The Umayyad dynasty ruled the Islamic caliphate from the death of the fourth caliph, `Ali, in 661 until 750. The founder of the dynasty was Mu’awiyah, son of Abu Sufyan, of the Meccan clan of Umayyah. He had been appointed governor of Syria by the second caliph, `Umar; after 656 an attempt by `Ali as caliph to replace him led to intermittent hostilities between the two. After the assassination of `Ali in 661, Mu’awiyah gained control of the whole caliphate, and was recognized as caliph. By the time of his death in 68o, he had established, with Damascus as the capital, a system of administration for the caliphate that gave it a degree of stability.
Mu’awiyah’s successor, his son Yazid I, defeated at Karbala an attempt by `Alt’s son Husayn to become caliph. When Yazid died in 683, leaving only a young son, Mu’awiyah II, `Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca claimed the caliphate. Another Umayyad, Marwan, recovered Syria and became caliph in 684; his son `Abd al-Malik (r. 685-705) restored Umayyad rule over the whole caliphate, though it was not until 692 that `AbdAllah ibn al-Zubayr was defeated and this second civil war ended. `Abd al-Malik strengthened the organization of the empire. Up to this time, administrators from the previous Byzantine and Sassanian regimes had continued to work for the caliphs, but he now made Arabic the official language of government and replaced the Byzantine and Sassanian coinage with one with Arabic inscriptions.
Although the caliphate of al-Walid (r. 705-715) was a period of continuing prosperity, continuing rivalry between two groups of Arab tribes known as Qays and Kalb threatened the unity of the empire. `Umar ibn `Abd al-Aziz or `Umar II (r. 717-720) introduced measures that countered this threat, but, after his death, tensions increased again, not only between these two groups but also between the Arabs and the mawali (nonArab Muslims). When the `Abbasids, descendants of Muhammad’s uncle al-`Abbas, raised an army in Khurasan in Iran, which included many mawali, the Umayyads were unable to offer effective resistance. The last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II (r. 744-750) was killed in Egypt in 750. One member of the Umayyad family escaped and in 755 founded in Spain the Umayyad emirate of al-Andalus, which was never incorporated into the ‘Abbasid empire.
The Umayyads were responsible for a great expansion of the Islamic state. By 661 the Arabs had occupied Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and most of Iran. The Umayyads continued the westward advance through North Africa until they reached the Atlantic. In 711 they crossed into Spain and rapidly conquered most of the country, establishing a forward base at Narbonne in southern France. In 732 their defeat by Charles Martel between Tours and Poitiers checked the advance, but Narbonne remained in Arab hands until 759. Eastward the Umayyads pressed on from Iran into Central Asia (Bukhara and Samarkand) and into northwest India. In the north, however, despite frequent expeditions, little progress was made because of the strength of the Byzantine empire. A long unsuccessful siege of Constantinople began in 672; when Sulayman (r. 715-717) attacked that city, the Arabs were repulsed and lost almost all of their fleet and army.
This great expansion was primarily military and political, not religious. Indeed, there was a short period when conversion to Islam was discouraged because it reduced the amount collected in taxes. Non-Arabs who became Muslims were also required to become mawali of an Arab tribe; the mawali, who are often called clients, were persons incorporated into the tribe and reckoned as belonging to it, but without all the rights of those who were members by birth. Christians and Jews who kept their religion normally became dhimmis (protected minorities with limited autonomy). In the conquered provinces the center of government was sometimes a city, such as Kairouan (Qayrawan) which had first been a forward army base, then a garrison-town, which increased in size as many of the local population settled around it to serve the needs of the army. Originally the armies were exclusively Arab and Muslim, but in time numerous mawali were added, mostly of Iranian and Berber origin.
Later Muslim historians, writing under the ‘Abbasids, accused the Umayyads of transforming the Islamic state into an Arab kingdom. In organizing the growing empire the Umayyads did in fact rely largely on the traditional political ideas of the Arabs, but they also claimed to be upholders of Islam, as demonstrated in the works of contemporary court poets. The caliphs realized that Islam was becoming the significant factor that bound the parts of the empire together, especially after the great increase in the numbers of mawah.
[See also ‘Abbasid Caliphate; Caliphate.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brockelmann, Carl. History of the Islamic Peoples. London and New York, 1944.
Donner, F. M. The Early Islamic Conquests. Princeton, 1981. Hitti, Philip K. History of the Arabs. London, 1937
Holt, P. M., et al., eds. The Cambridge History of Islam, vol. I. Cambridge, 1970.
Lewis, Bernard. The Arabs in History. London, 1950.
Shahan, M. A. Islamic History: A New Interpretation, vol. I, A.D. 600-750 (A.H. 132). Cambridge, 1971.
Wellhausen, Julius. The Arab Kingdom and Its Fall. Translated by Margaret G. Weir. Calcutta, 1927; reprint, Beirut, 1963. Deals with the Umayyad period in detail.
WILLIAM MONTGOMERY WATT
