After the death (assassination) of the fourth caliph, huge changes for the Muslim Empire.
- the Umayyads: Damascus
- the coming to power by Mu'awiya (661 - 680) has always been regarded as marking the end of one phase and the beginning of another
- the first four caliphs, from Abu Bakr to 'Ali are commonly known as the Rashidun or "Rightly Guided"
- later caliphs were seen in a rather different light
- first of all, from now on the position was virtually hereditary (as if it weren't under the four original caliphs -- though somewhat differently)
- power was now in the hands for hte Umayyads -- ancestor was Umayya
- capital of Islam moved to Damascus, Syria -- huge
- the empire could be more easily controlled; Madina had been too remote
- Muslim forces
- west across the Maghrib; their first important base at Qayrawan in the former Roman province of Africa (Ifriqiya), in present day Tunisia
- then westwards to Morocco by the end of the 7th century
- then crossed into Spain
- to the east, beyond Khurasan, reaching the Oxus valley
- a new type of government was required
- the Umayyads
- differences
- Calioph 'Abd al-Malik 9685 - 705)
- new style of coinage; no more images; words alone;
- more important: creation of great monumental buildings
- first places for communal prayer, masjid, hence the English word 'mosque' by way of the Spanish mesquita
- succession of new mosques: Damascus, Aleppo, Madina, Jerusalem; later in Qayrawan, Cordoba, the Arab capital in Spain
- Syria: a weak link for the Umayyads
- cities of Iraq; further east: becoming the main strength of the Muslim community
- similar process was taking place in Khurasan, in the far northeast of the empire
- the rise of the imams
- the expectation of the coming of a mahdi, 'him who is guided,' arose early in the history of Islam
- dissident movements
- interestingly, it was an army from Khurasan that drove out the Umayyads
- the Umayyads were defeated in a number of battles, 749 - 750
- the last caliph of the house of Amayyad, Marwan II, was pursued to Egypt and killed there
- in the meantime, the unnamed leader was proclaimed in Kufa (south of Baghdad) -- he was Abu'l-'Abbas, a descendant not of 'Ali but of 'Abbas
- and thus rose the caliphate of Baghdad, the family of Abu'l-'Abbas (749-754)
- next: the Abbasids (Baghdad(
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