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Umayyad Caliphate

الدولة الأموية

661 CE · 41 AH† – July 750 CE · Dhu al-Hijja 132 AH† †

† Hijri date derived by computation from the Gregorian/Julian date; it may differ from the transmitted date by a day or two.

A caliphate established in 661 CE and ended in 750 CE; its capital was Damascus.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Umayyad Period
Region
Levant & Iraq
Identifiers
Wikidata
Review
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In time

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The Early Abbasid Caliphate · The Rashidun Caliphate · The Umayyad Period
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The Umayyad caliphate was founded in 661 CE after the Rashidun caliphate, its capital was Damascus, and it ended in 750 CE.

After the Rashidun caliphate came the Umayyad caliphate, with its centre in Damascus. The Banu Umayya ruled until 750, and their state reached from al-Andalus to Central Asia.

Storytellers (10–12) read the Explorers text, then cross to the Scholars text.

A caliphate founded in 661 CE and ended in 750 CE, with its capital at Damascus. It followed the Rashidun caliphate under Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan and became a hereditary rule within one family. Its conquests stretched from al-Andalus to Central Asia, and its administration was Arabised in its time. The sources record many events of strife and war among the Muslims, and each needs a precise source. This entry presents the caliphate by its history and centre, and does not judge its caliphs.

Overview

The Umayyad caliphate, founded in 661 CE and ended in July 750 CE, with its capital at Damascus. It follows the Rashidun caliphate in the data. 1

Dating

The dates come from Wikidata alone, and a second source is needed before relying on them. 1

Not covered here

A second source is needed for the caliphs and the events. The state's record lists the book "The Umayyad State from Birth to Fall" among its sources, without pages in the data. 2

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Connections

Explore the connections

Ruled by
Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan
Predecessor of
Abbasid Caliphate
Successor of
Rashidun Caliphate

People and things also explored

Abd al-Malik's Coinage Reform· Ali declines to keep Muawiya in office· Letters between Ali and Muawiya after the Camel· the truce between ʿAli and Muʿāwiya (40 AH)· The Year of the Community (am al-jama'a)· The pledge to Yazid as heir apparent· The pledge to Yazid as heir apparent· Busr ibn Abi Artat's raid through the Hijaz and Yemen (40 AH)

Sources

  1. Wikidata
  2. Muhammad Qabbani, The Umayyad State from Birth to Fall (Damascus: Dar Wahy al-Qalam, 2006)
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Umayyad Caliphate”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/polity/umayyad-caliphate/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-25.

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Related

Abd al-Malik's Coinage Reform

Heraclius's dinars and the Persian Baghliyya dirhams reached Jahiliya Mecca and traded only as bullion: their mithqal twenty-two qirats less a fraction, ten dirhams seven mithqals, the ratl twelve uqiyyas of forty dirhams — weights the Prophet confirmed, and Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, and Mu'awiya after him. Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr struck a few dirhams under Ibn al-Zubayr, later broken; then Abd al-Malik asked and tested, wrote al-Hajjaj to strike dirhams at fifteen qirats of the dinar-qirats, and struck the Damascene dinars — which came to Medina with Companions and Followers there and none objected. Al-Hasan ibn Salih: the Ajam dirhams ran great and small — twenty, twelve, ten qirats — and when Islam needed the mean for zakah they summed forty-two and struck the third, fourteen qirats, so ten Arab dirhams weigh seven mithqals. Quraysh's weights: the dirham for silver, the dinar for gold, ten dirham-weights to seven dinar-weights, the sha'ira a sixtieth of a dirham, the uqiyya forty dirhams, the nashsh twenty, the nawa five — all confirmed when the Prophet entered Mecca. And Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab, asked who first struck engraved dinars, said 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan — dinars came Byzantine, dirhams Kisrawi and few Himyari'.