After the end of
the Rightly Guided Caliphate, in which Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman, and ‘Ali led
the muslim world, the caliphate came to the Umayyad family in 661. Mu’awiya,
the first Umayyad caliph, led the muslim world from his capital of Damascus,
and passed on rule to his son, Yazid, in 680.
During
the 89 years of Umayyad rule, the muslim world experienced exponential growth
geographically, militarily, and economically. With an economy buoyed by such
conquests, the Umayyad caliphate became incredibly wealthy, leading to a
relatively stable society.
As
the muslim empire pushed into
non-Arab lands in North Africa, Spain, and Persia, huge numbers of non-Arab
non-Muslims came under Umayyad control. In Islamic Law, non-Muslims in a muslim
state are required to pay a tax known as the jizya. For most parts
of the empire, this tax was lower than the pre-Islamic taxes of the Byzantine
Empires, so no discontent came from this aspect of the government.
For
non-Muslims newly under Umayyad rule, conversion to Islam clearly had some
financial advantages. If a big enough proportion of the population converted to
Islam and stopped paying the jizya, tax revenues would go way down, leading to
financial instability. To combat this problem, the Umayyads decided to continue
to tax recent converts as if they were still non-Muslims. The rest of the
Umayyad ruling family opposed his reforms however, and he was poisoned after 3
years in power. With his death, the equitable treatment of all races in the
Umayyad Empire also ended, and serious plans to remove the Umayyads from power
began.
Umayyad
rule was essential based on their ability to keep The Muslim World united and organized after the upheaval of ‘Ali’s
time. One group that offered an alternative to Umayyad rule was the people who
favored the rule of ‘Ali’s family. In order to get the support of the more pious-minded,
the Abbasids claimed that one of the descendants of ‘Ali had officially
transferred the right to rule to the Abbasid family.
Led
by a mysterious figure known as Abu Muslim, the supporters of the Abbasid
family in Khurasan promised a return to the utopian ideals of the Prophet
Muhammad and the early caliphs. The important thing to the Abbasids and
their supporters was the removal of the Umayyad family from power, other issues
would be solved afterwards.
After
securing the city of Merv and
exiling the Umayyad Governor, Abu Muslim began to send the Abbasid armies
westward, towards the rest of Persia and Iraq. Meanwhile, the Abbasid family
had fled Humayma for the relatively safer Iraq. With the support of the local
people, the Abbasids organized an overthrow of the local Umayyad government,
installing the Abbasids as the rulers of the city. The Abbasid army finally met
the bulk of the Umayyad forces near the Zab River in northern Iraq. The
Umayyads with their white flags represented the Arab Syrians who had been the
most important social group in the 89 years of Umayyad rule. At the climactic
Battle of the Zab in early 750, the Abbasid force completely smashed the
Umayyad army. The Abbasids were able to march right into the Umayyad homeland
in Syria and take control of Damascus, relatively peacefully. The last
Umayyad caliph, Marwan II, fled to Egypt, where he was found by Abbasid agents
and executed. Like the Umayyads, and every other dynasty in Islamic History,
there were positive and negative aspects to Abbasid rule.
