708 Umayyads
Further reading:Fred M. Donner, The Early Islamic
Conquests (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,
1981); Francesco Gabrieli, Muhammad and the Conquests
of Islam, trans. Virginia Luling and Rosamund Linell
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968); Donald R. Hill, The Ter-
mination of Hostilities in the Early Arab Conquests, A.D.
634–656 (London: Luzac, 1971); Wilferd Madelung,
“Umar: Commander of the Faithful, Islamic Meritocracy,
Consultation and Arab Empire,” in The Succession to
Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate(Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1997), 57–77.
Umayyads(Omayyads) This initially aristocratic and
merchant Arab dynasty dominated the lands of ISLAM
from 660 to 750, with its capital at DAMASCUSin SYRIA.It
was founded by Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan (r. 661–680),
the son of a companion of MUHAMMAD who was the
gifted governor of Syria at the time of the assassination of
the third CALIPH,UTHMAN, in 656. It fell to Muawiya
according to the prescriptions of the QURAN, to avenge
his kinsman and oppose the fourth caliph, ALI IBNABU
TALIB. Ali was himself responsible for Uthman’s murder,
though Muawiya thought he was. Moreover, Ali had
refused to hand over its perpetrators. After the Battle of
Siffin on the Euphrates River, Muawiya was acknowl-
edged as caliph at JERUSALEMin place of Ali, who was
assassinated at Kufa in IRAQlater in 661. Muawiya intro-
duced dynastic succession into Islam, since he was the
first to designate his son as heir and have him so
acknowledged in his lifetime. He moved the capital to
Damascus and made the caliphate more secular. The
Umayyads successfully continued conquest and orga-
nized the newly established empire. Under the caliphs
from the Marinid branch of the family. ABD AL-MALIKand
AL-WALID, the empire reached its greatest extent, with
conquests from the Iberian Peninsula to AFGHANISTAN
and India, and its forces almost captured CONSTANTINO-
PLE in the 670s. Under the Umayyads, Arabic was
declared the official language of the empire, and ARABS
took over governments from Greeks and Persians.
By the reign of the caliph Umar II (r. 717–720), who
also furthered the Islamization of the empire, the state
had serious religious, social, and financial problems. By
Hisham’s reign between 724 and 743, external expansion
had halted, sometimes in defeat as at the Battle of
POITIERS IN732. Opposition continued to grow and the
perceived secularization of the empire was strongly
opposed by some. Partisans of Ali’s descendants, the SHI-
ITES, began to foment revolts. At MECCAan anticaliph,
Ibn Zubayr, held the city for several years. In the
mideighth century, the descendants of an uncle of the
Prophet, the ABBASIDS, started insurrections in eastern
IRANat Khurasan that soon ended the Umayyad dynasty.
The Abbasids defeated the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan
II (r. 744–750), and his army at the Battle of the Great
Zab River in 750. Marwan was subsequently killed while
trying to escape in EGYPT, and the other members of the
family were massacred. One survivor, ABD AL-RAHMAN,
fled to SPAIN, where in 756, he founded the Umayyad
caliphate at CÓRDOBA, which flourished in the ninth and
10th centuries.
See alsoART AND ARCHITECTURE,ISLAMIC;CÓRDOBA;
ISLAM;SHIA,SHIISM, ANDSHIITES.
Further reading: Gerald R. Hawting, The First
Dynasty of Islam: The Umayyad Caliphate A.D. 661–750,
2d ed. (London: Routledge, 2000); Naji Hasan, The Role
of the Arab Tribes in the East during the Period of the
Umayyads (40/660–132/749)(Baghdad: Al-Jamea’s Press,
1978); Hugh Kennedy, The Armies of the Caliphs: Military
and Society in the Early Islamic State(London: Routledge,
2001); Jirji Zaydan, Umayyads and Abbasids: Being the
Fourth Part of Jurjí Zaydan’s History of Islamic Civilization,
trans. D. S. Margoliouth (London: Darf, 1987).Umayyads of Córdoba See ABD AL-RAHMAN; AL-
ANDALUS;UMAYYADS.umma(ummah) Derived from the Arabic word for
“mother,” the word ummais borrowed from Hebrew or
Aramaic. In the QURANit means “people” or “commu-
nity,” designating the people to whom GODhas sent a
prophet to make them the objects of a divine plan of sal-
vation. At the beginnings of ISLAM, each political and reli-
gious group conceived of itself as an umma or the
community most faithful to the teachings of MUHAMMAD.
The term was applied to all Muslims as the best of com-
munities willed by God and established by Muhammad to
live under Islamic law. Despite dissent, this identification
of all Muslims with this community, the proclaiming of
its essential unity, and the assertion of the theoretical
equality of Muslims, regardless of their diverse cultural
and geographical settings, have always been strong ele-
ments of Islam.
Further reading: Antony J. Black, The History of
Islamic Political Thought: From the Prophet to the Present
(New York: Routledge, 2001); R. Stephen Humphreys,
Islamic History: A Framework for Inquiry,rev. ed. (Prince-
ton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991).unction of the sick SeeSEVEN SACRAMENTS.unicorn The unicorn is a mythical beast, perhaps based
on the rhinoceros. The story of the unicorn is often found
in medieval BESTIARIESbased on the Physiologus(The nat-
uralist), a collection of stories composed in ALEXANDRIA
between the second and fourth centuries. It is a fantastic
animal resembling a small white goat, wild ass, or horse.
It is extremely fierce, with a single horn in the middle of
its head capable of killing elephants. With that horn it