Umayyad: Encyclopedia II - Umayyad - Umayyad rulers

Umayyad - Umayyad rulers

Muawiyah had been the governor of Syria under the 3rd caliph and his kinsman, Uthman ibn Affan. After the assassination of Uthman, he was replaced by the new caliph, Ali ibn Abi Talib. Since the killers of Uthman had allied themselves with Ali, Muawiyah refused to accept his caliphate, and in 657 led an army against him. The two sides agreed to a conciliation procedure, resulting in an arbitration that many of Ali's partisans saw as unfair. The Muslim empire was partitioned. When Ali was assassinated in 661, his son Hasan signed a peace treaty with Muawiyah but did not pledge allegiance to Muawiyah, an enemy of the ahl ul bayt. Muawiyah ruled as caliph for some years. This established the Umayyad dynasty, and the capital of the caliphate was moved to Damascus.

Great waves of expansion occurred under the reign of the Umayyads. Muslim armies pushed across North Africa and Iran, through the late 600s, expanding the borders of the empire from the Iberian peninsula, in the west, to what is today Pakistan, in the east. Forces led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad crossed Gibraltar and established Muslim power in the Iberian peninsula, while other armies established power far away in Sind, in South Asia. The Muslim empire under the Umayyads was now a vast domain that ruled a diverse array of peoples.

The Umayyads were overthrown in the east by the Abbasid dynasty after their defeat in the Battle of the Zab in 750, following which most of the clan was massacred by the Abbasids. An Umayyad prince, Abd-ar-rahman I, took over the Muslim territory in Al-Andalus (Hispania) and founded a new Umayyad dynasty there.

Umayyad - Umayyad Caliphs at Damascus

• Muawiyah I ibn Abi Sufyan, 661-680
• Yazid I ibn Muawiyah, 680-683
• Muawiya II ibn Yazid, 683-684
• Marwan I ibn Hakam, 684-685
• Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, 685-705
• al-Walid I ibn Abd al-Malik, 705-715
• Suleiman ibn Abd al-Malik, 715-717
• Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, 717-720
• Yazid II ibn Abd al-Malik, 720-724
• Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, 724-743
• al-Walid II ibn Yazid II, 743-744
• Yazid III ibn al-Walid, 744
• Ibrahim ibn al-Walid, 744
• Marwan II ibn Muhammad (ruled from Harran in the Jazira) 744-750

Umayyad - Umayyad Emirs of Cordoba

• Abd ar-Rahman I, 756-788
• Hisham I, 788-796
• al-Hakam I, 796-822
• Abd ar-Rahman II, 822-[[8*Abdallah ibn Muhammad, 888-912
• Abd ar-Rahman III, 912-929

Umayyad - Umayyad Caliphs at Cordoba

• Abd ar-Rahman III, as caliph, 929-961
• Al-Hakam II, 961-976
• Hisham II, 976-1008
• Mohammed II, 1008-1009
• Suleiman, 1009-1010
• Hisham II, restored, 1010-1012
• Suleiman, restored, 1012-1017
• Abd ar-Rahman IV, 1021-1022
• Abd ar-Rahman V, 1022-1023
• Muhammad III, 1023-1024
• Hisham III, 1027-1031

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Umayyad rulers", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki