Middle East · The early caliphates
Umayyad Caliphate
Caliphate (hereditary monarchy) · 661–750
The Umayyads were the Banu Umayya, a leading merchant clan of Mecca's Quraysh tribe, initially the principal opponents of Muhammad before converting after the conquest of Mecca in 630. The third caliph, Uthman (r. 644–656), was an Umayyad whose nepotism provoked the unrest that killed him, triggering the First Fitna.
- Type
- Caliphate (hereditary monarchy)
- Existed
- 661–750
- Shown on the map
- AD 656–756
- Capital
- Damascus (661–744), Harran (744–750)
- Peak area
- ~9,900,000–15,000,000 km² (estimates vary; Wikipedia infobox gives 15M km² c. 720)
- Region
- Middle East
Origins & rise
The Umayyads were the Banu Umayya, a leading merchant clan of Mecca's Quraysh tribe, initially the principal opponents of Muhammad before converting after the conquest of Mecca in 630. The third caliph, Uthman (r. 644–656), was an Umayyad whose nepotism provoked the unrest that killed him, triggering the First Fitna. From that civil war, Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, long-serving governor of Syria, emerged victorious: after Ali's assassination in 661 and the abdication of Ali's son Hasan, Mu'awiya was recognized as caliph and transferred the capital and treasury to Damascus, founding the first hereditary dynasty of Islam.
History & key rulers
Umayyad rule divides into the Sufyanid line (661–684) and the Marwanid line (684–750). Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680) built the state's foundations on the Syrian Arab army, alliance with the Kalb-led Yaman tribes, and near-annual campaigns against Byzantium. His nomination of his son Yazid introduced hereditary succession — a revolutionary break with elective tradition. The killing of Muhammad's grandson Husayn at Karbala (680) and the rival caliphate of Ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca plunged the empire into the Second Fitna; the Marwanid Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) reunified the realm by 692 after the battles of Marj Rahit, Maskin, and the siege of Mecca. Under his son al-Walid I (r. 705–715) the caliphate reached its greatest extent: the Maghreb and Visigothic Hispania fell (711–716), Transoxiana and Sindh were conquered, and Armenia, Caucasian Albania, and Iberia were annexed as the province of Arminiya by 705. Later caliphs included the pious reformer Umar II (r. 717–720) and Hisham (r. 724–743), under whom expansion stalled — at Constantinople (717–718), at Tours/Poitiers (732), and against the Turks in Central Asia.
Government, religion & culture
The Umayyads ran a fiscal-military empire on Arab tribal foundations, but Abd al-Malik's reforms Arabized and Islamized the state: Arabic replaced Greek, Persian, and Coptic in the provincial bureaus (697–705); an independent Islamic coinage — the epigraphic gold dinar — replaced Byzantine and Sasanian money; and a professional salaried army replaced the old stipend system. Christians and Jews paid the jizya in return for protected status; non-Arab converts (mawali) chafed under second-class treatment. The era was formative for Islamic art and architecture: the Dome of the Rock (691/692), the Great Mosque of Damascus, and the desert palaces date from Umayyad patronage.
Peak & territory
At its peak under al-Walid I and Umar II (c. 715–720), the caliphate stretched from the Atlantic and Iberia across North Africa, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Iran to Central Asia and the Indus — roughly 13–15 million km², one of the largest empires in history, ruling perhaps 30–40% of the world's population, with Christians still a majority of its subjects.
Decline & legacy
Overextension, tribal factionalism (the Qays–Yaman feud), mawali resentment, and renewed civil war (the Third Fitna, 744–747) hollowed out the state. The Hashimiyya movement in Khurasan, raising black banners for the Abbasids, swept west under Abu Muslim; the last caliph, Marwan II, was defeated at the Great Zab in January 750 and killed in Egypt. The Umayyad family was massacred, but the fugitive Abd al-Rahman I founded the Emirate of Córdoba in 756, preserving the dynasty in al-Andalus for nearly three centuries. Sunni tradition views the Umayyads ambivalently; Shia memory casts them as usurpers, above all for Karbala.
Common questions
- What was the Umayyad Caliphate?
- The Umayyads were the Banu Umayya, a leading merchant clan of Mecca's Quraysh tribe, initially the principal opponents of Muhammad before converting after the conquest of Mecca in 630. The third caliph, Uthman (r. 644–656), was an Umayyad whose nepotism provoked the unrest that killed him, triggering the First Fitna.
- When did the Umayyad Caliphate exist?
- The Umayyad Caliphate existed 661–750. On this map it is drawn AD 656–756.
- What was the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate?
- The Umayyad Caliphate was ruled from Damascus (661–744), Harran (744–750).
- How large was the Umayyad Caliphate at its height?
- At its peak under al-Walid I and Umar II (c. 715–720), the caliphate stretched from the Atlantic and Iberia across North Africa, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Iran to Central Asia and the Indus — roughly 13–15 million km², one of the largest empires in history, ruling perhaps 30–40% of the world's population, with Christians still a majority of its subjects.
- Who ruled the Umayyad Caliphate?
- Umayyad rule divides into the Sufyanid line (661–684) and the Marwanid line (684–750). Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680) built the state's foundations on the Syrian Arab army, alliance with the Kalb-led Yaman tribes, and near-annual campaigns against Byzantium.
- How did the Umayyad Caliphate end?
- Overextension, tribal factionalism (the Qays–Yaman feud), mawali resentment, and renewed civil war (the Third Fitna, 744–747) hollowed out the state. The Hashimiyya movement in Khurasan, raising black banners for the Abbasids, swept west under Abu Muslim; the last caliph, Marwan II, was defeated at the Great Zab in January 750 and killed in Egypt.
- How was the Umayyad Caliphate governed?
- The Umayyads ran a fiscal-military empire on Arab tribal foundations, but Abd al-Malik's reforms Arabized and Islamized the state: Arabic replaced Greek, Persian, and Coptic in the provincial bureaus (697–705); an independent Islamic coinage — the epigraphic gold dinar — replaced Byzantine and Sasanian money; and a professional salaried army replaced the old stipend system.
Sources
Every source below was consulted while writing this entry.
- Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umayyad_Caliphate
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Umayyad dynasty" www.britannica.com/topic/Umayyad-dynasty-Islamic-history
This entry was written from the sources above and last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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