Editing Umayyad Caliphate (section)

====Domestic consolidation and centralization====
[[File:First Umayyad gold dinar, Caliph Abd al-Malik, 695 CE.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Abd al-Malik introduced an independent Islamic currency, the [[gold dinar]], in 693, which originally depicted a human figure, likely the caliph, as shown in this coin minted in 695. In 697, the figural depictions were replaced solely by Qur'anic and other Islamic inscriptions]]

Iraq remained politically unstable and the garrisons of Kufa and Basra had become exhausted by warfare with Kharijite rebels.{{sfn|Gibb|1960b|p=76}}{{sfn|Kennedy|2001|p=33}} In 694 Abd al-Malik combined both cities as a single province under the governorship of al-Hajjaj, who oversaw the suppression of the Kharijite revolts in Iraq and Iran by 698 and was subsequently given authority over the rest of the eastern caliphate.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=87}}{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|p=231}} Resentment among the Iraqi troops towards al-Hajjaj's methods of governance, particularly his death threats to force participation in the war efforts and his reductions to their stipends, culminated with a mass Iraqi rebellion against the Umayyads in {{circa|700}}. The leader of the rebels was the Kufan nobleman [[Ibn al-Ash'ath]], grandson of al-Ash'ath ibn Qays.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|pp=87–88}} Al-Hajjaj defeated Ibn al-Ash'ath's rebels at the [[Battle of Dayr al-Jamajim]] in April.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=88}}{{sfn|Kennedy|2001|p=34}} The suppression of the revolt marked the end of the Iraqi ''muqātila'' as a military force and the beginning of Syrian military domination of Iraq.{{sfn|Gibb|1960b|p=77}}{{sfn|Kennedy|2001|p=34}} Iraqi internal divisions, and the utilization of more disciplined Syrian forces by Abd al-Malik and al-Hajjaj, voided the Iraqis' attempt to reassert power in the province.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=88}}

To consolidate Umayyad rule after the Second Fitna, the Marwanids launched a series of centralization, [[Islamization]] and [[Arabization]] measures.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=85}}{{sfn|Hawting|2000|p=62}} These measures included the creation of multiple classes of Arabic-inscribed administrative media as a way to proliferate their particular political, cultural, and religious disposition to both Arab and non-Arab audiences.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ramadan |first=Tareq A. |date=2017 |title=Inscribed Administrative Material Culture And The Development Of The Umayyad State In Syria-Palestine 661-750 CE (Dissertation) |journal=Wayne State University Dissertations |url=https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations/1860/}}</ref> To prevent further rebellions in Iraq, al-Hajjaj founded a permanent Syrian garrison in [[Wasit]], situated between Kufa and Basra, and instituted a more rigorous administration in the province.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=88}}{{sfn|Kennedy|2001|p=34}} Power thereafter derived from the Syrian troops, who became Iraq's ruling class, while Iraq's Arab nobility, religious scholars and ''mawālī'' became their virtual subjects.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=88}} The surplus from the agriculturally rich [[Sawad]] lands was redirected from the ''muqātila'' to the caliphal treasury in Damascus to pay the Syrian troops in Iraq.{{sfn|Kennedy|2001|p=34}}{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=85}} The system of military pay established by Umar, which paid stipends to veterans of the earlier Muslim conquests and their descendants, was ended, salaries being restricted to those in active service.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=89}} The old system was considered a handicap on Abd al-Malik's executive authority and financial ability to reward loyalists in the army.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=89}} Thus, a professional army was established during Abd al-Malik's reign whose salaries derived from tax proceeds.{{sfn|Kennedy|2016|p=89}}

In 693, the Byzantine gold ''[[solidus (coin)|solidus]]'' was replaced in Syria and Egypt with the [[gold dinar|dinar]].{{sfn|Gibb|1960b|p=77}}{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|pp=28, 94}} Initially, the new coinage contained depictions of the caliph as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community and its supreme military commander.{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|p=28}} This image proved no less acceptable to Muslim officialdom and was replaced in 696 or 697 with image-less coinage inscribed with Qur'anic quotes and other Muslim religious formulas.{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|pp=28, 94}} In 698/699, similar changes were made to the silver [[dirham]]s issued by the Muslims in the former Sasanian Persian lands of the eastern caliphate.{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|p=94}} Arabic replaced [[Middle Persian|Persian]] as the language of the ''dīwān'' in Iraq in 697, [[Greek language|Greek]] in the Syrian ''dīwān'' in 700, and Greek and [[Coptic language|Coptic]] in the Egyptian ''dīwān'' in 705/706.{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|pp=28, 94}}{{sfn|Hawting|2000|p=63}}{{sfn|Duri|1965|p=324}} Arabic ultimately became the sole official language of the Umayyad state,{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|p=94}} but the transition in faraway provinces, such as Khurasan, did not occur until the 740s.{{sfn|Hawting|2000|pp=63–64}} Although the official language was changed, Greek and Persian-speaking bureaucrats who were versed in Arabic kept their posts.{{sfn|Wellhausen|1927|pp=219–220}} According to Gibb, the decrees were the "first step towards the reorganization and unification of the diverse tax-systems in the provinces, and also a step towards a more definitely Muslim administration".{{sfn|Gibb|1960b|p=77}} Indeed, it formed an important part of the Islamization measures that lent the Umayyad Caliphate "a more ideological and programmatic coloring it had previously lacked", according to Blankinship.{{sfn|Blankinship|1994|p=95}}

In 691/692, Abd al-Malik completed the [[Dome of the Rock]] in Jerusalem.{{sfn|Johns|2003|pp=424–426}}{{sfn|Elad|1999|p=45}} It was possibly intended as a monument of victory over the Christians that would distinguish Islam's uniqueness within the common [[Abrahamic]] setting of Jerusalem, home of the two older Abrahamic faiths, Judaism and Christianity.{{sfn|Grabar|1986|p=299}}{{sfn|Hawting|2000|p=60}} An alternative motive may have been to divert the religious focus of Muslims in the Umayyad realm from the Ka'aba in Zubayrid Mecca (683–692), where the Umayyads were routinely condemned during the Hajj.{{sfn|Grabar|1986|p=299}}{{sfn|Johns|2003|pp=425–426}}{{sfn|Hawting|2000|p=60}} In Damascus, Abd al-Malik's son and successor [[al-Walid I]] ({{reign|705|715}}) confiscated the cathedral of [[John the Baptist|St. John the Baptist]] and founded the [[Umayyad Mosque|Great Mosque]] in its place as a "symbol of the political supremacy and moral prestige of Islam", according to historian Nikita Elisséeff.{{sfn|Elisséeff|1965|p=801}} Noting al-Walid's awareness of architecture's propaganda value, historian Robert Hillenbrand calls the Damascus mosque a "victory monument" intended as a "visible statement of Muslim supremacy and permanence".{{sfn|Hillenbrand|1994|pp=71–72}}