Editing Umayyad Caliphate (section)

====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}}