Umayyad Caliphate: A Visual History

The Umayyad Caliphate (661-750) was the first hereditary Islamic dynasty, founded by Muawiya after the first Muslim civil war. From Damascus it completed the conquest of North Africa, crossed into Spain in 711, took Transoxiana and Sind, and twice besieged Constantinople. At its peak it ruled about 11 million km2. Its Arab-first policies alienated non-Arab converts and Shia Muslims, and the Abbasid revolution destroyed it in 750, though a survivor founded an Umayyad state in Spain that lasted until 1031.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Umayyad Caliphate. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Territory of the Umayyad Caliphate

Timeline of the Umayyad Caliphate

1. 661
   Muawiya becomes caliphDamascus becomes the capital.
2. 680
   KarbalaHusayn killed; the Sunni-Shia split deepens.
3. 691
   Dome of the RockThe oldest surviving Islamic monument.
4. 698
   Carthage fallsByzantine North Africa lost.
5. 711
   Spain and SindConquests at both ends of the empire.
6. 717
   Siege of ConstantinopleRepulsed with Greek fire.
7. 732
   Battle of ToursCharles Martel halts the raid into France.
8. 750
   Battle of the ZabThe Abbasids take over.

From civil war to dynasty

Muawiya, governor of Syria and kinsman of the murdered caliph Uthman, refused to recognise Ali and, after Ali's assassination in 661, became caliph. He made the succession hereditary, which provoked a second civil war (680-692) that began with the killing of Ali's son Husayn at Karbala, the founding tragedy of Shia Islam.

Abd al-Malik (685-705) rebuilt the state: he minted the first Islamic coins, made Arabic the language of administration and built the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

The great conquests

Under al-Walid I the armies of Islam swept across North Africa, and in 711 Tariq ibn Ziyad crossed the strait that bears his name (Gibraltar) and destroyed the Visigothic kingdom of Spain in a single battle. Qutayba ibn Muslim took Bukhara and Samarkand; Muhammad ibn Qasim conquered Sind. Umayyad raiders reached Poitiers in France in 732 and were turned back by Charles Martel.

The great siege of Constantinople in 717-718 failed, fixing the frontier with Byzantium in Anatolia for the next three centuries.

Fall

The empire was run for the benefit of Arab tribes; non-Arab converts (mawali) paid extra taxes and resented it. Umar II tried reform (717-720) but reigned only three years. Tribal feuds between northern and southern Arabs, Shia risings and Kharijite revolts multiplied. In 747 the Abbasid movement raised its black banners in Khurasan; the last caliph Marwan II lost the battle of the Zab in January 750 and was hunted down in Egypt.

The Abbasids killed almost every Umayyad they could find. Abd al-Rahman escaped across North Africa to Spain and founded the Emirate of Cordoba in 756.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Rashidun Caliphate (632 to 661)
• Abbasid Caliphate (750 to 1258)
• Emirate of Cordoba (756 to 929)
• Byzantine Empire (395 to 1453)
• Visigothic Kingdom (418 to 720)
• Sasanian Empire (224 to 651)
• Francia (Frankish kingdoms) (481 to 843)

Wars of the same era and region

• Reconquista (718 to 1492)

8 surprising things about the Umayyad Caliphate

1. The Umayyads were the first Muslim state to strike coins with only Arabic writing, replacing Byzantine and Persian designs.
2. Gibraltar means Jabal Tariq, the mountain of Tariq, after the commander who landed there in 711.
3. The Great Mosque of Damascus was built on the site of a Roman temple and a church of John the Baptist, whose head it still claims to hold.
4. The 717-718 siege of Constantinople was defeated partly by Greek fire and partly by a Bulgar attack on the Arab rear.
5. Umar II is remembered as the one pious Umayyad; he was later poisoned, allegedly by relatives who feared his reforms.
6. The Umayyads ruled about a third of the world's population but the ruling Arabs numbered only a few hundred thousand.
7. The Battle of Tours in 732 was probably a large raid, not an invasion, but became a symbol of Europe's survival.
8. Umayyad Spain outlived Umayyad Syria by nearly three centuries.

Sources

• Umayyad dynasty Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Umayyad Caliphate Wikipedia
• Umayyad Dynasty World History Encyclopedia
• G. R. Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islam (2000) Routledge

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