Umayyad Caliphate (661-750): The Empire Ruled from Damascus

The Umayyad Caliphate was the first hereditary dynasty of Islam, ruling from Damascus between 661 and 750. Under its caliphs the Islamic state expanded from Spain and Morocco to Central Asia and the Indus valley, becoming one of the largest empires the world had yet seen. The Umayyads made Arabic the language of government, minted the first purely Islamic coins and built the Dome of the Rock, before a revolution in 750 brought the Abbasids to power.

Origins and the first caliphs

The Umayyads were a leading clan of Quraysh, the tribe that dominated Mecca. Many of them, including the merchant Abu Sufyan, at first opposed the Prophet Muhammad, but they accepted Islam around the time of the conquest of Mecca in 630. Abu Sufyan’s son Mu’awiya became a scribe of the Prophet and later governor of Syria, which he ruled for about twenty years.

When the Umayyad caliph Uthman was murdered in 656, Mu’awiya demanded vengeance and refused to recognise Ali ibn Abi Talib as caliph. The resulting civil war, the First Fitna, ended with Ali’s assassination in 661 and the abdication of his son Hasan. Mu’awiya was recognised as caliph, and the capital moved from Arabia to Damascus.

Mu’awiya I (661–680), the first of the Sufyanid line descended from Abu Sufyan, relied on the loyal tribes of Syria and on skilled advisers, including Christian officials who had served Byzantium. He restored order, sent armies into North Africa, where the city of Kairouan was founded around 670, and attacked Byzantium by land and sea, including attacks on Constantinople in the 670s.

His most controversial decision was to name his son Yazid as heir, turning the caliphate into a hereditary monarchy. Yazid I (680–683) faced immediate resistance. In 680 Ali’s son Husayn was killed with members of his family at the Battle of Karbala, an event that became central to Shia Islam. Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr declared himself caliph in Mecca, and much of the empire recognised him.

The Marwanid revival

After the deaths of Yazid and his young son Mu’awiya II, the Umayyad leadership passed to another branch of the family. Marwan I (684–685) secured Syria with a victory at Marj Rahit in 684. His son Abd al-Malik (685–705) then reunited the empire. His general al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf besieged Mecca, and Ibn al-Zubayr was killed in 692, ending the Second Fitna.

Abd al-Malik was one of the most important rulers in Islamic history. He built the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, completed around 691–692, with inscriptions proclaiming the unity of God. Around 696–697 he introduced new gold dinars and silver dirhams bearing only Arabic religious inscriptions instead of images, replacing coins modelled on Byzantine and Persian types. From around 700 Arabic replaced Greek and Persian as the language of government records in the provinces.

Expansion from Spain to the Indus

Under Abd al-Malik’s son al-Walid I (705–715) the empire reached its greatest growth. In 711 Tariq ibn Ziyad crossed from North Africa into Spain, beginning the Umayyad conquest of Hispania that destroyed the Visigothic kingdom within a few years. In Central Asia, Qutayba ibn Muslim took Bukhara and Samarkand between about 706 and 712. In 711–712 Muhammad ibn al-Qasim conquered Sindh in the lower Indus valley.

Not every campaign succeeded. A huge land and sea expedition against Byzantium ended with the failed Arab siege of Constantinople in 717–718. In Gaul, a raiding army was defeated by the Franks under Charles Martel near Tours or Poitiers in 732. In 740 a great Berber revolt broke out in North Africa, and Umayyad armies suffered heavy defeats there and in Central Asia.

Government and society

The Umayyads ruled a vast, mostly non-Muslim population. Arab Muslims formed a ruling minority, many living in garrison cities such as Kufa, Basra, Fustat and Kairouan. Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians generally kept their religion and communal life but paid a poll tax (jizya) and land taxes.

The caliphs governed through provincial governors, who controlled armies and revenues. A system of registers (diwans) recorded the soldiers entitled to pay. The postal and intelligence service, the barid, connected the provinces with Damascus. Much of the administration was at first carried on by local officials in Greek, Persian and Coptic, until Abd al-Malik’s reforms. Papyri from Egypt show how this worked in practice: tax demands, receipts and orders from governors survive in Greek and Arabic, sometimes in both languages on the same document.

The caliphate was also a great economic space. Trade moved freely from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean and Central Asia, and the new coinage circulated across the whole empire. Cities such as Damascus, Kufa and Basra grew rapidly, and Basra and Kufa in particular became centres of Arabic grammar, poetry and early religious scholarship. The first systematic study of Islamic law and of the traditions of the Prophet (hadith) developed in this period, often among scholars who kept their distance from the court.

A major tension concerned the mawali, non-Arab converts to Islam who attached themselves to Arab tribes as clients. Many felt they were treated as second-class Muslims, sometimes continuing to pay taxes intended for non-Muslims. Caliph Umar II (717–720), remembered as a pious ruler, tried to address such grievances, but the issue remained a source of unrest, especially in Iraq and Khurasan.

Art and architecture

Umayyad building drew on Byzantine, Persian and Arab traditions to create the first great works of Islamic architecture. The Dome of the Rock, with its gold mosaics, and the Great Mosque of Damascus, built by al-Walid I between 705 and 715 on the site of a Christian basilica, set the pattern for later mosques. Al-Walid also rebuilt the Prophet’s mosque in Medina.

The caliphs and princes built palaces and estates on the edges of the Syrian desert. Qusayr Amra in Jordan, a small bathhouse of the early 8th century, preserves wall paintings of hunting scenes, rulers and figures, showing that early Islamic court art could be figurative in private settings. Khirbat al-Mafjar near Jericho is known for its mosaics, and Anjar in Lebanon was a planned town with colonnaded streets.

Decline and fall

Hisham (724–743) was the last caliph to rule a stable empire, but his reign saw costly wars and revolts on many frontiers. After his death the dynasty tore itself apart. Al-Walid II was killed in 744, and in the same year Yazid III and Ibrahim held power briefly. Marwan II (744–750) won control through force but faced rebellion everywhere. This period is known as the Third Fitna.

Feuds between the Qays and Yaman tribal groups divided the army. Shia supporters of the Prophet’s family, discontented mawali and Arab settlers in Khurasan were all ready to rebel. In 747 an agent named Abu Muslim raised the black banners of revolt in Khurasan on behalf of “a chosen one from the family of the Prophet”, a cause that was directed by the Abbasid family, descendants of Muhammad’s uncle al-Abbas.

The rebel armies took Kufa in 749, where Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah was proclaimed caliph. In January 750 Marwan II was defeated at the Battle of the Great Zab in northern Iraq. He fled to Egypt and was killed there in August 750. The new rulers hunted down members of the Umayyad family, and many were massacred, notably at a banquet near Jaffa. The Abbasid caliphate moved the centre of power east to Iraq.

Key people

• Mu’awiya I (caliph 661–680): founder of the dynasty and long-serving governor of Syria.
• Abd al-Malik (caliph 685–705): reunited the empire, built the Dome of the Rock and reformed coinage and administration.
• Al-Walid I (caliph 705–715): presided over conquests in Spain, Central Asia and Sindh and built the Great Mosque of Damascus.
• Umar II (caliph 717–720): remembered for piety and for attempts to reform taxation.
• Hisham (caliph 724–743): last strong Umayyad ruler of the united caliphate.
• Marwan II (caliph 744–750): the last Umayyad caliph in Damascus, killed in 750.

Legacy

The Umayyads turned the conquests of the early caliphs into a lasting state. Arabic became the common language of government and later of learning from Spain to Central Asia, and Islam spread slowly among the populations they ruled. Their monuments are among the oldest surviving buildings of Islamic civilisation.

Their reputation is mixed. Later Abbasid-era historians, writing under the dynasty that overthrew them, often portrayed the Umayyads as worldly kings rather than religious leaders, and Shia tradition remembers them especially for Karbala. Modern historians emphasise their achievements in administration and building alongside the violence of their rule.

One prince, Abd al-Rahman, grandson of Hisham, escaped to Spain and became emir of Cordoba in 756. His descendants ruled al-Andalus for nearly three centuries, declaring a caliphate in 929 and making Cordoba one of the great cities of medieval Europe.

Timeline

• 661: Mu’awiya is recognised as caliph; Damascus becomes the capital.
• 680: death of Mu’awiya; Husayn ibn Ali is killed at Karbala.
• 684: Marwan I wins at Marj Rahit and the Marwanid branch takes power.
• c. 691–692: completion of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.
• 692: Ibn al-Zubayr is killed in Mecca; end of the Second Fitna.
• c. 696–697: Abd al-Malik introduces purely Arabic-inscribed coinage.
• 711: Muslim armies enter Spain and Sindh.
• 717–718: failed Arab siege of Constantinople.
• 747: Abbasid revolution begins in Khurasan.
• 750: Marwan II is defeated at the Great Zab and killed; the Abbasids take power.

Why it matters

The Umayyad Caliphate shaped the Islamic world more than almost any other dynasty. It created an empire spanning three continents, made Arabic and Islam dominant across it and produced the first masterpieces of Islamic architecture. Its fall, and the survival of its branch in Spain, also explain the later political division of the Muslim world between east and west.