UMAYYAD DYNASTY

also spelled Omayyad first great Muslim dynasty to rule the Empire of the Caliphate (AD 661750), sometimes referred to as the Arab kingdom (reflecting traditional Muslim disapproval of the secular nature of the Umayyad state). The Umayyads, headed by Abu Sufyan, were a largely merchant family of the Quraysh tribe centred at Mecca. They had initially resisted Islam, not converting until 627, but subsequently became prominent administrators under Muhammad and his immediate successors. In the first Muslim civil war (fitnah; 656661)the struggle for the caliphate following the murder of 'Uthman, the third caliph (reigned 644656)Abu Sufyan's son Mu'awiyah, then governor of Syria, emerged victorious over 'Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law and fourth caliph; Mu'awiyah then established himself as the first Umayyad caliph. Umayyad rule was divided between two branches of the family: the Sufyanid (reigned 661684), descendants of Abu Sufyan, and the Marwanid (reigned 684750), Marwan I and his successors. The Sufyanids, notably Mu'awiyah I (reigned 661680), centralized caliphal authority in Damascus. The Syrian army became the basis of Umayyad strength, enabling the creation of a united empire through greater control of the conquered provinces and of Arab tribal rivalries. Muslim rule expanded to Khorasan, garrison cities were founded at Merv and Seistan as bases for expeditions into Central Asia and northwestern India, and the invasion of northwestern Africa was begun. A new fleet conducted a series of campaigns against Constantinople (669678), which, while ultimately unsuccessful, offset the secular image of the state, because they were directed against the Christians. Though the Sufyanids generally retained the Byzantine and Persian administrative bureaucracies they inherited in the provinces, politically they were organized along Arab tribal lines, in which the caliph was chosen by his peers to become, theoretically, first among equals and act on the advice of a shura (tribal council). Mu'awiyah, however, in securing during his lifetime an oath of allegiance to his son Yazid I, disregarded the traditional election (bay'ah) and introduced the alien concept of hereditary succession. Civil war and the deaths of Yazid I in 683 and of Mu'awiyah II in 684 brought Sufyanid rule to an end. Marwan I was proclaimed caliph in Syria in 684 amid tribal wars. Under 'Abd al-Malik (reigned 685705), the Umayyad caliphate reached its peak. Muslim armies overran most of Spain in the west and invaded Mukran and Sind in India, while in Central Asia, the Khorasanian garrisons conquered Bukhara, Samarkand, Khwarezm, Fergana, and Tashkent. In an extensive program of Arabization, Arabic became the official state language; the financial administration of the empire was reorganized, with Arabs replacing Persian and Greek officials; and a new Arabic coinage replaced the former imitations of Byzantine and Sasanian coins. Communications also improved with the introduction of a regular post service from Damascus to the provincial capitals, and architecture flourished. Decline began with the disastrous defeat of the Syrian army by the Byzantine Leo III, the Isaurian (717). Then the fiscal reforms of the pious 'Umar II (reigned 717720), intended to mollify the increasingly discontented mawali (non-Arab Muslims) by placing all Muslims on the same footing, without respect of nationality, led to financial crisis, while the recrudescence of feuds between southern (Kalb) and northern (Qays) Arab tribes seriously reduced military power. Hisham (reigned 724743) was able to stem the tide temporarily. As the empire was reaching the limits of expansionthe Muslim advance into France was decisively halted at Poitiers (732), and Arab forces in Anatolia were destroyed (740)frontier defenses, manned by Syrian troops, were organized to meet the challenge of Turks in Central Asia and Berbers in North Africa. But in the years following Hisham's death, feuds between the Qays and the Kalb erupted into major revolts in Syria, Iraq, and Khorasan (745746), while the mawali became involved with the Hashimiyah (q.v.), a religio-political sect that denied the legitimacy of Umayyad rule. In 749 the Hashimiyah, aided by the western provinces, proclaimed as caliph Abu al-'Abbas as-Saffah, who thereby became first of the 'Abbasid dynasty. The last Umayyad, Marwan II (reigned 744750), was defeated at the Battle of the Great Zab River (750). Members of the Umayyad house were hunted down and killed, but one of the survivors, 'Abd ar-Rahman, escaped and established himself as a Muslim ruler in Spain (756), founding the dynasty of the Umayyads of Crdoba.