Umayyad
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[edit] Overview
The term "Umayyad" is Greek, referring to "Banu Umayyah" those descended from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of Muawiya I. Most historians consider the dynasty to begin with Muawiya ibn Abu Sufyan, because Muawiya was the first to assert the Umayyads' right to rule on a dynastic principle. Caliph Uthman before him was also a descendent of Umayya, and during his time had been criticised for placing members of his family within political positions; however since he never declared an heir he cannot be considered the founder of a dynasty.
The Umayya and Islamic Prophet Muhammad both descended from a common ancestor Abd-Munaf. One son of Abd-Munaf was Hashim, whose son was Abdul Muttalib, whose son was Abdullah, whose son was Muhammad. Another son of Abd Munaf was Abd-Shams, whose son was Umayya. The clans of Hashim and Umayya both belonged to the Quraish tribe named after an ancestor of Abd-Munaf. The Umayyads thereby claimed to be the "people of the House"; which claim was countered by the Alids and (later) the Abbasids, whose relations to the Prophet were closer.
However, the Shi'a Islam History claims that Umayya was not the real son of Abd-Shams, but that the latter, when visiting Rome, he saw a child being sold in miserable conditions. Being childless he adopted Ummaya and took him to Arabia where he was brought up. When Ummaya was young he departed from Quraish tribe.
The Umayyad clan had bitter rivalry with the Hashim clan (from which came the Abbasid clan), especially as Abu Sufian was the most determined and bitterest enemy of Muhammad, and sought to exterminate the adherents of the new religion, by waging a series of battles. But at last, Abu Sufian embraced Islam, and so did his son Muawiya, and they provided much needed political and diplomatic skills for the management and expansion of the fast growing Islamic empire.
Muawiya's personal dynasty, the "Sufyanids", reigned only from CE 661 to CE 683, when his son Yazid died with no credible heirs. The Umayyads and their supporters then rallied around the "Marwanids" descended from Marwan, 684-750. After that the Abbasids took over the Near East and killed nearly all Umayyads there. Some Sufyanid pretenders occasionally rebelled in Syria, although these were generally not accepted as genuine members of the family. 'Abd al-Rahman of the Marwanids survived in the Al-Andalus (Moorish Iberia), and later proclaimed his family as the Umayyad Caliphate revived.
[edit] History
| Early Muslim Expansions |
|---|
| Asia Minor and Africa – Persia – Hispania – Central Asia – Caucasus |
| Civil Wars of the Early Caliphates |
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| Ridda wars – First Fitna – Ibn al-Zubair's revolt – Kharijite Revolt –Second Fitna – Berber Revolt – Zaidi Revolt– Abassid Revolt |
Muawiyah had been the governor of Syria under the 2nd and 3rd caliphs and his kinsman, Uthman ibn Affan. Uthman was killed by a group of egyptian malcontents, tired with what they saw as the nepotism of uthmans reign. Uthman was replaced as caliph by Ali ibn Abi Talib, the son-in-law of Muhammad.
- "Na'ila, Uthman's wife, sent Muawiyah Uthman's blood-stained shirt and told him erroneously that she thought Ali was involved."[1]
Muawiyah than marched his army of 70,000 against Ali demanding that the murderers of his uncle be executed or handed over to Muawiya. This was the beginning the First Fitna or Islamic civil war in 657. The Syrian side called Ali's party for arbtration claiming that if they fight amongst one another than the Byzantines would take the oppurtunity to attack the Muslims.[2] The two sides agreed to the conciliation procedure, resulting in an arbitration that many of Ali's partisans saw as unfair, this group broke away from ali's force and formed the khajarites, believing that the fate of the muslim Umma shouldn't rest on arbitration but on the will of god. The Khajarites assassinated Ali in 661 but failed in their attempt on Muawiya, Muawiya was then free to be declared Caliph, and move his capital to Damascus. Syria remained the Umayyad power base to the end of its existence in the Near East.
The reign of the Umayyads saw great expansion. Muslim armies pushed across North Africa and Iran, through the late 600s, expanding the borders of the empire from the Iberian Peninsula, in the west, to what is today Pakistan, in the east. Forces led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad crossed Gibraltar and established Muslim power in the Iberian peninsula, while other armies established power far away in Sind, in Northern India.
Mistreatment of the Mawali(non-Arab) Muslims as subordinate to Arabs led to uprisings. These uprisings, coupled with the increased resistance of the foes of the Umayyads, the Franks under Charles Martel in France, the Byzantines in Anatolia, the Turkic Khanate in Transoxiana, and the newly invigorated Hindu principalities in India, exhausted the Syrian corps used as the backbone of the Umayyad army. These uprisings, especially the Great Berber Revolt of 740, left the stage open for rival factions to take power.
The Umayyads were overthrown in the east by the Abbasid dynasty after their defeat in the Battle of the Zab in 750, following which most of the clan was massacred by the Abbasids. An Umayyad prince, Abd ar-Rahman I, took over the Muslim territory in Al-Andalus (Hispania) and founded a new Umayyad dynasty there. This dynasty ended in 1031.
[edit] Legacy
[edit] Sunni view
Most Sunnis view the killings of Hassan and Hussein as unjust and the actions of many Umayyad rulers, such as Muawiyah and Yazid, and their successors, as unjust and un-Islamic. There is disagreement among Sunnis as to the legitimacy of Ali's claim to the Caliphate. Ali himself ceded power voluntarily to Uthman, however, in order to avoid Fitna (dissension, strife, negative conflict) within the Umma or Community.
[edit] Shi'a view
The Shi'a veiw is shortly expresed in the Shi'a book "Sulh al-Hasan" [3]:
- Mu'awiya designed an Umayyad policy. The Umayyad rules after him followed that policy. They (i.e., the Umayyads) wanted to make themselves lords. They wanted to show the people that they had all laudable qualities. So generosity, clemency, cleverness, bravery, and eloquence belonged to them, not to the people. In other words the Umayyads wanted to denote that these qualities were some of their special talents. The Umayyads did their best to fix this intentional policy. Thus they made a false history that was full of a series of fabricated traditions, made- up stories, various lies, and baseless claims. Moreover, they ordered the hireling preachers and the teachers of the schools in all Muslim countries to study the Umayyad hopes including false praise or fake slander.[4]
[edit] Lists
[edit] Caliphs
[edit] Umayyad Caliphs at Damascus
- Muawiyah I ibn Abi Sufyan, 661–680
- Yazid I ibn Muawiyah, 680–683
- Muawiya II ibn Yazid, 683–684
- Marwan I ibn Hakam, 684–685
- Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, 685–705
- al-Walid I ibn Abd al-Malik, 705–715
- Suleiman ibn Abd al-Malik, 715–717
- Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, 717–720
- Yazid II ibn Abd al-Malik, 720–724
- Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, 724–743
- al-Walid II ibn Yazid II, 743–744
- Yazid III ibn al-Walid, 744
- Ibrahim ibn al-Walid, 744
- Marwan II ibn Muhammad (ruled from Harran in the Jazira) 744–750
[edit] Umayyad Emirs of Cordoba
- Abd ar-Rahman I, 756–788
- Hisham I, 788–796
- al-Hakam I, 796–822
- Abd ar-Rahman II, 822–852
- Muhammad I of Córdoba, 852-886
- Al-Mundhir, 842 - 888
- Abdallah ibn Muhammad, 888–912
- Abd ar-Rahman III, 912–929
[edit] Umayyad Caliphs at Cordoba
- Abd ar-Rahman III, as caliph, 929–961
- Al-Hakam II, 961–976
- Hisham II, 976–1008
- Mohammed II, 1008–1009
- Suleiman, 1009–1010
- Hisham II, restored, 1010–1012
- Suleiman, restored, 1012–1017
- Abd ar-Rahman IV, 1021–1022
- Abd ar-Rahman V, 1022–1023
- Muhammad III, 1023–1024
- Hisham III, 1027–1031
[edit] Umayyad sahaba
Here is a partial list of the sahaba (Companions of Muhammad) who were part of the Umayyad clan:
[edit] Umayyad taba'een
Here is a partial list of the Taba'een (the generation that succeeded the Companions) who were part of the Umayyads clan:
[edit] See also
[edit] Images
[edit] References
- ^ page 18, Mu'awiya: Restorer of the Muslim Faith by Aisha Bewley, Dar Al Taqwa Ltd. 2002
- ^ ibid. 22 Bewley uses a Shi'a account of the battle and the reconcilliation as narrated by Nasr b. Muzahim which is based on the earlier history of Abu Mikhnaf
- ^ http://www.balagh.net/english/ahl_bayt/sulh_al-hasan/
- ^ [1] Chapter 24
