Editing Umayyad Caliphate (section)

==Legacy==
{{History of the Levant}}

[[File:Age-of-caliphs-xtra-space.png|thumb|upright=1.35|Map of the caliphate's expansion {{legend|#a1584e|Expansion under Muhammad, 622–632}}
{{legend|#ef9070|Expansion during the Rashidun Caliphate, 632–661}}
{{legend|#fad07d|Expansion during the Umayyad Caliphate, 661–750}}]]

The Umayyad caliphate was marked both by territorial expansion and by the administrative and cultural problems that such expansion created. Despite some notable exceptions, the Umayyads tended to favor the rights of the old Arab families, and in particular their own, over those of newly converted Muslims (mawali). Therefore, they held to a less universalist conception of Islam than did many of their rivals. As G.R. Hawting has written, "Islam was in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy."{{sfn|Hawting|2000|p=4}}

During the period of the Umayyads, Arabic became the administrative language and the process of [[Arabization]] was initiated in the Levant, Mesopotamia, North Africa, and Iberia.{{Sfn|Lapidus|2014|p=50}} State documents and currency were issued in Arabic. Mass conversions also created a growing population of Muslims in the territory of the caliphate.

According to one common view, the Umayyads transformed the caliphate from a religious institution (during the [[rashidun|Rashidun caliphate]]) to a dynastic one.{{sfn|Previté-Orton|1971|p=236}} However, the Umayyad caliphs do seem to have understood themselves as the representatives of God on earth, and to have been responsible for the "definition and elaboration of God's ordinances, or in other words the definition or elaboration of Islamic law."{{Sfn|Crone|Hinds|1986|p=43}}

The Umayyads have met with a largely negative reception from later Islamic historians, who have accused them of promoting a kingship (''mulk'', a term with connotations of tyranny) instead of a true caliphate (''khilafa''). In this respect it is notable that the Umayyad caliphs referred to themselves not as ''khalifat rasul Allah'' ("successor of the messenger of God", the title preferred by the tradition), but rather as ''khalifat Allah'' ("deputy of God"). The distinction seems to indicate that the Umayyads "regarded themselves as God's representatives at the head of the community and saw no need to share their religious power with, or delegate it to, the emergent class of religious scholars."{{sfn|Hawting|2000|p=13}} In fact, it was precisely this class of scholars, based largely in Iraq, that was responsible for collecting and recording the traditions that form the primary source material for the history of the Umayyad period. In [[Historiography of early Islam|reconstructing this history]], therefore, it is necessary to rely mainly on sources, such as the histories of [[Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari|Tabari]] and [[Ahmad ibn Yahya al-Baladhuri|Baladhuri]], that were written in the Abbasid court at [[Baghdad]].{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}

The book ''Al Muwatta'', by Imam Malik, was written in the early Abbasid period in Medina. It does not contain any anti-Umayyad content because it was more concerned with what the Quran and what Muhammad said and was not a history book on the Umayyads.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}} Even the earliest pro-Shia accounts of al-Masudi are more balanced. Al-Masudi's ''Ibn Hisham'' is the earliest Shia account of Muawiyah. He recounted that Muawiyah spent a great deal of time in prayer, in spite of the burden of managing a large empire.<ref>Muawiya Restorer of the Muslim Faith By Aisha Bewley Page 41</ref> After killing off most of the Umayyads and destroying the graves of the Umayyad rulers apart from [[Muawiya II|Muawiyah]] and [[Umar II|Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz]], the history books were written during the later Abbasid period are more anti-Umayyad.<ref>{{cite book |last=McAuliffe |first=Jane Dammen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F2oLiXT_66EC&pg=PA166 |title=The Cambridge Companion to the Qur'an |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-521-53934-0 |page=166 |access-date=25 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324231236/https://books.google.com/books?id=F2oLiXT_66EC&pg=PA166 |archive-date=24 March 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> The books written later in the Abbasid period in Iran are more anti-Umayyad. Iran was Sunni at the time. There was much anti-Arab feeling in Iran after the fall of the Persian empire.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Badiozamani |first1=Badi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NK6_hIN8SOwC&pg=PA118 |title=Iran and America Re-Kind[l]ing a Love Lost |last2=Badiozamani |first2=Ghazal |publisher=East West Understanding Press. |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-9742172-0-8 |page=118 |access-date=25 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324231237/https://books.google.com/books?id=NK6_hIN8SOwC&pg=PA118 |archive-date=24 March 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Modern [[Arab nationalism]] regards the period of the Umayyads as part of the Arab Golden Age which it sought to emulate and restore.{{dubious|date=December 2014}}<!--Arab nationalism does not equal "re-establish the caliphate" jihadism-->
This is particularly true of Syrian nationalists and the present-day state of Syria, centered like that of the Umayyads on Damascus.{{sfn|Gilbert|2013|pp=21–24, 39–40}} The Umayyad banners were white, after the banner of Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan;{{sfn|Hathaway|2012|p=97}} it is now one of the four [[Pan-Arab colors|Pan-Arab colours]] which appear in various combinations on the flags of most Arab countries.

===Religious perspectives===
====Sunni====
Many Muslims criticized the Umayyads for having too many non-Muslim, former Roman administrators in their government, ''e.g.'', St. [[John of Damascus]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1ioTXW3316AC&q=saint%20john%20umayyad%20administrators&pg=PA48|title=A Companion to the History of the Middle East|first=Youssef M.|last=Choueiri|date=15 April 2008|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|via=Google Books|isbn=978-1-4051-5204-4|access-date=22 November 2020|archive-date=24 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324231229/https://books.google.com/books?id=1ioTXW3316AC&q=saint%20john%20umayyad%20administrators&pg=PA48|url-status=live}}</ref> As the Muslims took over cities, they left the people's political representatives, the Roman tax collectors, and the administrators in the office. The taxes to the central government were calculated and negotiated by the people's political representatives. Both the central and local governments were compensated for the services each provided. Many Christian cities used some of the taxes to maintain their churches and run their own organizations. Later, the Umayyads were criticized by some Muslims for not reducing the taxes of the people who converted to Islam.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://occawlonline.pearsoned.com/bookbind/pubbooks/stearns_awl/chapter12/objectives/deluxe-content.html|title=Student Resources, Chapter 12: The First Global Civilization: The Rise and Spread of Islam, IV. The Arab Empire of the Umayyads, G. Converts and 'People of the Book'|publisher=occawlonline.pearsoned.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020521215309/http://occawlonline.pearsoned.com/bookbind/pubbooks/stearns_awl/chapter12/objectives/deluxe-content.html|archive-date=21 May 2002}}</ref>

Later, when [[Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz]] came to power, he reduced these taxes. He is therefore praised as one of the greatest Muslim rulers after the four [[Rightly Guided Caliphs]]. Imam Abu Muhammad Abdullah ibn Abdul Hakam (who lived in 829 and wrote a biography on Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz)<ref>Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz By Imam Abu Muhammad Abdullah ibn Abdul Hakam died 214 AH 829 C.E. Publisher Zam Zam Publishers Karachi</ref> stated that the reduction in these taxes stimulated the economy and created wealth but it also reduced the government's budget, including, eventually, the defence budget.

The only Umayyad ruler who is unanimously praised by Sunni sources for his devout piety and justice is Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} In his efforts to spread [[Islam]], he established liberties for the ''[[Mawali]]'' by abolishing the [[jizya]] tax for converts to Islam. Imam Abu Muhammad Abdullah ibn Abdul Hakam stated that Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz also stopped the personal allowance offered to his relatives, stating that he could only give them an allowance if he gave an allowance to everyone else in the empire. After Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz was poisoned in 720, successive governments tried to reverse Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz's tax policies, but rebellion resulted.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

====Shi'a====
The negative view of the Umayyads held by [[Shias]] is briefly expressed in the Shi'a book "Sulh al-Hasan".<ref name="Aal-yasin2014">{{cite book|author=Shaykh Radi Aal-yasin|title=Sulh Al-Hasan|chapter-url=http://www.balagh.net/english/ahl_bayt/sulh_al-hasan/24.htm|year=2000|publisher=Ansariyan Publishers|isbn=978-1-4960-4085-5|pages=297–344|chapter=Mu'awiya and the Shi'a Of 'Ali, Peace Be On Him|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040120234455/http://www.balagh.net/english/ahl_bayt/sulh_al-hasan/24.htm|archive-date=20 January 2004}}</ref> According to Shia hadiths, which are not considered authentic by Sunnis, [[Ali]] described them as the worst [[Fitna (word)|Fitna]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nahjulbalagha.org/SermonDetail.php?Sermon=92|title=Sermon 92: About the annihilation of the Kharijites, the mischief mongering of Umayyads and the vastness of his own knowledge|publisher=nahjulbalagha.org|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070819194029/http://www.nahjulbalagha.org/SermonDetail.php?Sermon=92|archive-date=19 August 2007}}</ref> In Shia sources, the Umayyad Caliphate is widely described as "tyrannical, anti-Islamic and godless".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NPvZoG6NtLkC&q=godless+umayyads&pg=PA227|title=Black Banners from the East: The Establishment of the ʻAbbāsid State : Incubation of a Revolt|last=Sharon|first=Moshe|date=1983|publisher=JSAI|isbn=978-965-223-501-5|language=en|access-date=22 November 2020|archive-date=24 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324231233/https://books.google.com/books?id=NPvZoG6NtLkC&q=godless+umayyads&pg=PA227|url-status=live}}</ref> Shias point out that the founder of the dynasty, Muawiyah, declared himself a caliph in 657 and went to war against Muhammad's son-in-law and cousin, the ruling caliph Ali, clashing at the [[Battle of Siffin]]. Muawiyah also declared his son, Yazid, as his successor in [[Hasan–Muawiya treaty|breach of a treaty with Hassan]], Muhammad's grandson. Another of Muhammad's grandsons, [[Husayn ibn Ali]], would be killed by Yazid in the [[Battle of Karbala]]. Further Shia Imams, [[Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin]] would be killed at the hands of ruling Umayyad caliphs.

====Bahá'í====
Asked for an explanation of the prophecies in the [[Book of Revelation]] (12:3), [[`Abdu'l-Bahá]] suggests in [[Some Answered Questions]] that the "great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads",<ref>{{cite web|title=Bible|url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+12:3&version=NKJV|website=biblegateway.com|access-date=20 April 2017|archive-date=21 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170421092633/https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+12:3&version=NKJV|url-status=live}}</ref> refers to the Umayyad caliphs who "rose against the religion of Prophet Muhammad and against the reality of Ali".<ref>{{cite book|author=`Abdu'l-Bahá|author-link=`Abdu'l-Bahá|orig-year=1908|year=1990|title=Some Answered Questions|page=69|publisher=Bahá'í Publishing Trust|location=Wilmette, Illinois|isbn=978-0-87743-190-9|url=http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/ab/SAQ/saq-13.html#pg69|access-date=19 May 2008|archive-date=8 December 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101208051450/http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/ab/SAQ/saq-13.html#pg69|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=`Abdu'l-Bahá|author-link=`Abdu'l-Bahá|orig-year=1908|year=1990|title=Some Answered Questions|page=51|publisher=Bahá'í Publishing Trust|location=Wilmette, Illinois|isbn=978-0-87743-190-9|url=http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/ab/SAQ/saq-11.html#pg51|access-date=16 September 2012|archive-date=24 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120924055253/http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/ab/SAQ/saq-11.html#pg51|url-status=live}}</ref>

The seven heads of the dragon are symbolic of the seven provinces of the lands dominated by the Umayyads: Damascus, Persia, Arabia, Egypt, Africa, Andalusia, and Transoxiana. The ten horns represent the ten names of the leaders of the Umayyad dynasty: Abu Sufyan, Muawiya, Yazid, Marwan, Abd al-Malik, Walid, Sulayman, Umar, Hisham, and Ibrahim. Some names were re-used, as in the case of Yazid II and Yazid III, which were not accounted for in this interpretation.