In thepre-Islamic period, the Umayyads were a prominent clan of theMeccan tribe of Quraysh, descended fromUmayya ibn Abd Shams. Despite staunch opposition to theIslamic prophetMuhammad, the Umayyads embraced Islam after theConquest of Mecca in 630.Uthman ibn Affan, an early companion of Muhammad from the Umayyad clan, became the thirdRashidun caliph, ruling from 644 to 656, while other members held various governorships. This includedMu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, the long-time governor of theLevant, who opposed the fourth Rashidun caliphAli ibn Abi Talib in theFirst Fitna (656–661) and subsequently founded the Umayyad Caliphate with its capital inDamascus. Umayyad authority was later challenged in theSecond Fitna, during which the Sufyanid line of Mu'awiya (which includes only the three first Umayyad caliphs) was replaced in 684 byMarwan ibn al-Hakam, who founded the Marwanid line of Umayyad caliphs, which restored the dynasty's rule over the Caliphate and remained so until the fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba. His son and successorAbd al-Malik ibn Marwan would reassert Umayyad control over the Caliphate after defeating theZubayrids in 692. Abd al-Malik made key reforms to the administrative structure of the caliphate, including the centralization of caliphal power, the restructuring of the military, and the implementation ofArabization andIslamization policies on the bureaucracy.
The Umayyads, or Banu Umayya, were a prominent clan of the largerQuraysh tribe, which dominatedMecca in thepre-Islamic era.[5] The Quraysh derived prestige among the Arab tribes through their protection and maintenance of theKaaba, which at the time was regarded by the largelypolytheistic Arabs across the Arabian Peninsula as their most sacred sanctuary.[5] A Qurayshite leader,Abd Manaf ibn Qusayy, who based on his place in the genealogical tradition would have lived in the late 5th century, was charged with the maintenance and protection of the Kaʿba and its pilgrims.[6] These roles passed to his sonsAbd Shams,Hashim and others.[6] Abd Shams was the father ofUmayya, the eponymous progenitor of the Umayyads.[7]
Umayya succeeded Abd Shams as theqa'id (wartime commander) of the Meccans.[8] This position was likely an occasional political post whose holder oversaw the direction of Mecca's military affairs in times of war, instead of an actual field command.[8] This early experience in military leadership proved instructive, as later Umayyads would be known and recognized for possessing considerable political and military organizational capabilities.[8] The historianGiorgio Levi Della Vida suggests that information in the early Arabic sources about Umayya, as with all the ancient progenitors of thetribes of Arabia, "be accepted with caution", but "that too great skepticism with regard to tradition would be as ill-advised as absolute faith in its statements".[7] Della Vida asserts that since the Umayyads who appear at the beginning of Islamic history in the early 7th century were no later than third-generation descendants of Umayya, the latter's existence is highly plausible.[7]
By circa 600, the Quraysh had developed trans-Arabian trade networks, organizing caravans toSyria in the north andYemen in the south.[5] The Banu Umayya and theBanu Makhzum, another prominent Qurayshite clan, dominated these trade networks. To secure these routes, they developed economic and military alliances with thenomadic Arab tribes that controlled the expanses of the northern and central Arabian deserts, gaining them commercial influence and a degree of political power in Arabia.[9]
The Islamic prophet Muhammad was a member of theBanu Hashim, a Qurayshite clan related to the Banu Umayya through their shared ancestor, Abd Manaf. When he began his religious teachings in Mecca, he was opposed by most of the Quraysh.[10][11] He found support from the inhabitants ofMedina and relocated there with his followers in 622.[12] TheBanu Abd Shams, which included the Umayyads, were among the principal leaders of Qurayshite opposition to Muhammad.[13] They superseded the Banu Makhzum, led byAbu Jahl, as a result of the heavy losses that the Banu Makhzum's leadership incurred fighting the Muslims at theBattle of Badr in 624.[14] The chief of the Umayyad clan,Abu Sufyan, thereafter became the leader of the Meccan Qurayshite army that fought against the Muslims under Muhammad at theBattle of Uhud and theBattle of the Trench.[13]
Abu Sufyan and his sons, along with most of the Umayyads, embraced Islam towards the end of Muhammad's life, following the Muslimconquest of Mecca.[13] To secure the loyalty of prominent Umayyad leaders, including Abu Sufyan, Muhammad offered them gifts and positions of importance in the nascent Muslim state.[13] He installed another Umayyad,Attab ibn Asid ibn Abi al-Is, as the first governor of Mecca.[15] Although Mecca retained its paramountcy as the center of the new religion, Medina continued to serve as the political center of the Muslims. Abu Sufyan and the Banu Umayya relocated to Medina to maintain their growing political influence.[16]
Muhammad's death in 632 created a succession crisis, while nomadic tribes throughout Arabia that had embraced Islam defected from Medina's authority.[17]Abu Bakr, one of Muhammad's oldest friends and an early convert to Islam, was electedcaliph (paramount political and religious leader of the Muslim community).[18] Abu Bakr showed favor to the Umayyads by awarding them a prominent role in theMuslim conquest of Syria. He appointed an Umayyad,Khalid ibn Sa'id ibn al-As, as commander of the expedition, but replaced him with other commanders, among whom were Abu Sufyan's sons,Yazid andMu'awiya. Abu Sufyan had already owned property and maintained trade networks in Syria.[19][20]
Abu Bakr's successor, CaliphUmar (r. 634–644), while actively curtailing the influence of the Qurayshite elite in favor of Muhammad's earlier supporters in the administration and military, did not disturb the growing foothold of Abu Sufyan's sons in Syria, which was all but conquered by 638.[21] When Umar's overall commander over the province,Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah, died in 639, he appointed Yazid governor of theDamascus,Palestine andJordan districts of Syria.[21] Yazid died shortly after and Umar installed his brotherMu'awiya in his place.[22] Umar's exceptional treatment of Abu Sufyan's sons may have stemmed from his personal respect for the family, their burgeoning alliance with the powerfulBanu Kalb tribe as a counterweight to the aristocraticHimyarite tribes who dominated theHoms district, or due to the lack of a suitable candidate amidst theplague of Amwas, which had already killed Abu Ubayda and Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan.[22]
Caliph Umar died in 644 and was succeeded byUthman ibn Affan, a wealthy Umayyad merchant, early convert to Islam, and son-in-law and close companion of Muhammad.[23] Uthman initially kept his predecessors' appointees in their provincial posts but gradually replaced many of them with Umayyads or his maternal kinsmen from their parent clan, the Banu Abd Shams.[24]Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, who had been appointed by Umar, retained his post under Uthman, who expanded Mu'awiya's governorship to include the entirety ofGreater Syria. Two Umayyads,al-Walid ibn Uqba andSa'id ibn al-As, were successively appointed toKufa, one of the two mainArab garrisons and administrative centers in Iraq. Uthman's cousin,Marwan ibn al-Hakam, became his chief secretary.[24] Although a prominent member of the clan, Uthman is not considered part of the Umayyad dynasty because he was chosen byconsensus (shura) among the inner circle of Muslim leadership and never attempted to nominate an Umayyad kinsman as his successor.[25] Nonetheless, as a result of Uthman's policies, the Umayyads regained a measure of the power and influence they had lost after the Muslim conquest of Mecca.[25]
Theassassination of Uthman in 656 became a rallying cry for the Qurayshite opposition to his successor, Muhammad's cousin and son in-law CaliphAli ibn Abi Talib of the Banu Hashim.[26] The Qurayshite elite did not hold Ali responsible, but opposed his accession under the circumstances of Uthman's demise. Following their defeat at theBattle of the Camel nearBasra, during which their leadersTalha ibn Ubayd Allah andZubayr ibn al-Awwam, both potential contenders for the caliphate, were killed, the mantle of opposition to Ali was taken up chiefly by Mu'awiya.[26] Initially, he refrained from openly claiming the caliphate, upholding the cause of avenging Uthman's death while focusing on undermining Ali's authority and consolidating his position in Syria.[27] Ali's Iraqi army fought Mu'awiya's Syrian forces to a stalemate at theBattle of Siffin in 657.[28] It was followed by an inconclusive arbitration, which weakened Ali's command over his forces, while raising the stature of Mu'awiya as Ali's equal.[29] While Ali was encumbered withcombating a faction of his former partisans, who became known as theKharijites, Mu'awiya was formally recognized as caliph by his core supporters, the Syrian Arab tribes, at a ceremony inJerusalem.[30] When Aliassassinated by the Kharijite dissidentIbn Muljam in 661, Mu'awiya invaded Iraq with his Syrian army and compelled Ali's eldest son and successorHasan, who had been chosen as caliph in Kufa, to abdicate the caliphate to him.[30] Mu'awiya then entered Kufa and received the pledge of allegiance from the Iraqis, with hissuzerainty being acknowledged throughout the Caliphate, though opposition to his authority by the Kharijites and some of Ali's loyalists persisted at a low level.[31]
The reunification of theMuslim community under Mu'awiya's authority marked the establishment of theUmayyad Caliphate.[31] This marked the beginning of the Umayyad dynasty. Based on the accounts of the traditional Muslim sources, Hawting writes that:
The Umayyads, leading representatives of those who had opposed the Prophet [Muhammad] until the latest possible moment, had within thirty years of his death reestablished their position to the extent that they were now at the head of the community which he had founded.[31]
In contrast to Uthman's empowerment of the Umayyads, Mu'awiya's power relied on the Arab tribes of Syria rather than on the Umayyad clan, and with minor exceptions, he did not appoint Umayyads to the major provinces or to his court in Damascus.[32][33] He largely limited their influence to Medina, where most of the Umayyads remained headquartered.[32][34] The loss of political power left the Umayyads of Medina resentful of Mu'awiya, who may have become wary of the political ambitions of the much larger Abu al-As branch of the clan, to which Uthman had belonged, under the leadership ofMarwan ibn al-Hakam.[35] Mu'awiya attempted to weaken the clan by provoking internal divisions.[36] Among the measures taken was the replacement of Marwan from the governorship of Medina in 668 with another leading Umayyad,Sa'id ibn al-As. The latter was instructed to demolish Marwan's house, but refused. Marwan was restored in 674 and also refused Mu'awiya's order to demolish Sa'id's house.[37] Mu'awiya appointed his own nephew,al-Walid ibn Utba ibn Abi Sufyan, in Marwan's place in 678.[38]
In 676, Mu'awiya installed his son,Yazid I, as his successor. The move was unprecedented in Muslim politics, as earlier caliphs had been elected by popular support in Medina or by the consultation of the seniorcompanions of Muhammad.[39] Mu'awiya's Umayyad kinsmen in Medina, including Marwan and Sa'id, accepted Mu'awiya's decision, albeit disapprovingly.[40] The principal opposition emanated fromHusayn ibn Ali,Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr,Abd Allah ibn Umar andAbd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr, all prominent Medina-based sons of earlier caliphs or close companions of Muhammad.[41]
Yazid acceded in 680 and three years later faced a revolt by the people of Medina and Ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca. Yazid's cousin,Uthman ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Sufyan, and the Umayyads residing in Medina, led by Marwan, were expelled.[42] Yazid dispatched his Syrian army to reassert his authority in the Hejaz and relieve his kinsmen.[43][44] The Umayyads of Medina joined the Syrians in the assault against the rebels in Medina and defeated them at theBattle of al-Harra.[43] The Syrians proceeded tobesiege Mecca, but withdrew upon the death of Yazid.[45] Afterwards, Ibn al-Zubayr declared himself caliph and expelled the Umayyads of the Hejaz a second time. They relocated toPalmyra or Damascus, where Yazid's son and successor,Mu'awiya II, ruled at a time when Umayyad authority over the Caliphate largely dissolved, with most provinces of the Caliphate acknowledging Ibn al-Zubayr as caliph[43]
After Mu'awiya II died in 684, thejunds of Palestine, Homs and Qinnasrin recognized Ibn al-Zubayr, while loyalist tribes in Damascus and Jordan scrambled to nominate an Umayyad as caliph. The Banu Kalb, lynchpins of Sufyanid rule, nominated Yazid's surviving sonsKhalid andAbd Allah, but they were considered young and inexperienced by most of the other loyalist tribes.Marwan ibn al-Hakam volunteered his candidacy and gained the consensus of the tribes, acceding to the caliphate at a summit inJabiya in 684. Per the arrangement agreed by the tribes, Marwan would be succeeded by Khalid, followed byAmr al-Ashdaq, the son of Sa'id ibn al-As. Marwan and the loyalist tribes, led by the Kalb,defeated Ibn al-Zubayr's supporters in Syria, led by the Qurayshite governor of Damascus,al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri, and theQays tribes of Qinnasrin, and afterward retook Egypt. Before his death in 685, Marwan voided the succession arrangement, appointing his sonsAbd al-Malik andAbd al-Aziz, in that order, instead. Abd al-Aziz was made governor of Egypt and another son,Muhammad was appointed to defeat the Qays tribes of theJazira. Soon after Abd al-Malik acceded, while he was away on a military campaign, he faced an attempted coup in Damascus by Amr al-Ashdaq. Abd al-Malik suppressed the revolt and personally executed his kinsman.[46] By 692, he defeated Ibn al-Zubayr, who was killed, and restored Umayyad rule across the Caliphate.[47]
Abd al-Malik concentrated power into the hands of the Umayyad dynasty. At one point, his brothers or sons held nearly all governorships of the provinces and the districts of Syria.[48][49] Abd al-Aziz continued to rule over Egypt until his death shortly before Abd al-Malik's in 705. He was replaced by Abd al-Malik's sonAbdallah.[50] Abd al-Malik appointed his sonSulayman over Palestine, following stints there by his uncleYahya ibn al-Hakam and brotherAban ibn Marwan.[51] In Iraq, he appointed his brotherBishr ibn Marwan over Kufa and a distant cousin,Khalid ibn Abdallah ibn Khalid ibn Asid, in Basra,[52] before combining the governorships of both cities under the purview of his trusted generalal-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf.[53] Abd al-Malik's court in Damascus was filled with far more Umayyads than under his Sufyanid predecessors, a result of the clan's exile to the city from Medina.[54] He maintained close ties with the Sufyanids through marital relations and official appointments, such as according Yazid's son Khalid a prominent role in the court and army and wedding to him his daughter A'isha.[55][56] Abd al-Malik also married Khalid's sisterAtika, who became his favorite and most influential wife.[55]
After his brother Abd al-Aziz's death, Abd al-Malik designated his eldest son,al-Walid I, his successor, to be followed by his second eldest,Sulayman. Al-Walid acceded in 705. He kept Sulayman as governor of Palestine, while appointing his sons to the otherjunds of Syria, withAbd al-Aziz over Damascus,al-Abbas over Homs andUmar over Jordan, as well as giving them command roles in the frontier wars against the Byzantines in Anatolia.[58][49] He retired his uncle Muhammad ibn Marwan from the Jazira, installing his half-brotherMaslama there instead. Al-Walid I's attempt to void his father's succession arrangements by replacing Sulayman with his son Abd al-Aziz failed and Sulayman acceded in 715.[59] Rather than nominating his own sons or brothers, Sulayman appointed his cousin,Umar II, the son of Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan, as his successor. While the traditional sources present the choice as related to the persuasion of the court theologian,Raja ibn Haywa, it may have been related to Umar II's seniority and his father's previous position as Marwan I's second successor.[60] The family of Abd al-Malik protested the move, but were coerced into a compromise wherebyYazid II, the son of Abd al-Malik and Atika, would follow Umar II.[61]
A survivor of the Abbasid massacres of the Umayyad family,Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu'awiya (better known as Abd al-Rahman I), a grandson of Caliph Hisham, made his way toal-Andalus (Islamic Spain), where themawali of the Umayyads helped him establish a foothold in the province. Once he established theEmirate of Cordoba in 756, he invited other Marwanids, who were keeping a low profile under Abbasid rule, to settle in the Emirate.[63] The 12th-century Andalusian poet al-Hijari quotes Abd al-Rahman stating: "among the many [favors] bestowed on us by the Almighty is his allowing us to collect in this country our kindred and relatives, and enabling us to give them a share in this empire".[63][a]
The Umayyad immigrants were granted estates, stipends, command roles in the army, and provincial offices. The emirs, and later, caliphs of al-Andalus were direct descendants of Abd al-Rahman I. Families of Abd al-Rahman's more distant Umayyad relatives, namely Marwan I's grandsonAbd al-Malik ibn Umar ibn Marwan (the Marwani clan) and al-Walid I's great-grandsonHabib ibn Abd al-Malik (the Habibi clan) both attained prominence at the provincial, military, judicial and cultural levels into the 10th century.[64]
The Umayyads longed for theLevant, and they established in al-Andalus the same trees, plants and food crops which their ancestors had cultivated in Syria, serving the same traditional foods. Wholesale importation of Syrian styles of living contributed to an extensive Syrianization of the entire countryside of al-Andalus.[65]
In the early 7th century, prior to their conversion to Islam, the main branches of the Umayyads were the A'yas and the Anabisa.[8] The former grouped the descendants of Umayya's sonsAbu al-As, al-As, Abu al-Is and al-Uways, all of whose names shared the same or similar root, hence the eponymous label, 'A'yas'.[8] The Anabisa, which is the plural form of Anbasa, a common name in this branch of the clan, gathered the descendants of Umayya's sonsHarb, Abu Harb, Abu Sufyan Anbasa, Sufyan, Amr and Umayya's possibly adopted son, Abu Amr Dhakwan.[8]
Two of the sons ofAbu al-As,Affan andal-Hakam, each fathered future caliphs, Uthman and Marwan I, respectively.[8] From the latter's descendants, known as the Marwanids, came the Umayyad caliphs of Damascus who reigned successively between 684 and 750, and then theCordoba-basedemirs andcaliphs of Muslim Spain, who held office until 1031.[8] Other than those who had escaped to al-Andalus, most of the Marwanids were killed in the Abbasid purges of 750. However, a number of them settled in Egypt and Iran, where one of them,Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, authored the famous source of Arab history, theKitab al-Aghani, in the 10th century.[8] Uthman, the thirdRashidun caliph, who ruled between 644 and 656, left several descendants, some of whom served political posts under the Umayyad caliphs.[8] From the Abu al-Is line came the politically important family of Asid ibn Abi al-Is, whose members served military and gubernatorial posts under various Rashidun and Umayyad caliphs.[8] The al-As line produced Sa'id ibn al-As, who served as one of Uthman's governors in Kufa.[8]
The most well-known family of the Anabisa branch was that of Harb's son Abu Sufyan Sakhr.[66] From his descendants, the Sufyanids, came Mu'awiya I, who founded the Umayyad Caliphate in 661, and Mu'awiya I's son and successor, Yazid I.[67] Sufyanid rule ceased with the death of the latter's son Mu'awiya II in 684, though Yazid's other sons, Khalid and Abd Allah, continued to play political roles, and the former was credited as the founder of Arabicalchemy.[67] Abd Allah's sonAbu Muhammad Ziyad al-Sufyani, meanwhile, led a rebellion against the Abbasids in 750, but was ultimately slain.[67] Abu Sufyan's other sons were Yazid, who preceded Mu'awiya I as governor of Syria, Amr, Anbasa, Muhammad andUtba.[67] Only the last two left progeny.[67] The other important family of the Anabisa were the descendants of Abu Amr, known as the Banu Abi Mu'ayt.[67] Abu Amr's grandsonUqba ibn Abu Mu'ayt was captured and executed on Muhammad's orders during theBattle of Badr for his previous incitement against Muhammad.[67] Uqba's son, al-Walid, served as Uthman's governor in Kufa for a brief period.[67] The Banu Abi Mu'ayt made Iraq andUpper Mesopotamia their home.[67]
The 10th-century geographeral-Hamdani held that several Umayyad groups inhabited theUpper Egyptian town ofTanda and its environs. Among those he counted were the families ofAban ibn Uthman (a son caliph Uthman) and Habib ibn (Umar ibn) al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik, as well as another tribe descended from Marwan called the 'Marawna'.[68] The Marawna still inhabit the regions ofQena,Sohag andMinya in Egypt today.[69] Al-Hamdani notes these Umayyads were relatives of the Umayyads then in power in al-Andalus and that other Umayyads were scattered across theMaghreb and present in theBalqa region of Syria.[70]
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