Umayyad Dynasty

Syria

661 BCE

During the first Muslim Civil War, Mu'awiyah was the governor of Syria. He went against Ali and won and declared himself the first Umayyad caliph.

Quraysh

661 BCE

The Umayyad Dynasty was the first Muslim dynasty to reign over the empire of the caliphate. Led by Abu Sufyan, a large merchant family from the Quraysh tribe.

Khorasan

669

With the Syrian army at their disposal, Umayyads expanded to cities in Khorasan as "bases for expeditions" into Central Asia, northwestern India, and Africa.

Byzantine

678

While Mu'awiyah had control over Damascus, the Sufyanids possessed the Byzantine and Persian admin. With this control, they had provinces and they organized Arab tribal lines.

Damascus

680

The Umayyad was fractioned into two by the Sufyanids and the Marwanids. Mu'awiyah took control over Damascus making it their capital with the exploitation of the Syrian army.

Civil War

684

Mu'awiyah had a son, Mu'awiyah II, due to his loyalty to his son he abandoned tradition to secure his son's life. He introduced the hereditary succession, allowing his son to rule. However, the Civil war and the deaths of Mu'awiyah II and Yazid, I brought the Sufyanid rule to an end.

Tribal War

684

Marwan I was announced the caliph in Syria.

Invasions of Central Asia and Northwestern India

685

In the years following, the Umayyad dynasty continued to expand. With their expansion came the conquering of Mukran and Sindh in India. While using their troops in Khorasan to conquer Bukhara, Samarkand, Khwarezm, Fergana, and Tashkent. After conquering, they began a program of " Arabization" which essentially meant they changed the currency to their own, they made Arabic the official language and took officials out and replaced them with their people.

Decline

717

The Byzantine emperor, Leo III defeated the Syrian army, causing a hitch in the Umayyad plan.

Feud between Kalb and Qays

720

After their defeat, they made fiscal reforms to appease the non-Arab Muslims. However, feuds emerged and damaged their military power

Anatolia

745

Plans made to invade France went terribly wrong, they "halted at Poitiers" and their troops in Anatolia were completely destroyed. The years that passed after that were still declining following the death of another caliph Hisham. The fueds between both tribes still continued and turned into a major revolt in Syria, Iraq and Khorasan. Soon a religio-political faction denied their legitimacy to rule.

Battle of the Great Zab River

750

The last standing Umayyad was defeated at the battle of the Great Zab River. All members of the Umayyad were hunted down and killed.