the Umayyad Caliphate

(noun)

The second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. This caliphate was centered on the Umayyad dynasty, hailing from Mecca. The Umayyad family had first come to power under the third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan (r. 644–656), but the Umayyad regime was founded by Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, long-time governor of Syria, after the end of the First Muslim Civil War in 661 CE/41 AH. Syria remained the Umayyads' main power base thereafter, and Damascus was their capital.

Related Terms

Examples of the Umayyad Caliphate in the following topics:

  • Expansion Under the Umayyad Caliphates

    • The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad.
    • This caliphate was centered on the Umayyad dynasty, hailing from Mecca.
    • Under the Umayyads, the caliphate territory grew rapidly.
    • Although the Umayyad Caliphate did not rule all of the Sahara, nomadic Berber tribes paid homage to the caliph.
    • This map shows the extension of Islamic rule under Muhammad, the Rashidun Caliphate, and the Umayyad Caliphate.

  • Islamic Conquest of the Maghreb

    • The Islamic conquest of the Maghreb region took place largely under the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), which at the peak of its influence ruled one of the vastest empires ever to exist.
    • The conquest of the Maghreb region (more or less west of Egypt) took place largely under the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), which was the second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad.
    • The Umayyad family had first come to power under the third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan (644–656), but the Umayyad regime was founded by Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, long-time governor of Syria, after the end of the First Muslim Civil War in 661 CE/41 AH.
    • The conventional historical view is that the conquest of North Africa by the Umayyad Caliphate effectively ended Christianity in Africa for several centuries.
    • Age of the Caliphs: [dark purple] Expansion under the Prophet Mohammad, 622-632; [dark pink] Expansion during the Patriarchal Caliphate, 632-661; [dark orange] Expansion during the Umayyad Caliphate, 661-750.

  • The Isaurian Dynasty

    • The Isaurian emperors were successful in defending and consolidating the Empire against the Caliphate after the onslaught of the early Muslim conquests, but were less successful in Europe, where they suffered setbacks against the Bulgars, had to give up the Exarchate of Ravenna, and lost influence over Italy and the Papacy to the growing power of the Franks.
    • By the end of the Isaurian dynasty in 802, the Byzantines were continuing to fight the Arabs and the Bulgars for their very existence, with matters made more complicated when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Imperator Romanorum ("Emperor of the Romans") which was seen as making the Carolingian Empire the successor to the Roman Empire or at least the western half.
    • Leo averted an attack by Maslamah by clever negotiations, in which he promised to recognize the Caliph's suzerainty, but on 25 March 717, he entered Constantinople and deposed Theodosios.
    • Leo secured the Empire's frontiers by inviting Slavic settlers into the depopulated districts and by restoring the army to efficiency; when the Umayyad Caliphate renewed their invasions in 726 and 739, as part of the campaigns of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, the Arab forces were decisively beaten, particularly at Akroinon in 740.
    • The Second Arab siege of Constantinople in 717–718 was a combined land and sea offensive by the Muslim Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate against the capital city of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople.

  • Muhammad's Successors

    • He established a new unified Arabian Peninsula, which led to the Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates and the rapid expansion of Muslim power over the next century.
    • Ali would eventually become the fourth Sunni caliph.
    • The followers of Ali later became the Shi'a minority sect of Islam, which rejects the legitimacy of the first three caliphs.
    • Under the Rashidun, each region (Sultanate) of the caliphate had its own governor (Sultan).
    • Muawiyah transformed the caliphate into a hereditary office, thus founding the Umayyad dynasty.

  • Timeline

    • 2560 BCE: The approximate time accepted as the completion of the Great Pyramid of Giza, the oldest pyramid of the Giza Plateau.
    • 405 CE: Saint Jerome completes the Vulgate, the first Latin translation of the Bible.
    • 632-661: The Rashidun Caliphate results in the Arab conquest of Persia, Egypt, and Iraq, bringing Islam into those regions.
    • 650: The verses of the Qur'an are compliled in the form of a book in the era of Uthman RA, the third Caliph of Islam.
    • 661-750: The Umayyad Caliphate brings Arab conquest of North Africa, Spain, and Central Asia, marking the greatest extent of the Arab conquests bringing Islam into those regions.

  • The Abbasid Empire

    • The Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic caliphates to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 750 CE, and ruled over a large, flourishing empire for three centuries.
    • The Umayyad dynasty was overthrown by another family of Meccan origin, the Abbasids, in 750 CE.
    • The Abbasids distinguished themselves from the Umayyads by attacking their moral character and administration.
    • Muhammad ibn 'Ali, a great-grandson of Abbas, began to campaign for the return of power to the family of Muhammad, the Hashimites, in Persia during the reign of Umar II, an Umayyad caliph who ruled from 717–720 CE.
    • The Abbasid dynasty ruled as caliphs from their capital in Baghdad, in modern Iraq, after taking over authority of the Muslim empire from the Umayyads in 750 CE.

  • Charles Martel and Pepin the Short

    • The latter became the first of the Carolingians, the family of Charles Martel, to become king.
    • In summing up the man, Gibbon wrote that Charles was "the hero of the age," whereas Guerard described him as being the "champion of the Cross against the Crescent."
    • In October 732, the army of the Umayyad Caliphate, led by Al Ghafiqi, met Frankish and Burgundian forces under Charles in an area between the cities of Tours and Poitiers (modern north-central France), leading to a decisive, historically important Frankish victory known as the Battle of Tours.
    • Charles's victory is widely believed to have stopped the northward advance of Umayyad forces from the Iberian Peninsula, and to have preserved Christianity in Europe during a period when Muslim rule was overrunning the remains of the old Roman and Persian empires.
    • In wars of expansion, Pepin conquered Septimania from the Islamic Umayyads, and subjugated the southern realms by repeatedly defeating Waifer of Aquitaine and his Basque troops, after which the Basque and Aquitanian lords saw no option but to pledge loyalty to the Franks.

  • The Islamic Golden Age

    • The Islamic Golden Age refers to a period in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 13th century, during which much of the historically Islamic world was ruled by various caliphates and science, economic development, and cultural works flourished.
    • This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (786–809) with the inauguration of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, where scholars from various parts of the world with different cultural backgrounds were mandated to gather and translate all of the world's classical knowledge into the Arabic language.
    • Nestorian Christians played an important role in the formation of Arab culture, with the Jundishapur hospital and medical academy prominent in the late Sassanid, Umayyad, and early Abbasid periods.
    • Notably, eight generations of the Nestorian Bukhtishu family served as private doctors to caliphs and sultans between the 8th and 11th centuries.
    • Beginning in 692, the Islamic caliphate reformed the coinage of the Near East by replacing visual depiction with words.

  • Spread of Islam

    • In the years following the Prophet Muhammad's death, the expansion of Islam was carried out by his successor caliphates, who increased the territory of the Islamic state and sought converts from both polytheistic and monotheistic religions.
    • The expansion of the Arab Empire in the years following the Prophet Muhammad's death led to the creation of caliphates occupying a vast geographical area.
    • During the Abbasid Caliphate, expansion ceased and the central disciplines of Islamic philosophy, theology, law, and mysticism became more widespread, and the gradual conversions of the populations within the empire occurred.
    • Numerous churches were repaired and new ones built during the Umayyad era.
    • Discuss the spread of Islam and identify how the caliphs maintained authority over conquered territories

  • Post-Byzantine Egypt

    • The Rashidun Caliphate was the Islamic caliphate in the earliest period of Islam, comprising the first four caliphs.
    • Caliph Umar conquered more than 2,200,000 km² area in less than ten years and is known as the most powerful caliph in the history of Islam.
    • The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shia Islamic caliphate that spanned a large area of North Africa, from the Red Sea in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west.
    • He founded the Ayyubid dynasty and incorporated the Fatimid state into the Abbasid Caliphate.
    • The Rashidun Caliphate expanded gradually.