Umayyad

The Umayyad dynasty (Banu Umayyah), deriving its name from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of Muawiyah I, was the first great dynasty of the Muslim Caliphate, 661–750.

1 Origins
2 Legacy
- 2.1 Sunni view
- 2.2 Shi'a view
3 Lists
4 See also
5 Images
6 References
7 External links

Origins

Most Historians consider the dynasty to begin with Muawiyah ibn Abu Sufyan, because Muawiyah 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 band of brothers, whose relations to the Prophet were closer.

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 Muawiyah, and they provided much needed political and diplomatic skills for the management and expansion of the fast growing Islamic empire.

Muawiyah'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.

The Abbasids where the complete opposite of

"Na'ila, Uthman's wife, sent Muawiyah Uthman's blood-stained shirt and told him erroneously that she thought Ali was involved."<ref>page 18, Mu'awiya: Restorer of the Muslim Faith by Aisha Bewley, Dar Al Taqwa Ltd. 2002</ref>

Muawiyah then marched his army of 70,000 against Ali demanding that the murderers of his uncle be executed or handed over to Muawiyah. This was the beginning the First Fitna or Islamic civil war in 657. The Syrian side called Ali's party for arbitration claiming that if they fight amongst one another than the Byzantines would take the opportunity to attack the Muslims.<ref>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</ref> 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 Muawiyah, Muawiyah 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.

Legacy

Sunni view

Sunnis believe that disputes that occurred between the Companions of the Prophet do not act as permission to censure or speak ill of them. This view is borne out of the numerous Quranic verses and Prophetic Hadith which indicate that Allah was pleased with the entire generation of Companions and the impermissibility of reviling them.

As a result, while the commonly established view is that Ali was correct in his judgements during the period of his dispute with Muawiyah, Sunnis also believe that Muawiyah was only exercising his own judgement. Sunnis stress that though Muawiyah erred in his reasoning, he acted sincerely and not from selfish ambition.<ref>http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=4072&CATE=1</ref> Regarding the actual period of his rule, Sunnis generally praise Muawiyah's excellence as a leader.<ref>http://www.bewley.virtualave.net/muawiya.html</ref>

Sunni opinions of the Umayyad dynasty after Muawiyah are typically dim, viewing many of the rulers as common sinners and causes of great tribulation in the Ummah. For example, in the section concerning Quran 60:17 <ref> http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/017.qmt.html </ref> in the exegesis by al-Suyuti entitled Dur al-Manthur, the author writes that there exist traditions which describe the Umayyads as "the cursed tree". There are some exceptions to this -- Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz is commonly praised as one of the greatest Muslim rulers after the four Rightly Guided Caliphs.

Shi'a view

The Shi'a view is shortly expressed in the Shi'a book "Sulh al-Hasan" <ref>http://www.balagh.net/english/ahl_bayt/sulh_al-hasan/</ref>:

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.<ref>[1] Chapter 24</ref>