History of the Umayyad Dynasty
The Umayyad dynasty began in 41 H / 661 AD, this was a Muslim government that emerged after the leadership of Khulafa al-Rasyidin. The Umayyad government was formed in Damascus since the events of the tahkim during the Siffin war. The war was waged to avenge the death of Usman bin Affan.
This war was originally going to be won by Ali’s saiyyidina group but after reading the situation and feeling that he would lose, Muawiyah immediately proposed to Ali’s side to return to the way of Allah.
During the tahkim incident, Muawiyah’s technique made Sayyidina Ali helpless, and finally Sayyidina Ali’s party suffered political defeat.
Meanwhile, on the other hand, Muawwiyah had the opportunity to become caliph and a king. This is a governmental system that has changed the electoral system from the beginning, which was elected by deliberation for consensus to become an electoral system by monarchy or kinship.
Darri here began the emergence of various understandings in terms of theology and even three group forces had emerged at the end of Ali’s reign, namely Shia, Khawarij, and Muawiyah.
Latas, who was the founder of the Umayyad dynasty? The Umayyad dynasty was founded by Muawiyah bin Abu Sufyan bin Harb. The name of this dynasty was associated and attributed to Umayyah bin Abd Shams bin Abdu Manaf. So, Muawiyah was not only the founder of this dynasty but also as its first caliph.
Muawiyah being caliph is viewed negatively by contemporary historians because he gained power through the civil war, namely the Siffin war. However, from the other side, Muawiyah is a person whose soul collects the qualities of a ruler, administrator and politician.
During the Umayyad Khilafah there were other caliphs who were very influential at that time, including Al Walid bin Abdul Malik Umar bin Abdul Aziz.
In the power of Al Walid bin Abdul Malik, Islam spread to mainland Spain which was spread by Thoriq bin Ziyad. The Islamic Khilafah was so rich that they promoted infrastructure development such as building mosques, and factories and wells.
Of the mosques that were built at that time, some of the famous ones are the Al-Amawi Damascus Mosque, the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and expanding the Nabawi mosque in Madinah al-Munawwarah. At this time Islamic civilization began to develop.
There was also the caliph Umar bin Abdul Aziz, he was known as an honest and just and wealthy man. However, after serving as caliph he chose to live simply. He is not only known as an honest and fair person but is popular with the breadth of his knowledge, especially in the hadiths.
During the time of the Caliph Umar bin Abdul Aziz, the idea emerged for the first time to collect various hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad that were still scattered on the hadiths of hadith scholars. A work of his was also able to reconcile disputes between the Amamiyah, Khawarij and Shia sects.
The period of the Umayyad caliphate cannot be denied that there were very many advances in various sectors, both in politics, science and economics.
The expansion and development of Islam was extraordinary until that time Islam developed to the land of Africa and Spain. Not only the expansion of Islam, but also the physical development in various bisang with their beautiful building designs and also the construction of public facilities that had never been built before. But at this time all of these things were fixed for the benefit of society.
The Umayyads also made Mecca and Medina at that time the cities where music, songs and poetry were developed. Iraq is the city of Basrah and Kufa is the city of knowledge. Meanwhile, the city of Marbad, a suburb in Damascus, turned into a beautiful gathering place for Muslim philosophers, poets, scholars and scholars.
Among the sciences that were experiencing rapid progress at that time were Arabic, hadith science, qiro’at, fiqh and even geography.
However, it turned out that these developments and advances later disappeared and disappeared due to the emergence of a group that felt that they were not satisfied with Umaayyah’s service. This group is Khawarij, Shi’ah and non-Arab or Mawali Muslims.
It is not clear what was the reason for the change in the caliphate, the strong suspicion is that they were dissatisfied with the leadership of the Umayyads. In addition, it is also considered that there is no intention to maintain peace. So the two sides continued to churn and taper.
There is also another thing, the luxurious royal family makes the burden of the country even heavier and ultimately difficult to bear. Moreover, the killing of the caliph Marwan bin Muhammad by the Abbasid army was a sign that the Umayyad dynasty in Damascus was soon to end.
