Umayyad
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The Courtyard of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, one of the grandest architectural legacies of the Umayyads. |
The
Umayyad Dynasty (
Arabic بنو أمية
banū umayya / الأمويون
al-umawiyyūn,
Persian امویان Omaviyân,
Turkish Emevi), also "Umawi", was the first dynasty of
caliphs of the Islamic empire after the reign of the
Four Rightly Guided Caliphs (
Abu Bakr,
Umar,
Uthman, and
Ali) ended.
The term "Umayyad" is Greek, referring to "Banu Umayyah" those descended from
Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of
Muawiya. Most historians consider the dynasty to begin with Muawiya b. Abu Sufyan b. Harb b. Umayya, because Muawiya was the first to assert the Umayyads' right to rule on a dynastic principle. Caliph Uthman before him was also a descendent of Umayya, and during his time had been criticised for placing members of his family within political positions (for which he was murdered); however since he never declared an heir he cannot be considered the founder of a dynasty.
Umayya and the Prophet
Muhammad both descended from a common ancestor Abd-Munaf. One son of Abd-Munaf was Hashim, whose son was Abdul Muttalib, whose son was Abdullah, whose son was
Prophet Muhammad. Another son of Abd Munaf was Abd-Shams, whose son was Umayya. The clans of Hashim and Umayya both belonged to the
Quraish tribe named after an ancestor of Abd-Munaf. The Umayyads thereby claimed to be the "people of the House"; which claim was countered by the Alids and (later) the Abbasids, whose relations to the Prophet were closer.
The Umayyad clan had bitter rivalry with the Hashim clan (from which came the
Abbasid clan), especially as Abu Sufian was the most determined and bitterest enemy of Muhammad, and sought to exterminate the adherents of the new religion, by waging a series of battles. But at last, Abu Sufian embraced
Islam, and so did his son Muawiya, and they provided much needed political and
diplomatic skills for the management and expansion of the fast growing Islamic empire.
Muawiya's personal dynasty, the "Sufyanids", reigned only from
CE 661 to CE
683, when his son Yazid died with no credible heirs. The Umayyads and their supporters then rallied around the "Marwanids" descended from Marwan,
684-
750. After that the Abbasids took over the Near East and killed nearly all Umayyads there. Some Sufyanid pretenders occasionally rebelled in Syria, although these were generally not accepted as genuine members of the family. 'Abd al-Rahman of the Marwanids survived in Spain, and later proclaimed his family as the Umayyad Caliphate revived.
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Umayyad Caliphate at its greatest extent. |
Muawiyah had been the governor of
Syria under the 2nd and 3rd
caliph and his kinsman,
Uthman ibn Affan. After the assassination of Uthman, he was replaced by the new caliph,
Ali ibn Abi Talib. Since Ali showed lenience to the
Kharijite murderers of
Uthman,
Muawiyah refused to accept his caliphate, and in 657 led an army against him, beginning the first "fitna". The two sides agreed to a conciliation procedure, resulting in an arbitration that many of Ali's partisans saw as unfair. The Muslim empire was partitioned. When Ali was assassinated in 661, Muawiyah was declared
Caliph of all Muslim lands. This established the Umayyad dynasty, and the capital of the caliphate was moved to
Damascus. Syria remained the Umayyad powerbase to the end of its existence in the Near East.
Great expansion occurred under the reign of the Umayyads. Muslim armies pushed across
North Africa and
Iran, through the late 600s, expanding the borders of the empire from the
Iberian Peninsula, in the west, to what is today
Pakistan, in the east. Forces led by
Tariq ibn-Ziyad crossed
Gibraltar and established
Muslim power in the Iberian peninsula, while other armies established power far away in
Sind, in
Northern India. The Muslim empire under the Umayyads was now a vast domain that ruled a diverse array of peoples.
This great expansion led directly to the downfall of the Umayyad dynasty. The expansion expanded the military boundaries of the Islamic world in the pursuit of wealth garnered from booty. This push incorporated the peoples the Arab armies conquered by utilizing them, after conversion to Islam, as warriors. However, Islamic law did not represent these individuals as equal to the Arabs. They, even though converted to Islam, had to pay the
Jizya. This treatment of the
Mawali Muslims as not part of the Arab state, led to uprisings. These Uprisings, coupled with the increased resistance of the foes of the Umayyads, the
Franks under
Charles Martel in
France, the
Byzantines in
Anatolia, the
Turkic Khanate in
Transoxiana, and the newly invigorated Hindu principalities in India, exhausted the
Syrian corps used as the backbone of the Umayyad army. These uprisings, especially the
Great Berber Revolt, 740, left the stage open for rival factions to take power.
The Umayyads were overthrown in the east by the
Abbasid dynasty after their defeat in the
Battle of the Zab in 750, following which most of the clan was massacred by the Abbasids. An Umayyad prince,
Abd-ar-Rahman I, took over the Muslim territory in
Al-Andalus (
Hispania) and founded a new Umayyad dynasty there. This dynasty ended in 1031.
Sunni view
The
Sunni scholar
Maududi wrote, while citin
Al Bidayah wa-Nihayah by
Ibn Kathir:
Kingship's foundation began with this change. Muˤāwiyya (ra) was not appointed with the consensus of the Muslims at large as was the case with his predecessors, if the Muslims were not happy with them they would have not taken the positions, despite this Muˤāwiyya wanted to be the Khalīfa, he fought for this position, the Muslims were not pleased with his appointment. The people did not appoint him, he became by force and when he became Khalīfa, people had no other choice but to give him bayˤa
. If the people did not give him bayˤa
, they would not only lose their positions / ranks but also would have also lost their lives and would have been catastrophic for the system, people would rather give bayˤa'' than confront this consequence. That is why after Imam Hasan (ra) stepped down the other
Sahaba joined him so as to avoid the risk of civil War amongst Muslims. Muˤāwiyya was well aware of this strategy.
[(citing Al Bidayah wa-Nihayah by Ibn Kathir, vol 8, page 132]) Khilafat wa Mulukiyyat, chapter 5, pages 158-159 ]Shi'a view
The Shi'a view is shortly expresed in the Shi'a book "Sulh al-Hasan"
[http://www.balagh.net/english/ahl_bayt/sulh_al-hasan/]::''Mu'awiya designed an Umayyad policy. The Umayyad rules after him followed that policy. They (i.e., the Umayyads) wanted to make themselves lords. They wanted to show the people that they had all laudable qualities. So generosity, clemency, cleverness, bravery, and eloquence belonged to them, not to the people. In other words the Umayyads wanted to denote that these qualities were some of their special talents. The Umayyads did their best to fix this intentional policy. Thus they made a false history that was full of a series of fabricated traditions, made- up stories, various lies, and baseless claims. Moreover, they ordered the hireling preachers and the teachers of the schools in all Muslim countries to study the Umayyad hopes including false praise or fake slander.
[[1] Chapter 24]Caliphs
*
Muawiyah I ibn Abi Sufyan, 661"680
*
Yazid I ibn Muawiyah, 680"683
*
Muawiya II ibn Yazid, 683"684
*
Marwan I ibn Hakam, 684"685
*
Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, 685"705
*
al-Walid I ibn Abd al-Malik, 705"715
*
Suleiman ibn Abd al-Malik, 715"717
*
Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, 717"720
*
Yazid II ibn Abd al-Malik, 720"724
*
Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, 724"743
*
al-Walid II ibn Yazid II, 743"744
*
Yazid III ibn al-Walid, 744
*
Ibrahim ibn al-Walid, 744
*
Marwan II ibn Muhammad (ruled from
Harran in the
Jazira) 744"750
Umayyad Emirs of Cordoba
*
Abd ar-Rahman I, 756"788
*
Hisham I, 788"796
*
al-Hakam I, 796"822
*
Abd ar-Rahman II, 822"852
*
Muhammad I of Córdoba, 852-886
*
Al-Mundhir, 842 - 888
*
Abdallah ibn Muhammad, 888"912
*
Abd ar-Rahman III, 912"929
*
Abd ar-Rahman III, as caliph, 929"961
*
Al-Hakam II, 961"976
*
Hisham II, 976"1008
*
Mohammed II, 1008"1009
*
Suleiman, 1009"1010
*
Hisham II, restored, 1010"1012
*
Suleiman, restored, 1012"1017
*
Abd ar-Rahman IV, 1021"1022
*
Abd ar-Rahman V, 1022"1023
*
Muhammad III, 1023"1024
*
Hisham III, 1027"1031
Umayyad sahaba
Here is a partial list of the
sahaba (Companions of Muhammad) (who were part of the Umayyad clan:
*
Marwan ibn Al-Hakam *
Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan *
Abu Sufiyan ibn HarbUmayyad taba'een
Here is a partial list of the
Taba'een (the generation that succeeded the Companions) who were part of the Umayyad clan:
*
Yazid bin Muawiyah*
Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan*
Umayya ibn Abd Shams*
History of Islam*
Caliphate*
Martyrs of Cordoba*
Ummayad Lineage Chart*
Ummayads*
Umayyads - First caliphate dynasty
