What is CALIFATO OMEYA and its characteristics [SUMMARY with MAP and VIDEO]

After the death of Muhammad a series of religious lineages that would be key to the history of humanity, forming the so-called Caliphates that in a few years they conquered much of the known world and carried their religion to many new places. To talk about one of the most important lineages of Muslims, in this lesson from a Teacher we offer you a summary of the characteristics of the Umayyad Caliphate with map.

The Umayyad caliphate is considered the second of the four great Islamic caliphates arising after the death of prophet Muhammad. The idea of ​​these groups was that of the Holy war, conquering numerous regions to achieve expansion of Islam all over the world.

At first, the capital of the Umayyads was Damascus, but after conquering new regions such as the Caucasus, Maghreb or part of the Iberian Peninsula, its capital became Cordova, in the Hispanic Muslim region known as Al Andalus.

The importance of the Umayyad Caliphate is that, after years of expansion, it achieved a extension of 15,000,000 km2

, being one of the major empires of the history of humanity and being the cause of the great influence of Islam in all those areas.

The Umayyads arise from the Quraysh tribe of Mecca, the people to which Muhammad belonged and, therefore, having a great relevance within the Muslim people.

The first step towards his rise to power occurs when Uthman, a wealthy local merchant, marries with a daughter of Muhammad, being named successor to Caliph Omar and, therefore, the third of the called well beloved caliphs.

The coming to power of Uthman it was not long lasting, as in a short time he was assassinated by the people who considered the best possible successor to be Muhammad's cousin, Ali. East murder starts a civil war between different Muslim leaders, being the war that caused the three divisions of Islam. Ali is defeated by Muawiya, a member of the Umayyad who, after victory, founds the Umayyad Caliphate and locates the capital in Damascus.

Caliphate of Damascus

It could be said that the Umayyads ruled the region of Damascus between 661 and 750The rulers being the Sufyanid dynasty first and then the Marwanid dynasty.

The Umayyads started their dynasty changing the caliph's election system, since before the most worthy one was chosen for it, and after the change the election system became hereditary, thus founding the Umayyad dynasty.

The main defining element of the Umayyads was their expansion, its history being that of a conquering people that did not stop taking territories to expand the ideas of Islam all over the world. Among the conquests of the Umayyads we can speak of the Maghreb, a large part of the Iberian Peninsula, Iran, and several territories east to China, where expansion was halted.

Regarding internal politics, the Umayyads had many problems due to the huge disputes against the other branches of Islam, since many of them considered that the Umayyads had too much Byzantium influence. All of this caused the Damascus area to be continuously in conflict by the different peoples that inhabited the area.

All of these conflicts led to a series of revolts within the caliphate, forcing the caliph to flee the region and forever lose the Caliphate of Damascus. Almost all the Umayyads were killed, except Abderramán I, who escaped from Damascus and centered his new lineage In cordoba.

The Umayyads in Córdoba

Fleeing the slaughter on the Umayyads, Abderramán fled to the Maghreb, an area distant from all the caliphates and, therefore, that served to protect him from any assassination attempt. During this break in the Moroccan city, the Umayyad candidate rallied loyal troops and attacked the Abbasids who ruled in Al-Andalus.

The victory went to Abderramán, who was appointed emir of Córdoba, forging a new caliphate in the Andalusian city, being known as the independent emirate of Córdoba between 756 and 926. After several deaths and divisions, in 929 the caliphate of Córdoba was formed, being led by the Umayyads. This new caliphate had hardly any relation to the Orientals, showing the enormous religious differences that existed at this time among the various branches of Islam.

At the beginning of the caliphate, his expansion was almost the entire Iberian Peninsula, except for some northern points where Christian peoples existed and much of North Africa. This extension only lasted about a hundred years, since around 1010 the Christian expansion made the power of the caliphate less and less, until in 1031 the Umayyad power ended.

To conclude this summary of the Umayyad Caliphate we must talk about the territories that came to be possessed by the Umayyads, in order to understand the enormous influence they came to have over a long period of time.

To the east, the expansion of the Umayyads reached almost the Hindustan Peninsula and the areas with influence of China. It was a group of Indian peoples and Chinese peoples who managed to stop the expansion of the Umayyads towards the East. The areas of Pakistan They were the easternmost areas taken by the Umayyads, being one of the few areas in South Asia that were taken by them.

Regarding the center of the Umayyads we must speak of an absolute control of Western Asia, also called middle East. These areas where cities such as Mecca or Damascus, It is where we find the birth of the Island, and therefore it is the most important area of ​​the Umayyads. From this area the Umayyads expanded northward, taking part of the Caucasus, and facing the Byzantines for it.

The Umayyads also expanded throughout the African area, mainly the north of the continent being what was taken by them, and more specifically what was known as the Maghreb. Among the main African areas taken by the Umayyads we must name Cairo, Alexandria, Tripoli, Tunis and all of Morocco.

Finally the influence of the Umayyads came to the Iberian Peninsula, being called by them as Al-Andalus, and taken practically the entire area, being only detained in the northernmost Iberian villages that years later would face the Umayyads on the Reconquest.