his control. He allowed everyone to live as they wanted."Template:Sfn

Architecture

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

File:Damascus, Syria, The Umayyad Mosque, The Great Mosque of Damascus 2.jpg

The Great Mosque or Umayyad Mosque in Damascus was constructed on the orders of Abd al-Malik, begun Template:Circa and completed shortly after his death in 715.Template:Sfn

The Umayyads constructed grand congregational mosques and palaces within their empire. Most of their surviving monuments are located in the Levant region, their main base of power. They also continued the existing Muslim policy of building new garrison cities (amsar) in their provinces that served as bases for further expansion.<ref name=":16">Template:Cite book</ref> Their most famous constructions include the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the Great Mosque of Damascus,Template:Sfn while other constructions include the so-called desert palaces, such as Khirbat al-Majfar and Qusayr 'Amra.<ref name=":16" /> Among these projects, the construction of the Great Mosque in Damascus reflected the diversity of the empire, as Greek, Persian, Coptic, Indian and Maghrebi craftsmen were recruited to build it.Template:Sfn

Under Umayyad patronage, Islamic architecture was derived from established Byzantine and Sasanian architectural traditions, but it also innovated by combining elements of these styles together, experimenting with new building types, and implementing lavish decorative programs.<ref name=":16" /> Byzantine-style mosaics are prominently featured in both the Dome of the Rock and the Great Mosque of Damascus, but the lack of human figures in their imagery was a new trait that demonstrates an Islamic taboo on figural representation in religious art. Palaces were decorated with floor mosaics, frescoes, and relief carving, and some of these included representations of human figures and animals.<ref name=":16" /> Umayyad architecture was thus an important transitional period during which early Islamic architecture and visual culture began to develop its own distinct identity.Template:Sfn

The later offshoot of the Umayyad dynasty in al-Andalus, which ruled the Emirate and subsequent Caliphate of Córdoba, also undertook major architectural projects in the Iberian Peninsula such as the Great Mosque of Córdoba and Madinat al-Zahra, which influenced later architecture in the western Islamic world.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Legacy

File:Age-of-caliphs-xtra-space.png

Map of the caliphate's expansion Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend

The Umayyad caliphate was marked both by territorial expansion and by the administrative and cultural problems that such expansion created. Despite some notable exceptions, the Umayyads tended to favor the rights of the old Arab families, and in particular their own, over those of newly converted Muslims (mawali). Therefore, they held to a less universalist conception of Islam than did many of their rivals. As G.R. Hawting has written, "Islam was in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy."Template:Sfn

During the period of the Umayyads, Arabic became the administrative language and the process of Arabization was initiated in the Levant, Mesopotamia, North Africa, and Iberia.Template:Sfn State documents and currency were issued in Arabic. Mass conversions also created a growing population of Muslims in the territory of the caliphate.

According to one common view, the Umayyads transformed the caliphate from a religious institution (during the Rashidun caliphate) to a dynastic one.Template:Sfn However, the Umayyad caliphs do seem to have understood themselves as the representatives of God on earth, and to have been responsible for the "definition and elaboration of God's ordinances, or in other words the definition or elaboration of Islamic law."Template:Sfn

The Umayyads have met with a largely negative reception from later Islamic historians, who have accused them of promoting a kingship (mulk, a term with connotations of tyranny) instead of a true caliphate (khilafa). In this respect it is notable that the Umayyad caliphs referred to themselves not as khalifat rasul Allah ("successor of the messenger of God", the title preferred by the tradition), but rather as khalifat Allah ("deputy of God"). The distinction seems to indicate that the Umayyads "regarded themselves as God's representatives at the head of the community and saw no need to share their religious power with, or delegate it to, the emergent class of religious scholars."Template:Sfn In fact, it was precisely this class of scholars, based largely in Iraq, that was responsible for collecting and recording the traditions that form the primary source material for the history of the Umayyad period. In reconstructing this history, therefore, it is necessary to rely mainly on sources, such as the histories of Tabari and Baladhuri, that were written in the Abbasid court at Baghdad.Template:Citation needed

The book Al Muwatta, by Imam Malik, was written in the early Abbasid period in Medina. It does not contain any anti-Umayyad content because it was more concerned with what the Quran and what Muhammad said and was not a history book on the Umayyads.Template:Citation needed Even the earliest pro-Shia accounts of al-Masudi are more balanced. Al-Masudi's Ibn Hisham is the earliest Shia account of Muawiyah. He recounted that Muawiyah spent a great deal of time in prayer, in spite of the burden of managing a large empire.<ref>Muawiya Restorer of the Muslim Faith By Aisha Bewley Page 41</ref> After killing off most of the Umayyads and destroying the graves of the Umayyad rulers apart from Muawiyah and Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, the history books were written during the later Abbasid period are more anti-Umayyad.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The books written later in the Abbasid period in Iran are more anti-Umayyad. Iran was Sunni at the time. There was much anti-Arab feeling in Iran after the fall of the Persian empire.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Modern Arab nationalism regards the period of the Umayyads as part of the Arab Golden Age which it sought to emulate and restore.{{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B= Template:Fix }} This is particularly true of Syrian nationalists and the present-day state of Syria, centered like that of the Umayyads on Damascus.Template:Sfn The Umayyad banners were white, after the banner of Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan;Template:Sfn it is now one of the four Pan-Arab colours which appear in various combinations on the flags of most Arab countries.

Religious perspectives

Sunni

Many Muslims criticized the Umayyads for having too many non-Muslim, former Roman administrators in their government, e.g., St. John of Damascus.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> As the Muslims took over cities, they left the people's political representatives, the Roman tax collectors, and the administrators in the office. The taxes to the central government were calculated and negotiated by the people's political representatives. Both the central and local governments were compensated for the services each provided. Many Christian cities used some of the taxes to maintain their churches and run their own organizations. Later, the Umayyads were criticized by some Muslims for not reducing the taxes of the people who converted to Islam.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Later, when Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz came to power, he reduced these taxes. He is therefore praised as one of the greatest Muslim rulers after the four Rightly Guided Caliphs. Imam Abu Muhammad Abdullah ibn Abdul Hakam (who lived in 829 and wrote a biography on Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz)<ref>Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz By Imam Abu Muhammad Abdullah ibn Abdul Hakam died 214 AH 829 C.E. Publisher Zam Zam Publishers Karachi</ref> stated that the reduction in these taxes stimulated the economy and created wealth but it also reduced the government's budget, including, eventually, the defence budget.

The only Umayyad ruler who is unanimously praised by Sunni sources for his devout piety and justice is Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz.Template:Citation needed In his efforts to spread Islam, he established liberties for the Mawali by abolishing the jizya tax for converts to Islam. Imam Abu Muhammad Abdullah ibn Abdul Hakam stated that Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz also stopped the personal allowance offered to his relatives, stating that he could only give them an allowance if he gave an allowance to everyone else in the empire. After Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz was poisoned in 720, successive governments tried to reverse Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz's tax policies, but rebellion resulted.Template:Citation needed

Shi'a

The negative view of the Umayyads held by Shias is briefly expressed in the Shi'a book "Sulh al-Hasan".<ref name="Aal-yasin2014">Template:Cite book</ref> According to Shia hadiths, which are not considered authentic by Sunnis, Ali described them as the worst Fitna.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In Shia sources, the Umayyad Caliphate is widely described as "tyrannical, anti-Islamic and godless".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Shias point out that the founder of the dynasty, Muawiyah, declared himself a caliph in 657 and went to war against Muhammad's son-in-law and cousin, the ruling caliph Ali, clashing at the Battle of Siffin. Muawiyah also declared his son, Yazid, as his successor in breach of a treaty with Hassan, Muhammad's grandson. Another of Muhammad's grandsons, Husayn ibn Ali, would be killed by Yazid in the Battle of Karbala. Further Shia Imams, Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin would be killed at the hands of ruling Umayyad caliphs.

Bahá'í

Asked for an explanation of the prophecies in the Book of Revelation (12:3), `Abdu'l-Bahá suggests in Some Answered Questions that the "great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads",<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> refers to the Umayyad caliphs who "rose against the religion of Prophet Muhammad and against the reality of Ali".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The seven heads of the dragon are symbolic of the seven provinces of the lands dominated by the Umayyads: Damascus, Persia, Arabia, Egypt, Africa, Andalusia, and Transoxiana. The ten horns represent the ten names of the leaders of the Umayyad dynasty: Abu Sufyan, Muawiya, Yazid, Marwan, Abd al-Malik, Walid, Sulayman, Umar, Hisham, and Ibrahim. Some names were re-used, as in the case of Yazid II and Yazid III, which were not accounted for in this interpretation.

List of caliphs

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

File:Umayads.svg

Genealogical tree of the Umayyad family. In blue: Caliph Uthman, one of the four Rashidun caliphs. In green, the Umayyad caliphs of Damascus. In yellow, the Umayyad emirs of Córdoba. In orange, the Umayyad caliphs of Córdoba. Abd Al-Rahman III was an emir until 929 when he proclaimed himself caliph. Muhammad is included (in caps) to show the kinship of the Umayyads with him. See interactive version of chart

Caliphs of Damascus

Caliph	Reign
Muawiya I ibn Abu Sufyan	28 July 661 – 27 April 680
Yazid I ibn Muawiyah	27 April 680 – 11 November 683
Muawiya II ibn Yazid	11 November 683 – June 684
Marwan I ibn al-Hakam	June 684 – 12 April 685
Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan	12 April 685 – 8 October 705
al-Walid I ibn Abd al-Malik	8 October 705 – 23 February 715
Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik	23 February 715 – 22 September 717
Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz	22 September 717 – 4 February 720
Yazid II ibn Abd al-Malik	4 February 720 – 26 January 724
Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik	26 January 724 – 6 February 743
al-Walid II ibn Yazid	6 February 743 – 17 April 744
Yazid III ibn al-Walid	17 April 744 – 4 October 744
Ibrahim ibn al-Walid	4 October 744 – 4 December 744
Marwan II ibn Muhammad (ruled from Harran in the Jazira)	4 December 744 – 25 January 750

See also

• History of Islam
• List of Sunni dynasties

Bibliography

• Template:The End of the Jihad State
• Template:Cite book
• Template:EI2
• Template:EI2
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite journal
• Template:EI2
• Template:Cite book
• Template:EI2
• Template:Cite book
• Template:EI2
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite thesis
• Template:EI2
• Template:Cite book
• Template:EI2
• Template:Cite book
• Template:The Arab Conquests in Central Asia
• Template:EI2
• Template:EI2
• Template:Cite thesis
• Template:EI2
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:The First Dynasty of Islam
• Template:EI2
• Template:The History of al-Tabari
• Template:Cite book
• Template:EI2
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite journal
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Kennedy-The Armies of the Caliphs
• Template:EI2
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Kennedy-The Great Arab Conquests
  • Template:Cite book
• Template:EI2
• Template:Cite book
• Template:The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates
• Template:EI2
• Template:EI2
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cambridge History of Iran
• Template:Encyclopaedia Iranica
• Template:Cite book
• Template:The History of al-Tabari
• Template:EI2
• Template:Cite book
• Template:The History of al-Tabari
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite journal
• Template:The Arab Emirates in Bagratid Armenia
• Template:A History of the Byzantine State and Society
• Template:The Arab Kingdom and its Fall

Further reading

• Template:Cite encyclopedia
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite encyclopedia
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book

External links

• Template:Commons category-inline