THE UMAYYAD IN POWER (660-749 A.D.) POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE UMAYYAD DYNASTY(part 1)

 THE UMAYYAD IN POWER (660-749 A.D.)

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE UMAYYAD DYNASTY

The first line of Umayyads were the Sufyanids (descendants of Abu Sufyan) who ruled from 661-684 A.D. Under Muawiya (661-680) the capital of the Muslim empire was transferred to Damascus. He is credited with raising a highly-trained army of Syrian soldiers which was used to expand Muslim authority east into Khorasan and west into North Africa. Muawiya also led excursions into Anatolia beginning in 672 A.D., which culminated in an unsuccessful three-year seige of Constantinople (674-677). He retained the administrative structures left by the Byzantines and Persians but consolidated his authority by appointing kinsmen to key posts. Before his death, Muawiya secured allegiance to his son, Yazid, thus introducing dynastic succession to Muslim rule Muawiya was the son of Abu Sufyan, the leader of the Abd Shams clan.

 During the reign of 

Hazrat Abu Bakr (R.A.), Muawiya served in the armies sent against the Byzantines in Syria. The caliph Hazrat Umar (R.A.) appointed him governor of Damascus; his kinsman Usman subsequently enlarged his governorship to include what is today Syria and north-western Iraq.

Muawiya consolidated his power over the region by building up a strong army which he used effectively to launch both land and sea attacks against the Byzantines. The death of Hazrat Usman (R.A.) at the hands of discontented Egyptians and the accession of Hazrat Ali (R.A.) to the caliphate in 656 A.D. gave Muawiya the opportunity to expand his power. Hazrat Ali (R.A.) told Muawiya to give him the oath of allegiance but Muawiya refused to pay him allegience. They confronted each other with their armies at Siffin in early 657 (R.A.), where Muawiya called for an arbitration. The Syrians acknowledged Muawiya as caliph, and he was able to take control of Egypt later that year. Thus, with Hazrat Ali's (R.A.) death in 661 A.D., Muawiya easily moved into Iraq and asserted his claim to the caliphate.

With Muawiya's accession, the seat of the caliphate was moved to Damascus. Muawiya continued raids against the Byzantines, both in Anatolia and North Africa. The conquest of Tripolitania and Ifriqiyah led to the founding of the garrison city Kairouan in 670 A.D. as a base for continuing forays into what is today Algeria. Naval expeditions against the Byzantines and raids into Anatolia led to a three-year seige of Constantinople (674-677 A.D.). In the east, the borders of the Muslim empire were expanded to Khorasan and the Oxus River. Internally, Muawiya governed through a combination of Arab tribal tradition and Byzantine administrative structures. The conquests of the "Four Righteous Caliphs" had led to an immigration of Arab tribes into Iraq and Syria, each with competing interests. Having secured the loyalty of the Syrian tribes, Muawiya conciliated the Iraqi tribes by adopting the traditional council of notables in which each tribe is represented by its leader.

These councils were linked to the caliph through his governors, who were generally his kinsmen. However, this arrangement was not sufficient in itself to administer a growing empire. To solve this problem, Muawiya made use of Byzantine administrative structures, the key positions of which were held by Christians who in some cases came from families that had served the Byzantine government. Muawiya is credited with the creation of specialised bureaus, known