Umayyads

History

yad Caliphs

ad house was one of the major clans of the Quraysh tribe. , Uthman, the third "Righteous Caliph", was the first aliph. During his tenure (644-655), he appointed members o various posts; in particular, Muawiya b. Abi Sufyan was overnorship of Syria. Upon the accession of Ali to the Muawiya refused to pay him allegience, and in 658 the nowledged Muawiya as caliph. That same year he gained gypt; following Ali's death in 661, he subdued Iraq and ly established himself as caliph. The first line of Umayyads fyanids (descendants of Abu Sufyan) who ruled from 661Muawiya (661-680) the capital of the Muslim empire was to Damascus. He is credited with raising a highly-trained rian soldiers which was used to expand Muslim authority horasan and west into North Africa. Muawiya also led nto Anatolia beginning in 672 which culminated in an l three-year seige of Constantinople (674-677). He retained trative structures left by the Byzantines and Persians but d his authority by appointing kinsmen to key posts. Before Muawiya secured allegiance to his son, Yazid, thus dynastic succession to Muslim rule. Muawiya was the son yan, the leader of the Abd Shams clan. Most of the members ms had rejected Muhammad's prophetic mission until d's conquest of Mecca in 630. Muawiya and his father are to be among those enemies who were reconciled to Islam ts. Muawiya then served as one of Muhammad's scribes. reign of Abu Bakr, Muawiya served in the armies sent Byzantines in Syria. The caliph Umar appointed him Damascus; his kinsman Uthman subsequently enlarged his ip to include what is today Syria and north-western Iraq. onsolidated his power over the region by building up a y which he used effectively to launch both land and sea

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inst the Byzantines. The murder of Uthman at the hands of d Egyptians and the accession of Ali to the caliphate in 656 iya the opportunity to expand his power. Ali had his own establishing his legitimacy, and by the time he requested give him the oath of allegience, the Syrian population was the opinion that Ali was responsible for Uthman's murder; iya refused to pay him allegience. The two men confronted with their armies at Siffin in early 657, where Muawiya n arbitration. The arbitration solved nothing, but it did egitimize Ali in the eyes of some of his supporters. The nowledged Muawiya as caliph, and he was able to take gypt later that year. Thus with Ali's assassination in 661, asily moved into Iraq and asserted his claim to the Ali's eldest son, Hasan, who briefly succeeded his father, was o abdicate. With Muawiya's accession, the seat of the as moved to Damascus. Muawiya continued raids against nes, both in Anatolia and North Africa. The conquest of a and Ifriqiyah led to the founding of the garrison city n 670 as a base for continuing forays into what is today val expeditions against the Byzantines and raids into d to a three-year seige of Constantinople (674-677). In the rders of the Muslim empire were expanded to Khorasan us River. Internally, Muawiya governed through a n of Arab tribal tradition and Byzantine administrative The conquests of the "Four Righteous Caliphs" had led to tion of Arab tribes into Iraq and Syria, each with nterests. Having secured the loyalty of the Syrian tribes, onciliated the Iraqi tribes by adopting the traditional otables in which each tribe is represented by its leader. cils were linked to the caliph through his governors, who ally his kinsmen. However, this arrangement was not itself to administer a growing empire. To solve this uawiya made use of Byzantine administrative structures, tions of which were held by Christians who in some cases families that had served the Byzantine government. credited with the creation of specialized bureaus, known as ncrease the centralization of the government; two such ted to improve communications are the diwan al-khatam, ery, and the diwan al-barid, the postal service. Muawiya's g innovation was his designation of his son Yazid as his his move established hereditary succession as the norm for e. Although he secured allegience to Yazid before his death, o his innovation manifested itself upon Yazid's accession. ations of Muslims held conflicting views about his reign: to as a clever and successful ruler, while to others, he usurped

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e and deviated from the practice of Muhammad and the teous Caliphs". Yazid's reign (680-683) was marked by ed by Husayn b. Ali at Kerbala and Ibn al- Zubayr at h of whom refused to recognize Yazid's authority. Upon the uawiya II (683-684), civil war broke out between two Arab e Qaysites and the Kalbites, the latter of whom supported . cy of Marwan b. al-Hakam. His ascendance to the caliphate lished the Marwanid line of Umayyad caliphs. As he died a he task of reunification was placed in the hands of his son, - " ik.

reign of his father, Yazid had commanded the army that . 132 Constantinople. After his accession, Yazid was confronted bellions. The first was that of Husayn, son of Ali and Muhammad, which occured in Kerbala in 680; the . as short-lived and unsuccessful, but the martyrdom of d his family created a permanent division between the partisans of Ali, and the Sunni majority. The second, far . s revolt was led by Ibn al-Zubayr in Medina and Mecca. In dinans declared Yazid deposed; a Syrian army was sent dinese were defeated. The army then marched to Mecca, al-Zubayr had taken refuge, and laid seige to that city; uring the siege news arrived that Yazid had died. Doubts uccessor prevented a speedy resolution to the conflict, which r nine more years. Although often depicted by Muslim s a dissolute ruler, Yazid attempted to continue his father's ive and military policies. He reformed the tax system and he irrigation system in the environs of Damascus. During ik's reign (685-705), order was gradually restored to Iraq ; Ibn al-Zubayr, who had taken advantage of the civil war extend control into Iraq, was defeated in 692. Arabic was ficial language of administration, and Byzantine coins were th a new Islamic-style coinage. Under his sons, Walid I nd Sulayman (715-717), the empire expanded westward to d Spain, and eastward to Transoxiana. Constantinople was gain unsuccessfully, for one year (717-718). This period also building of several grand palaces and the famous Umayyad Damascus.

ik spent his youth in Medina until the rebellion of Ibn al82. He left the town when the Umayyads were expelled by but upon meeting the Syrian army advancing toward returned with it after giving advice concerning the town nces. He acceded to the caliphate after the assassination of n 685. Abd al-Malik faced numerous difficulties at the

f his reign. Although the Qaysites had been defeated by the 684, thus reasserting Umayyad control of Syria, Qaysites t in northern Iraq. The Byzantines had pushed into nd Ibn al-Zubayr was being recognized as caliph in most empire. The governor of Kufa and Basra, who had been after the death of Yazid in 683, was unable to regain control. eized by the Shi`ite leader al-Mukhtar shortly after Abd alession, and Basra was held by Ibn al-Zubayr's brother, us`ab's forces defeated al-Mukhtar in 687 and occupied al-Malik freed himself from the Byzantine problem by n-year truce with the emperor. In 690, his forces captured aysites. The following year Mus`ab was defeated and a y under the command of al-Hajjaj was sent to Mecca. The eiged for six months; Ibn al-Zubayr was slain in 692. Alsubsequently sent to Iraq to quell Kharijite uprisings, nued there and further east until 697. The revolt of Iraqi r the command of Ibn al-Ash`ath in 700-701 led to alablishment of a garrison city in Iraq to house Syrian troops. se preoccupations, Abd al-Malik initiated several reforms to tralize caliphal control. Arabic was made the official administration, replacing Greek and Persian; this helped tax-systems of the various provinces. Byzantine coins were th a new Islamic-style coinage; the Byzantine emperor's ccept this new currency caused a breakage of the truce in uted to al-Hajjaj is the re-edition of the Uthmanic text of the h vowel signs. The last years of Abd al-Malik's reign were the whole. A crisis of succession was very nearly averted: Marwan, had appointed his brother Abd al-Aziz to succeed ik, but Abd al-Malik wished to favour his own sons. Abd alust five months before Abd al-Malik, and the caliphate was s son Walid.

ath of Sulayman, power was transferred to his cousin d al-Aziz (717-720). He enacted fiscal reforms which placed , Arab and non-Arab (mawali), on equal footing. His Yazid II (720-724), caused a renewal of the hostilities Qaysites and the Kalbites by openly favoring the the ring Hisham's long reign (724-743), the Muslim empire limits of its expansion. Discontent with the Umayyad ifested itself with the rebellion of Zayd b. Ali in 740, while olts in North Africa that same year effectively cut off what is cco and Spain from Umayyad rule. Under Hisham's Walid II, Yazid III, and Ibrahim, a series of rebellions he caliphate: Kharijites seized Kufa, and feuds between the d Kalbites errupted. The last Umayyad caliph of Syria,

(744-750), attempted to restore order, but by this time the volutionary movement had gained momentum in the vinces of the empire. In 749 Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah was the first Abbasid caliph; the Umayyads were massacred in ne Umayyad, Abd al-Rahman, escaped: he fled to Spain tablished the dynasty of the Umayyads of Cordoba.

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