Umayyad Caliphate (jan 1, 661 – jan 1, 750)

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The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; UK: /ʊˈmaɪjæd, uːˈ-/, US: /uːˈmaɪ(j)əd, -aɪæd/; Arabic: ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة‎, romanized: al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty (Arabic: ٱلْأُمَوِيُّون‎, al-ʾUmawīyūn, or بَنُو أُمَيَّة, Banū ʾUmayyah, "Sons of Umayyah"). The third caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, Uthman ibn Affan (r. 644–656), was also a member of the Umayyad clan. The family established dynastic, hereditary rule with Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, long-time governor of al-Sham (Greater Syria), who became the sixth caliph after the end of the First Muslim Civil War in 661. After Mu'awiyah's death in 680, conflicts over the succession resulted in a Second Civil War and power eventually fell into the hands of Marwan I from another branch of the clan. The region of Syria remained the Umayyads' main power base thereafter, and Damascus was their capital. The Umayyads continued the Muslim conquests, incorporating the Transoxiana, Sindh, the Maghreb and the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus) into the Muslim world. At its greatest extent, the Umayyad Caliphate covered 11,100,000 km2 (4,300,000 sq mi), making it one of the largest empires in history in terms of area. The dynasty was eventually overthrown by a rebellion led by the Abbasids in 750. Survivors of the dynasty established themselves in Cordoba which, in the form of an emirate and then a caliphate, became a world centre of science, medicine, philosophy and invention, ushering in the period of the Golden Age of Islam. The Umayyad Caliphate ruled over a vast multiethnic and multicultural population. Christians, who still constituted a majority of the caliphate's population, and Jews were allowed to practice their own religion but had to pay a head tax (the jizya) from which Muslims were exempt. There was, however, the Muslim-only zakat tax, which was earmarked explicitly for various welfare programmes for the benefit of Muslims or Muslim converts only. Prominent positions were held by Christians, some of whom belonged to families that had served in Byzantine governments. The employment of Christians was part of a broader policy of religious accommodation that was necessitated by the presence of large Christian populations in the conquered provinces, as in Syria. This policy also boosted Muawiya's popularity and solidified Syria as his power base. The Umayyad era is often considered the formative period in Islamic art.

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