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164-614: Historically, the area was inhabited by the Quraysh , the Banu Kinanah and the Thaqif , among other tribes. Part of the Hejaz region , the province has seen several exchanges of power between many Islamic realms within a short period of time. The province gains its significance as it contains the city of Mecca , the birthplace of Muhammad, and several other historic Islamic sites, such as

328-575: A Lakhmid caravan to the Hejaz. The attack took place during the holy season when fighting was typically forbidden. The Kinani tribesman's patron was Harb ibn Umayya , a Qurayshi chief. This patron and other chiefs were ambushed by the Hawazin at Nakhla, but were able to escape. In the battles that occurred in the following two years, the Qays were victorious, but in the fourth year, the tide turned in favor of

492-583: A "member of the family" of Muhammad, without making explicit mention of the Abbasids. These missions met with success both among Arabs and non-Arabs ( mawali ), although the latter may have played a particularly important role in the growth of the movement. Around 746, Abu Muslim assumed leadership of the Hashimiyya in Khurasan. In 747, he successfully initiated an open revolt against Umayyad rule, which

656-523: A caravan at Nakhla , Muhammad learned of a larger Quraysh caravan returning from Gaza . He attempted to intercept it, but the caravan rerouted. Instead, Muhammad encountered Quraysh troops led by Amr ibn Hisham , and despite being outnumbered, won the Battle of Badr , gaining prestige and followers. The Quraysh defeat at Badr was significant, causing them to lose many of their influential or experienced men and their prestige. Seeking to restore their honor,

820-828: A claim unrecognized outside of al-Andalus, he maintained that the Umayyad Caliphate, the true, authentic caliphate, more legitimate than the Abbasids, was continued through him in Córdoba . It was to survive for centuries. Some Umayyads also survived in Syria, and their descendants would once more attempt to restore their old regime during the Fourth Fitna . Two Umayyads, Abu al-Umaytir al-Sufyani and Maslama ibn Ya'qub, successively seized control of Damascus from 811 to 813, and declared themselves caliphs. However, their rebellions were suppressed. Previté-Orton argues that

984-609: A class of men with well-developed managerial and organizational skills. It was a development unheralded, and almost unique, in central Arabia. The Banu Makhzum and Banu Umayya , in particular, acquired vast wealth from trade and held the most influence among the Quraysh in Meccan politics. The Banu Umayya and the Banu Nawfal , another clan descending from Abd Manaf that had become wealthy from their commercial enterprise, split from

1148-581: A collapse in revenue, the converts' lands would become the property of their villages and remain liable for the full rate of the kharaj . In tandem, Umar intensified the Islamization drive of his Marwanid predecessors, enacting measures to distinguish Muslims from non-Muslims and inaugurating Islamic iconoclasm . His position among the Umayyad caliphs is unusual, in that he became the only one to have been recognized in subsequent Islamic tradition as

1312-538: A genuine caliph ( khalifa ) and not merely as a worldly king ( malik ). After the death of Umar II, another son of Abd al-Malik, Yazid II ( r.  720–724 ) became caliph. Not long after his accession, another mass revolt against Umayyad rule was staged in Iraq, this time by the prominent statesman Yazid ibn al-Muhallab . The latter declared a holy war against the Umayyads, took control of Basra and Wasit and gained

1476-586: A key component in the Muslim elite. Many leading Qurayshi tribesmen were installed in key government positions and in Muhammad's policy-making circle. According to Donner, the inclusion of Quraysh "in the ruling elite of the Islamic state was very probably responsible for what appears to be the more carefully organized and systematic approach to statesmanship practiced by Muhammad in the closing years of his life, as

1640-442: A kneeling spear wall formation in battle, probably as a result of their encounters with Roman armies. This was radically different from the original Bedouin style of mobile and individualistic fighting. The Byzantine and Sassanid Empires relied on money economies before the Muslim conquest and that system remained in effect during the Umayyad period. Byzantine coinage was used until 658; Byzantine gold coins were still in use until

1804-698: A largely impenetrable region for earlier Muslim armies, between 705 and 715. Despite the distance from the Arab garrison towns of Khurasan, the unfavorable terrain and climate and his enemies' numerical superiority, Qutayba, through his persistent raids, gained the surrender of Bukhara in 706–709, Khwarazm and Samarkand in 711–712 and Farghana in 713. He established Arab garrisons and tax administrations in Samarkand and Bukhara and demolished their Zoroastrian fire temples . Both cities developed as future centers of Islamic and Arabic learning. Umayyad suzerainty

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1968-466: A majority of the caliphate's population, and Jews were allowed to practice their own religion but had to pay the jizya ( poll tax ) from which Muslims were exempt. Muslims were required to pay the zakat , which was earmarked or hypothecated explicitly for various alms programmes for the benefit of Muslims or Muslim converts. Under the early Umayyad caliphs, prominent positions were held by Christians, some of whom belonged to families that had served

2132-727: A monument of victory over the Christians that would distinguish Islam's uniqueness within the common Abrahamic setting of Jerusalem, home of the two older Abrahamic faiths, Judaism and Christianity. An alternative motive may have been to divert the religious focus of Muslims in the Umayyad realm from the Ka'aba in Zubayrid Mecca (683–692), where the Umayyads were routinely condemned during the Hajj. In Damascus, Abd al-Malik's son and successor al-Walid I ( r.  705–715 ) confiscated

2296-723: A more serious threat had arisen in Khorasan . The Hashimiyya movement (a sub-sect of the Kaysanites Shia ), led by the Abbasid family, overthrew the Umayyad caliphate. The Abbasids were members of the Hashim clan, rivals of the Umayyads, but the word "Hashimiyya" seems to refer specifically to Abu Hashim, a grandson of Ali and son of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya. According to certain traditions, Abu Hashim died in 717 in Humeima in

2460-414: A naval campaign against the city. The Byzantines destroyed the Umayyad fleets and defeated Maslama's army, prompting his withdrawal to Syria in 718. The massive losses incurred during the campaign led to a partial retrenchment of Umayyad forces from the captured Byzantine frontier districts, but already in 720, Umayyad raids against Byzantium recommenced. Nevertheless, the goal of conquering Constantinople

2624-743: A peaceful resolution, Muhammad decided to confront the Quraysh through armed conflict, beginning with raids on Meccan caravans. This led to several major battles, including those at Badr , Uhud , and the Trench . After these conflicts and following changes in Medina's political landscape, including the expulsion of three major Jewish tribes, Muhammad reportedly shifted his focus from Quraysh caravans to northern tribes such as Banu Lahyan and Banu Mustaliq . As Muhammad's position in Medina became more established, attitudes towards him in his hometown became more approving. The Treaty of al-Hudaybiya , establishing

2788-584: A precedent for Muslims later on towards Jews and Christians, namely jizya . He did not slaughter those who surrendered but let them stay and tend their fields, with half the produce going to him and his followers. The Jewish colony of Wadi al-Qura also came into his possession with this expedition, making the Muslim community rich. In early 627, Muhammad undertook the Umrah known as the 'fulfilled pilgrimage' in Mecca, during which time he reconciled with his family,

2952-435: A revolt against Umayyad rule from Iraq. An army mobilized by Iraq's governor Ibn Ziyad intercepted and killed Husayn outside Kufa at the Battle of Karbala . Although it stymied active opposition to Yazid in Iraq, the killing of Muhammad's grandson left many Muslims outraged and significantly increased Kufan hostility toward the Umayyads and sympathy for the family of Ali. The next major challenge to Yazid's rule emanated from

3116-546: A series of raids on coastal areas of the Visigothic Kingdom paved the way to the permanent occupation of most of Iberia by the Umayyads (starting in 711), and on into south-eastern Gaul (last stronghold at Narbonne in 759). Hisham's reign witnessed the end of expansion in the west, following the defeat of the Arab army by the Franks at the Battle of Tours in 732. Arab expansion had already been limited following

3280-567: A stalemate at the Battle of Siffin in early 657. Ali agreed to settle the matter with Mu'awiya by arbitration, though the talks failed to achieve a resolution. The decision to arbitrate fundamentally weakened Ali's political position as he was forced to negotiate with Mu'awiya on equal terms, while it drove a significant number of Ali's supporters, who became known as the Kharijites , to revolt. Ali's coalition steadily disintegrated and many Iraqi tribal nobles secretly defected to Mu'awiya, while

3444-457: A stronghold on the surrounding region while often paying homage to stronger political entities. The ability of the sharifs, originally moderate Shīʿites, to adapt to the changing political and religious climate ensured their preeminence in local affairs for the next 1,000 years. In 1269, the region came under the control of the Egyptian Mamlūk sultans. In 1517, dominion over the area passed to

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3608-504: A summit of pro-Umayyad Syrian tribes, namely the Quda'a and their Kindite allies, organized by Ibn Bahdal in the old Ghassanid capital of Jabiya , Marwan was elected caliph in exchange for economic privileges to the loyalist tribes. At the subsequent Battle of Marj Rahit in August 684, Marwan led his tribal allies to a decisive victory against a much larger Qaysite army led by al-Dahhak, who

3772-565: A ten-year truce with the Meccans, allowed Muhammad to perform Umrah in Mecca the following year. During this pilgrimage, Muhammad reconciled with his family, the Hashim clan, which was symbolized by his marriage to Maymuna bint al-Harith . Several prominent Meccans, such as Khalid ibn al-Walid and Amr ibn al-As , recognized Muhammad's increasing influence in Arabia and converted to Islam. At

3936-438: A token portion of the provincial tax revenues to Damascus, the caliph let his governors rule with practical independence. After al-Mughira's death in 670, Mu'awiya attached Kufa and its dependencies to the governorship of Basra, making Ziyad the practical viceroy over the eastern half of the caliphate. Afterward, Ziyad launched a concerted campaign to firmly establish Arab rule in the vast Khurasan region east of Iran and restart

4100-645: A trench to be dug around Medina. This led to the Battle of the Trench . The trench hampered the Quraysh advance, and Muhammad conducted secret negotiations with the Ghatafan to induce distrust among his enemies. Unfavorable weather eventually caused the besiegers to lose morale and retire. Afterwards, Muhammad turned his attention to the Banu Qurayza , who were accused of betraying the Muslims by conspiring with

4264-538: A violation of the Treaty of al-Hudaybiya, Muhammad then set out with his army to Mecca. With those willing to fight from the Mecca side becoming fewer and fewer, Abu Sufyan set out with several others, including Muhammad's friend, Budayl ibn Warqa al-Khuza’i, to ask for amnesty for all the Quraysh who abandoned armed resistance. Muhammad thus managed to enter Mecca unopposed, and almost all the inhabitants adopted Islam. In 630, Muhammad entered Mecca victoriously , prompting

4428-582: Is Hejazi Arabic , with a minority of Najdi Arabic speakers in the eastern parts of the region. Saudi Sign Language is the principal language of the deaf community. The large expatriate communities also speak their own languages, the most numerous of which are some of the Indian languages , Filipino / Tagalog , Bengali and Urdu . From 1,823,598 Saudi male residents above the age of 10, 87.57%, representing 1,596,946 persons had some form of formal education , while 226,652 were illiterate . As for females, from

4592-639: Is Qurashī , though in the early centuries of the Islamic Ummah , most Qurayshi tribesmen were denoted by their specific clan instead of the tribe. Later, particularly after the 13th century, claimants of Qurayshi descent used the Qurashī surname. The Quraysh's progenitor was Fihr ibn Malik , whose full genealogy, according to traditional Arab sources, was the following: Fihr ibn Malik ibn al-Nadr ibn Kinana ibn Khuzayma ibn Mudrika ibn Ilyas ibn Mudar ibn Nizar ibn Ma'add ibn Adnan. Thus, Fihr belonged to

4756-561: Is approximately 700 kilometers (430 mi) long, with many cities spread out across the coastline. Several archipelagos can be found across the coast of the province, along with some coral reefs , such as the Great Coral Reef, located approximately 15 km (9 mi) northwest of Jeddah and the Five Coral Reef, located 25 km (16 mi). The coastline faces Sudan to the west and Eritrea and Ethiopia to

4920-595: Is the most populous city in the province and the second-most populous city in the country. 1.233 The governorate with the largest population is the Jeddah Governorate. The sex ratio was approximately 132 males per 100 females. Censuses in Saudi Arabia do not collect or report data concerning religion. Sunni Islam of the Hanbali school of Islamic jurisprudence is the predominant religion overall in

5084-534: Is the second-largest city in the province and third-largest in the kingdom at 1,323,624. After the city of Ta'if at third place, Rabigh , Shafa , Turbah and Jumum are other populous cities and towns in the region. The region receives Muslim pilgrims of the Umrah and the Hajj around the year and its population increases by up to 2 million during the Hajj. It has approximately 700 kilometres (430 mi) of coastline on

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5248-422: Is uncertain." The Quraysh, the dominant tribe of Mecca , initially showed little concern when Muhammad began preaching his new faith in the city. However, as Muhammad's message increasingly challenged traditional Meccan religious and social practices, tensions gradually arose. As relations with the Quraysh deteriorated, Muhammad coordinated the gradual emigration of his followers to Medina , eventually making

5412-618: The al-Muṭayyabūn faction in 605 and engaged in business with the al-Aḥlāf . Their financial fortunes had enabled them to become a force of their own. During a commercial incident where a Yemenite merchant was robbed of his trade by al-As ibn Wa'il al-Sahmi, the al-Muṭayyabūn reformed in the Hilf al-Fudul , which consisted of the Banu Hashim and Banu Muttalib , which, like the Banu Umayya, were descendants of Abd Manaf, and

5576-520: The kharaj (land tax). Since avoidance of taxation incentivized both mass conversions to Islam and abandonment of land for migration to the garrison cities, it put a strain on tax revenues, especially in Egypt, Iraq and Khurasan. Thus, "the Umayyad rulers had a vested interest in preventing the conquered peoples from accepting Islam or forcing them to continue paying those taxes from which they claimed exemption as Muslims", according to Hawting. To prevent

5740-482: The Banu Hashim , which was sealed by marrying Maymuna bint al-Harith . Some important people of Mecca, such as Khalid ibn al-Walid and Amr ibn al-As , recognized Muhammad as a man of the future in Arabia and converted to Islam. In December 629, after the belligerent party in Mecca, against the advice of Abu Sufyan, decided to support one of their client clans against the Khuzaa, who were allied with Muhammad, resulting in

5904-593: The Banu Mustaliq were defeated in battle, with many captives later freed. Over time, tensions between Muhammad and the people of Mecca eased, leading to the Treaty of al-Hudaybiya , a ten-year armistice. Muhammad and his followers were then allowed to perform Umrah next year in Mecca. A short time later, Muhammad attacked the Jewish-inhabited Khaybar, where he instituted a practice that set

6068-565: The Banu Nadir , driving them to Khaybar and other settlements, and seizing their property. The Quraysh, with their caravans still under attack and urged by the Jews in Khaybar, recognized the importance of occupying Medina. They negotiated with various Bedouin tribes and managed to raise 10,000 troops. To defend against the Quraysh troops, Muhammad, advised by one of his followers, ordered

6232-701: The Banu Taym , Banu Asad , Banu Zuhra and Banu al-Harith ibn Fihr , were known as al-Muṭayyabūn ('the Perfumed'). Toward the end of the 6th century, the Fijar War broke out between the Quraysh and the Kinana on one side and various Qaysi tribes on the other, including the Hawazin , Banu Thaqif , Banu Amir and Banu Sulaym . The war broke out when a Kinani tribesman killed an Amiri tribesman escorting

6396-558: The Battle of Dayr al-Jamajim in April. The suppression of the revolt marked the end of the Iraqi muqātila as a military force and the beginning of Syrian military domination of Iraq. Iraqi internal divisions, and the utilization of more disciplined Syrian forces by Abd al-Malik and al-Hajjaj, voided the Iraqis' attempt to reassert power in the province. To consolidate Umayyad rule after

6560-469: The Battle of Toulouse in 721. In 739 a major Berber Revolt broke out in North Africa, which was probably the largest military setback in the reign of Caliph Hisham. From it emerged some of the first Muslim states outside the caliphate. It is also regarded as the beginning of Moroccan independence, as Morocco would never again come under the rule of an eastern caliph or any other foreign power until

6724-524: The Byzantines . The employment of Christians was part of a broader policy of religious accommodation that was necessitated by the presence of large Christian populations in the conquered provinces, as in Syria. This policy also boosted Mu'awiya's popularity and solidified Syria as his power base. The Umayyad era is often considered the formative period in Islamic art . During the pre-Islamic period ,

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6888-476: The Hejaz (western Arabia). In the words of Fred Donner : [By the end of the 6th century,] Meccan commerce was flourishing as never before, and the leaders in this trade [the Quraysh] had developed from mere merchants into true financiers. They were no longer interested in "buying cheap and selling dear," but also with organizing money and men to realize their commercial objectives. There was emerging, in short,

7052-567: The Hellenistic world. Since the late 20th century, however, some scholarship has called the identification of Macoraba with Mecca into question. According to Islamic tradition , Abraham and Ishmael , his son by Hagar , built the Kaʿbah as the house of God. The central point of pilgrimage in Mecca before the advent of Islam in the 7th century, the cube-shaped stone building has been destroyed and rebuilt several times. During pre-Islamic times

7216-531: The Islamic prophet Muhammad was born. By 600 CE , the Quraysh had become wealthy merchants, dominating trade between the Indian Ocean , East Africa , and the Mediterranean . They ran caravans to Gaza and Damascus in summer, and Yemen in winter. They also mined and pursued other enterprises on these routes, placing business interests first. When Muhammad began spreading Islam in Mecca,

7380-514: The Kinana tribe and his descent is traced to Adnan the Ishmaelite , the semi-legendary father of the " northern Arabs ". According to the traditional sources, Fihr led the warriors of Kinana and Khuzayma in defense of the Kaaba, at the time a major pagan sanctuary in Mecca, against tribes from Yemen ; however, the sanctuary and the privileges associated with it continued to be in the hands of

7544-578: The Maghreb (western North Africa), conquering Tangier and Sus in 708/09. Musa's Berber mawla , Tariq ibn Ziyad , invaded the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula) in 711 and within five years most of Hispania was conquered . Al-Hajjaj managed the eastern expansion from Iraq. His lieutenant governor of Khurasan , Qutayba ibn Muslim , launched numerous campaigns against Transoxiana (Central Asia), which had been

7708-702: The Ottoman Empire , with its capital in Constantinople (now Istanbul ). With the Ottoman collapse after World War I , control of Mecca was contested between the sharifs and the House of Saʿūd of central Arabia, adherents to an austere, puritanical form of Islam known as Wahhābism . King Ibn Saʿūd conquered the region in 1925, and the region of Mecca became a province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and

7872-422: The Qadariyya . In 744, Yazid III , a son of al-Walid I, was proclaimed caliph in Damascus, and his army tracked down and killed al-Walid II. Yazid III has received a certain reputation for piety and may have been sympathetic to the Qadariyya. He died a mere six months into his reign. Yazid had appointed his brother, Ibrahim , as his successor, but Marwan II (744–50), the grandson of Marwan I, led an army from

8036-446: The Second Fitna , and power eventually fell to Marwan I , from another branch of the clan. Syria remained the Umayyads' main power base thereafter, with Damascus as their capital. The Umayyads continued the Muslim conquests , conquering Ifriqiya , Transoxiana , Sind , the Maghreb and Hispania ( al-Andalus ). At its greatest extent, the Umayyad Caliphate covered 11,100,000 km (4,300,000 sq mi), making it one of

8200-430: The Umayyads or Banu Umayya were a leading clan of the Quraysh tribe of Mecca . By the end of the 6th century, the Umayyads dominated the Quraysh's increasingly prosperous trade networks with Syria and developed economic and military alliances with the nomadic Arab tribes that controlled the northern and central Arabian desert expanses, affording the clan a degree of political power in the region. The Umayyads under

8364-425: The early Muslim conquests during the reign of Caliph Umar. Al-Walid I's successor, his brother Sulayman ( r.  715–717 ), continued his predecessors' militarist policies, but expansion mostly ground to a halt during his reign. The deaths of al-Hajjaj in 714 and Qutayba in 715 left the Arab armies in Transoxiana in disarray. For the next twenty-five years, no further eastward conquests were undertaken and

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8528-404: The expeditions of Muhammad in the early 7th century. As the ancient caravan route fell into decline, Mecca lost its commercial significance and has since lived mainly on the proceeds from the annual pilgrimages and the gifts of Muslim rulers. The city of Mecca was sacked by the Umayyad general al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf , and thereafter the city, and at the time, the region, acknowledged the power of

8692-444: The largest empires in history in terms of area. The dynasty was toppled by the Abbasids in 750. Survivors of the dynasty established themselves in Córdoba which, in the form of an emirate and then a caliphate , became a world centre of science, medicine, philosophy and invention during the Islamic Golden Age . The Umayyad Caliphate ruled over a vast multiethnic and multicultural population. Christians, who still constituted

8856-443: The 1,765,666 residents above the age of 10, 77.28% or 1,364,529 persons were formally educated, while 401,137 were illiterate. Of the province's Saudi residents who were above the age of 15, 1.15% reported some form of disability in 2016, with visual impairment being the most common form of disability, followed by reduced mobility , while 107,770 persons reported severe or extreme disability. The position of Governor (Emir) of

9020-426: The 20th century. It was followed by the collapse of Umayyad authority in al-Andalus. In India , the Umayyad armies were defeated by the south Indian Chalukya dynasty and by the north Indian Pratiharas , stagnating further eastward Arab expansion. In the Caucasus , the confrontation with the Khazars peaked under Hisham: the Arabs established Derbent as a major military base and launched several invasions of

9184-403: The 6th century. The issue of succession between Qusayy's natural successor, Abd al-Dar, and his chosen successor, Abd Manaf, led to the division of Quraysh into two factions; those who backed the Abd al-Dar clan , including the clans of Banu Sahm , Banu Adi , Banu Makhzum and Banu Jumah , became known as al-Aḥlāf ('the Confederates'), while those who backed the Abd Manaf clan , including

9348-429: The Ansar and the Iraqis, while the bulk of the Quraysh was wary of his rule. The first challenge to his authority came from the Qurayshite leaders al-Zubayr and Talha, who had opposed Uthman's empowerment of the Umayyad clan but feared that their own influence and the power of the Quraysh, in general, would dissipate under Ali. Backed by one of Muhammad's wives, A'isha , they attempted to rally support against Ali among

9512-446: The Ansar were concerned about their political stake. The Quraysh apparently held real power during this period marked by the Muslim conquests . During the First Fitna , the Ansar, who backed Caliph Ali of the Banu Hashim against two factions representing rival Qurayshi clans, were defeated. They were subsequently left out of the political elite, while the Thaqif maintained a measure of influence by dint of their long relationship with

9676-419: The Arab immigrants and troops who arrived during the conquest of Iraq in the 630s–640s , resented the transition of power to Syria. They remained divided, nonetheless, as both cities competed for power and influence in Iraq and its eastern dependencies and remained divided between the Arab tribal nobility and the early Muslim converts, the latter of whom were divided between the pro- Alids (loyalists of Ali) and

9840-463: The Arab tribes who originally served in the army of the Eastern Roman Empire in Syria. These were supported by tribes in the Syrian desert and in the frontier with the Byzantines, as well as Christian Syrian tribes. Soldiers were registered with the Army Ministry, the Diwan Al-Jaysh, and were salaried. The army was divided into junds based on regional fortified cities. The Umayyad Syrian forces specialised in close order infantry warfare, and favoured using

10004-420: The Arabs lost territory. The Tang Chinese defeated the Arabs at the Battle of Aksu in 717, forcing their withdrawal to Tashkent . Meanwhile, in 716, the governor of Khurasan, Yazid ibn al-Muhallab , attempted to conquer the principalities of Jurjan and Tabaristan along the southern Caspian coast. His Khurasani and Iraqi troops were reinforced by Syrians, marking their first deployment to Khurasan, but

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10168-400: The Arabs' initial successes were reversed by the local Iranian coalition of Farrukhan the Great . Afterward, the Arabs withdrew in return for a tributary agreement. On the Byzantine front, Sulayman took up his predecessor's project to capture Constantinople with increased vigor. His brother Maslama besieged the Byzantine capital from the land, while Umar ibn Hubayra al-Fazari launched

10332-406: The Arabs' severe losses in the offensive against Constantinople, Umar drew down Arab forces on the caliphate's war fronts, though Narbonne in modern France was conquered during his reign. To maintain stronger oversight in the provinces, Umar dismissed all his predecessors' governors, his new appointees being generally competent men he could control. To that end, the massive viceroyalty of Iraq and

10496-407: The Banu Asad and Talha ibn Ubayd Allah of the Banu Taym. Later, during the Second Fitna , these same factions again fought for control of the caliphate , with the Umayyads victorious at the war's conclusion in 692/693. In 750, the issue of which Qurayshi clan would hold the reins of power was again raised but this time, the Abbasids , a branch of the Banu Hashim, were victorious and slew much of

10660-404: The Banu Umayya. Afterward, Islamic leadership was contested between different branches of the Banu Hashim. Umayyad Caliphate The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire ( UK : / uː ˈ m aɪ j æ d / , US : / uː ˈ m aɪ æ d / ; Arabic : ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة , romanized :  al-Khilāfa al-Umawiyya ) was the second caliphate established after

10824-481: The Berbers of Ifriqiya, where the Umayyad governor was assassinated by his discontented Berber guards. Warfare on the frontiers was also resumed, with renewed annual raids against the Byzantines and the Khazars in Transcaucasia . The final son of Abd al-Malik to become caliph was Hisham ( r.  724–743 ), whose long and eventful reign was above all marked by the curtailment of military expansion. Hisham established his court at Resafa in northern Syria, which

10988-434: The Byzantine Empire and raids into Syria by the Byzantines' Mardaite allies compelled him to sign a peace treaty with Byzantium in 689 which substantially increased the Umayyads' annual tribute to the Empire. During his siege of Circesium in 691, Abd al-Malik reconciled with Zufar and the Qays by offering them privileged positions in the Umayyad court and army, signaling a new policy by the caliph and his successors to balance

11152-425: The Egyptian dīwān in 705/06. Arabic ultimately became the sole official language of the Umayyad state, but the transition in faraway provinces, such as Khurasan, did not occur until the 740s. Although the official language was changed, Greek and Persian-speaking bureaucrats who were versed in Arabic kept their posts. According to Gibb, the decrees were the "first step towards the reorganization and unification of

11316-442: The General Authority of Statistics, the Mecca Province had a population of 8,557,766 as of December 2017, of which 4,516,577 were Saudis and 4,041,189 were foreign nationals. Divided by gender, 4,864,584 were males and 3,693,182 were females. The Mecca Province is the most populous province of Saudi Arabia and it has a population even larger than that of the Riyadh Region . With an estimated population of 4,076,000 as of 2019, Jeddah

11480-425: The Hejaz where Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr , the son of al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam and grandson of Abu Bakr, advocated for a shura among the Quraysh to elect the caliph and rallied opposition to the Umayyads from his headquarters in Islam's holiest sanctuary, the Ka'aba in Mecca. The Ansar and Quraysh of Medina also took up the anti-Umayyad cause and in 683 expelled the Umayyads from the city. Yazid's Syrian troops routed

11644-426: The Kaaba were known Quraysh al-Biṭāḥ ('Quraysh of the Hollow'), and included all of the descendants of Ka'b ibn Lu'ayy and others. The clans settled in the outskirts of the sanctuary were known as Quraysh al-Ẓawāhir ('Quraysh of the Outskirts'). According to historian Ibn Ishaq , Qusayy's younger son, Abd Manaf , had grown prominent during his father's lifetime and was chosen by Qusayy to be his successor as

11808-647: The Kharijites, who followed their own strict interpretation of Islam. The caliph applied a decentralized approach to governing Iraq by forging alliances with its tribal nobility, such as the Kufan leader al-Ash'ath ibn Qays , and entrusting the administration of Kufa and Basra to highly experienced members of the Thaqif tribe, al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba and the latter's protege Ziyad ibn Abihi (whom Mu'awiya adopted as his half-brother), respectively. In return for recognizing his suzerainty, maintaining order, and forwarding

11972-524: The Khorasani Arabs rose sharply after the losses suffered in the Battle of the Defile in 731. In 734, al-Harith ibn Surayj led a revolt that received broad backing from Arabs and natives alike, capturing Balkh but failing to take Merv . After this defeat, al-Harith's movement seems to have been dissolved. The problem of the rights of non-Arab Muslims would continue to plague the Umayyads. Hisham

12136-590: The Makkah Province has been held by the following individuals since 1925: Arabic : فيصل بن عبدالعزيز Arabic : متعب بن عبدالعزيز Arabic : عبدالله بن سعود Arabic : مشعل بن عبدالعزيز Arabic : فواز بن عبد العزيز Arabic : ماجد بن عبدالعزيز Arabic : عبدالمجيد بن عبدالعزيز Arabic : خالد بن فيصل Arabic : مشعل بن عبدالله Arabic : خالد بن فيصل The Mecca region has 17 governorates, of which 5, Jeddah, Rabigh, Ta'if, Qunfudhah, and Laith, have been classified Category A, while

12300-490: The Medinans at the Battle of al-Harra and subsequently plundered Medina before besieging Ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca . The Syrians withdrew upon news of Yazid's death in 683, after which Ibn al-Zubayr declared himself caliph and soon after gained recognition in most provinces of the caliphate, including Iraq and Egypt. In Syria Ibn Bahdal secured the succession of Yazid's son and appointed successor Mu'awiya II , whose authority

12464-527: The Mediterranean world with South Arabia, East Africa, and South Asia. The town was located about midway between Maʾrib in the south and Petra in the north, and it gradually developed by Roman and Byzantine times into an important trade and religious centre. Ptolemy's inclusion of Macoraba (Μακοράβα), a city of the Arabian interior, in his Guide to Geography was long held to show that Mecca was known to

12628-523: The Muslim community traditionally passed to a member of the Quraysh, as was the case with the Rashidun , Umayyad , and Abbasid Caliphates , and purportedly the Fatimids . Sources differ as to the etymology of Quraysh, with one theory holding that it was the diminutive form of qirsh (shark). The Arab genealogist Hisham ibn al-Kalbi asserted that there was no eponymous founder of Quraysh; rather,

12792-453: The Muslim conquests in the surrounding areas. Not long after Ziyad's death, he was succeeded by his son Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad . Meanwhile, Amr ibn al-As ruled Egypt from the provincial capital of Fustat as a virtual partner of Mu'awiya until his death in 663, after which loyalist governors were appointed and the province became a practical appendage of Syria. Under Mu'awiya's direction, the Muslim conquest of Ifriqiya (central North Africa)

12956-689: The Quraysh and Kinana. After a few more clashes, peace was reestablished. According to Watt, the actual aim in the Fijar War was control of the trade routes of Najd . Despite particularly tough resistance by the Quraysh's main trade rivals, the Thaqif of Ta'if , and the Banu Nasr clan of Hawazin, the Quraysh ultimately held sway over western Arabian trade. The Quraysh gained control over Ta'if's trade, and many Qurayshi individuals purchased estates in Ta'if, where

13120-490: The Quraysh initially showed little concern. However, opposition grew as he challenged the existence of gods other than Allah (an Arabic name for God or the god of Abraham). As relations deteriorated, Muhammad and his followers migrated to Medina (the Hijrah ) after negotiating with Banu Aws and Khazraj to mediate their conflict. The Quraysh had prevented Muslims from performing the pilgrimage to Mecca . Unable to reach

13284-548: The Quraysh, led by Abu Sufyan , mobilized 3,000 troops to confront Muhammad, resulting in the Battle of Uhud . Initially, Muhammad's forced had the upper hand, but a setback occurred when his archers abandoned their positions and pursued the fleeing Meccan soldiers. The Meccan military strategist Khalid ibn al-Walid exploited this and Muhammad's forces retreated. The Quraysh did not pursue further, considering their objective achieved. In Medina, some Jewish tribes expressed satisfaction at Muhammad's defeat, prompting him to target

13448-544: The Quraysh. A hadith holding that the caliph must be from Quraysh became almost universally accepted by the Muslims, with the exception of the Kharijites . Indeed, control of the Islamic state essentially devolved into a struggle between various factions of the Quraysh. In the first civil war, these factions included the Banu Umayya represented by Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan , the Banu Hashim represented by Ali, and other Qurayshi leaders such as al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam of

13612-469: The Quraysh. Following a siege, their men were judged to be executed, while the women and children were taken captive. This event marked a significant turning point, with Muhammad consolidating his control in Medina. Muhammad's focus then shifted to other tribes, such as the Banu Lahyan and Banu Mustaliq . The Banu Nadir were expelled from Medina after being accused of plotting against Muhammad, and

13776-790: The Red Sea and hosts oil refineries in Rabigh , port and oil export facilities in Jeddah , the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and the King Abdullah Economic City . The province also hosts part of the Haramain high-speed railway line, which is Saudi Arabia's first and only high-speed railway line. The province is divided into 11 governorates, of which 5 have been classified Category A and

13940-720: The Second Fitna, the Marwanids launched a series of centralization, Islamization and Arabization measures. To prevent further rebellions in Iraq, al-Hajjaj founded a permanent Syrian garrison in Wasit , situated between Kufa and Basra, and instituted a more rigorous administration in the province. Power thereafter derived from the Syrian troops, who became Iraq's ruling class, while Iraq's Arab nobility, religious scholars and mawālī became their virtual subjects. The surplus from

14104-453: The Taym, Asad, Zuhra and al-Harith ibn Fihr clans. The Banu Hashim held the hereditary rights surrounding the pilgrimage to the Kaaba, though the Banu Umayya were ultimately the strongest Qurayshi clan. According to Watt, "In all the stories of the pre-Islamic period there is admittedly a legendary element, but the main outline of events appears to be roughly correct, even if most of the dating

14268-512: The Umayyad Caliphate reached its greatest territorial extent. The war with the Byzantines had resumed under his father after the civil war, with the Umayyads defeating the Byzantines at the Battle of Sebastopolis in 692. The Umayyads frequently raided Byzantine Anatolia and Armenia in the following years. By 705, Armenia was annexed by the caliphate along with the principalities of Caucasian Albania and Iberia , which collectively became

14432-609: The Umayyad caliphate at Damascus and, following the eclipse of that dynasty, of the ʿAbbāsid caliphate of Baghdad . The city suffered great indignity at the hands of the Shīʿite Qarmatians in 930 when that sect's leader Ṭāhir Sulaymān pillaged Mecca and carried off the Black Stone from the Kaʿbah. Beginning in the mid-10th century, the rulers of the city were chosen from the sharifs , or descendants of Muhammad, who retained

14596-512: The Umayyads by awarding them command roles in the Muslim conquest of Syria . One of the appointees was Yazid , the son of Abu Sufyan, who owned property and maintained trade networks in Syria. Abu Bakr's successor Umar ( r.  634–644 ) curtailed the influence of the Qurayshite elite in favor of Muhammad's earlier supporters in the administration and military, but nonetheless allowed

14760-569: The Umayyads to pay the Empire an annual tribute of gold, horses and slaves. Mu'awiya's main challenge was reestablishing the unity of the Muslim community and asserting his authority and that of the caliphate in the provinces amid the political and social disintegration of the First Fitna. There remained significant opposition to his assumption of the caliphate and to a strong central government. The garrison towns of Kufa and Basra, populated by

14924-587: The Yemeni Khuza'a tribe. The Quraysh gained their name when Qusayy ibn Kilab , a sixth-generation descendant of Fihr ibn Malik, gathered together his kinsmen and took control of the Kaaba. Prior to this, Fihr's offspring lived in scattered, nomadic groups among their Kinana relatives. All medieval Muslim sources agree that Qusayy unified Fihr's descendants, and established the Quraysh as the dominant power in Mecca. After conquering Mecca, Qusayy assigned quarters to different Qurayshi clans. Those settled around

15088-526: The agriculturally rich Sawad lands was redirected from the muqātila to the caliphal treasury in Damascus to pay the Syrian troops in Iraq. The system of military pay established by Umar, which paid stipends to veterans of the earlier Muslim conquests and their descendants, was ended, salaries being restricted to those in active service. The old system was considered a handicap on Abd al-Malik's executive authority and financial ability to reward loyalists in

15252-458: The allegiance of the Iraqis. The recognition of Mu'awiya in Kufa, referred to as the "year of unification of the community" in the Muslim traditional sources, is generally considered the start of his caliphate. With his accession, the political capital and the caliphal treasury were transferred to Damascus , the seat of Mu'awiya's power. Syria's emergence as the metropolis of the Umayyad Caliphate

15416-483: The army. Thus, a professional army was established during Abd al-Malik's reign whose salaries derived from tax proceeds. In 693, the Byzantine gold solidus was replaced in Syria and Egypt with the dinar . Initially, the new coinage contained depictions of the caliph as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community and its supreme military commander. This image proved no less acceptable to Muslim officialdom and

15580-540: The cathedral of St. John the Baptist and founded the Great Mosque in its place as a "symbol of the political supremacy and moral prestige of Islam", according to historian Nikita Elisséeff. Noting al-Walid's awareness of architecture's propaganda value, historian Robert Hillenbrand calls the Damascus mosque a "victory monument" intended as a "visible statement of Muslim supremacy and permanence". Under al-Walid I

15744-411: The city became the capital of the province. The region underwent extensive economic development as Saudi Arabia's petroleum resources were exploited after World War II , and the number of yearly pilgrims to Mecca has increased significantly. Most of the central and eastern portions of the province are desert, with the Hejaz mountains , which vary in elevation from 600 meters to 2000 meters, separating

15908-529: The climate was cooler. The sanctuary village of Mecca developed into a major Arabian trade hub. According to Watt, by 600 CE, the leaders of Quraysh "were prosperous merchants who had obtained something like a monopoly of the trade between the Indian Ocean and East Africa on the one hand and the Mediterranean on the other". Furthermore, the Quraysh commissioned trade caravans to Yemen in the winter and caravans to Gaza , Bosra , Damascus and al-Arish in

16072-543: The country, with smaller numbers of Hanafis , Shafi‘is and Malikis . Muslims are estimated to live within the province, with even smaller numbers of Hindus , Christians and other religious groups, most of whom are expatriates from India and the Philippines , who mostly reside in Jeddah . The official language of Saudi Arabia is Arabic . The main regional dialect of the Mecca Province spoken by Saudis

16236-826: The death of Mu'awiya II. Al-Dahhak in Damascus, the Qays tribes in Qinnasrin (northern Syria) and the Jazira, the Judham in Palestine, and the Ansar and South Arabians of Homs all opted to recognize Ibn al-Zubayr. Marwan ibn al-Hakam, the leader of the Umayyads expelled to Syria from Medina, was prepared to submit to Ibn al-Zubayr as well but was persuaded to forward his candidacy for the caliphate by Ibn Ziyad. The latter had been driven out of Iraq and strove to uphold Umayyad rule. During

16400-530: The death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty . Uthman ibn Affan , the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a member of the clan. The family established dynastic, hereditary rule with Mu'awiya I , the long-time governor of Greater Syria , who became caliph after the end of the First Fitna in 661. After Mu'awiya's death in 680, conflicts over the succession resulted in

16564-566: The diverse tax-systems in the provinces, and also a step towards a more definitely Muslim administration". Indeed, it formed an important part of the Islamization measures that lent the Umayyad Caliphate "a more ideological and programmatic coloring it had previously lacked", according to Blankinship. In 691/92, Abd al-Malik completed the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. It was possibly intended as

16728-543: The east was broken up. Umar's most significant policy entailed fiscal reforms to equalize the status of the Arabs and mawali , thus remedying a long-standing issue which threatened the Muslim community. The jizya (poll tax) on the mawali was eliminated. Hitherto, the jizya, which was traditionally reserved for the non-Muslim majorities of the caliphate, continued to be imposed on non-Arab converts to Islam, while all Muslims who cultivated conquered lands were liable to pay

16892-707: The east, where his armies attempted to subdue both Tokharistan , with its centre at Balkh , and Transoxiana , with its centre at Samarkand . Both areas had already been partially conquered but remained difficult to govern. Once again, a particular difficulty concerned the question of the conversion of non-Arabs, especially the Sogdians of Transoxiana. Following the Umayyad defeat in the " Day of Thirst " in 724, Ashras ibn 'Abd Allah al-Sulami, governor of Khurasan , promised tax relief to those Sogdians who converted to Islam but went back on his offer when it proved too popular and threatened to reduce tax revenues. Discontent among

17056-643: The end of 629 CE, a belligerent party within the Quraysh, against the advice of their chief Abu Sufyan , supported one of their client clans in a conflict against the Khuza'a , allies of Muhammad. This act was seen as a violation of the Treaty of al-Hudaybiya. As Muhammad advanced with his army to besiege Mecca, Abu Sufyan, along with others, including Muhammad's ally Khuza'i Budayl ibn Warqa, met with Muhammad to request amnesty for all Quraysh who did not resist. Thus Muhammad entered Mecca unopposed, and almost all of its inhabitants converted to Islam. Afterwards, leadership of

17220-461: The end of the Second Fitna and the reunification of the caliphate under Abd al-Malik's rule. Iraq remained politically unstable and the garrisons of Kufa and Basra had become exhausted by warfare with Kharijite rebels. In 694 Abd al-Malik combined both cities as a single province under the governorship of al-Hajjaj, who oversaw the suppression of the Kharijite revolts in Iraq and Iran by 698 and

17384-563: The family, their burgeoning alliance with the powerful Banu Kalb tribe as a counterbalance to the influential Himyarite settlers in Homs who viewed themselves as equals to the Quraysh in nobility, or the lack of a suitable candidate at the time, particularly amid the plague of Amwas which had already killed Abu Ubayda and Yazid. Under Mu'awiya's stewardship, Syria remained domestically peaceful, organized and well-defended from its former Byzantine rulers. Umar's successor, Uthman ibn Affan ,

17548-475: The feud between Syria and Iraq further weakened the empire. The first four caliphs created a stable administration for the empire, following the practices and administrative institutions of the Byzantine Empire which had ruled the same region previously. These consisted of four main governmental branches: political affairs, military affairs, tax collection, and religious administration. Each of these

17712-410: The former Byzantine territories of Syria and Egypt. In Medina, he relied extensively on the counsel of his Umayyad cousins, the brothers al-Harith and Marwan ibn al-Hakam . According to the historian Wilferd Madelung , this policy stemmed from Uthman's "conviction that the house of Umayya, as the core clan of Quraysh, was uniquely qualified to rule in the name of Islam". Uthman's nepotism provoked

17876-399: The former Qurayshite elite and take control of the Muslim state. The Muhajirun gave allegiance to one of their own, the early, elderly companion of Muhammad , Abu Bakr ( r.  632–634 ), and put an end to Ansarite deliberations. Abu Bakr was viewed as acceptable by the Ansar and the Qurayshite elite and was acknowledged as caliph (leader of the Muslim community). He showed favor to

18040-432: The growing foothold of Abu Sufyan's sons in Syria, which was all but conquered by 638. When Umar's overall commander of the province Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah died in 639, he appointed Yazid governor of Syria's Damascus , Palestine and Jordan districts. Yazid died shortly after and Umar appointed his brother Mu'awiya in his place. Umar's exceptional treatment of Abu Sufyan's sons may have stemmed from his respect for

18204-546: The guardian of the Kaaba. He also gave other responsibilities related to the Kaaba to his other sons Abd al-Uzza and Abd, while ensuring that all decisions by the Quraysh had to be made in the presence of his eldest son Abd al-Dar ; the latter was also designated ceremonial privileges such as keeper of the Qurayshi war banner and supervisor of water and provisions to the pilgrims visiting the Kaaba. According to historian F. E. Peters , Ibn Ishaq's account reveals that Mecca in

18368-466: The hands of the Quraysh, as opposed to Ali's determination to diffuse power among all of the Muslim factions. From early in his reign, Uthman displayed explicit favouritism to his kinsmen, in stark contrast to his predecessors. He appointed his family members as governors over the regions successively conquered under Umar and himself, namely much of the Sasanian Empire , i.e. Iraq and Iran, and

18532-458: The historian Hugh N. Kennedy , Uthman was killed because of his determination to centralize control over the caliphate 's government by the traditional elite of the Quraysh, particularly his Umayyad clan, which he believed possessed the "experience and ability" to govern, at the expense of the interests, rights and privileges of many early Muslims. After Uthman's assassination, Ali was recognized as caliph in Medina, though his support stemmed from

18696-513: The house of Muhammad ibn Ali, the head of the Abbasid family, and before dying named Muhammad ibn Ali as his successor. This tradition allowed the Abbasids to rally the supporters of the failed revolt of Mukhtar , who had represented themselves as the supporters of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya. Beginning around 719, Hashimiyya missions began to seek adherents in Khurasan. Their campaign was framed as one of proselytism ( dawah ). They sought support for

18860-488: The interests of the Qays and Yaman in the Umayyad state. With his unified army, Abd al-Malik marched against the Zubayrids of Iraq, having already secretly secured the defection of the province's leading tribal chiefs, and defeated Iraq's ruler, Ibn al-Zubayr's brother Mus'ab , at the Battle of Maskin in 691. Afterward, the Umayyad commander al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf besieged Mecca and killed Ibn al-Zubayr in 692, marking

19024-540: The ire of the Ansar and the members of the shura . In 645/46, he added the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) to Mu'awiya's Syrian governorship and granted the latter's request to take possession of all Byzantine crown lands in Syria to help pay his troops. He had the surplus taxes from the wealthy provinces of Kufa and Egypt forwarded to the treasury in Medina, which he used at his personal disposal, frequently disbursing its funds and war booty to his Umayyad relatives. Moreover,

19188-627: The journey himself, after negotiations with various factions in Medina had established a base of support there. This event, known as the Hijra , followed complex negotiations with different groups in Medina, where Muhammad was seen as a potential mediator for ongoing tribal conflicts, though his role was likely more multifaceted than just mediation. In Medina, Muhammad received a divine revelation allowing Muslims to defend themselves, which included targeting Quraysh trade caravans in response to their ongoing hostility and persecution. After obtaining spoils from

19352-596: The latter's ally Amr ibn al-As ousted Ali's governor from Egypt in July 658. In July 660 Mu'awiya was formally recognized as caliph in Jerusalem by his Syrian tribal allies. Ali was assassinated by a Kharijite dissident in January 661. His son Hasan succeeded him but abdicated in return for compensation upon Mu'awiya's arrival to Iraq with his Syrian army in the summer. At that point, Mu'awiya entered Kufa and received

19516-477: The leadership of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb were the principal leaders of Meccan opposition to the Islamic prophet Muhammad , but after the latter captured Mecca in 630, Abu Sufyan and the Quraysh embraced Islam. To reconcile his influential Qurayshite tribesmen, Muhammad gave his former opponents, including Abu Sufyan, a stake in the new order. Abu Sufyan and the Umayyads relocated to Medina , Islam's political centre, to maintain their new-found political influence in

19680-516: The local government workers in conquered provinces to keep their jobs under the new Umayyad government. Thus, much of the local government's work was recorded in Greek , Coptic , and Persian . It was only during the reign of Abd al-Malik that government work began to be regularly recorded in Arabic. The Umayyad army was mainly Arab, with its core consisting of those who had settled in urban Syria and

19844-453: The lucrative Sasanian crown lands of Iraq, which Umar had designated as communal property for the benefit of the Arab garrison towns of Kufa and Basra , were turned into caliphal crown lands to be used at Uthman's discretion. Mounting resentment against Uthman's rule in Iraq and Egypt and among the Ansar and Quraysh of Medina culminated in the killing of the caliph in 656. In the assessment of

20008-457: The military of the Byzantine Empire and their Ghassanid client kings, were "more accustomed to order and obedience" than their Iraqi counterparts, according to the historian Julius Wellhausen . Mu'awiya relied on the powerful Kalbite chief Ibn Bahdal and the Kindite nobleman Shurahbil ibn Simt alongside the Qurayshite commanders al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri and Abd al-Rahman , the son of

20172-467: The months following the battle, the inter-tribal strife undermined the foundation of Umayyad power: the Syrian army. In 685, Marwan and Ibn Bahdal expelled the Zubayrid governor of Egypt and replaced him with Marwan's son Abd al-Aziz , who would rule the province until his death in 704/05. Another son, Muhammad , was appointed to suppress Zufar's rebellion in the Jazira. Marwan died in April 685 and

20336-459: The name stemmed from taqarrush , an Arabic word meaning "a coming together" or "association". The Quraysh gained their name when Qusayy ibn Kilab , a sixth-generation descendant of Fihr ibn Malik, gathered together his kinsmen and took control of the Kaaba . Prior to this, Fihr's offspring lived in scattered, nomadic groups among their Kinana relatives. The nisba or surname of the Quraysh

20500-535: The nascent Muslim community. Muhammad's death in 632 left open the succession of leadership of the Muslim community. Leaders of the Ansar , the natives of Medina who had provided Muhammad safe haven after his emigration from Mecca in 622, discussed forwarding their own candidate out of concern that the Muhajirun , Muhammad's early followers and fellow emigrants from Mecca, would ally with their fellow tribesmen from

20664-523: The northern Caucasus, but failed to subdue the nomadic Khazars. The conflict was arduous and bloody, and the Arab army even suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Marj Ardabil in 730. Marwan ibn Muhammad, the future Marwan II, finally ended the war in 737 with a massive invasion that is reported to have reached as far as the Volga , but the Khazars remained unsubdued. Hisham suffered still worse defeats in

20828-624: The northern frontier and entered Damascus in December 744, where he was proclaimed caliph. Marwan immediately moved the capital north to Harran , in present-day Turkey . A rebellion soon broke out in Syria, perhaps due to resentment over the relocation of the capital, and in 746 Marwan razed the walls of Homs and Damascus in retaliation. Marwan also faced significant opposition from Kharijites in Iraq and Iran, who put forth first Dahhak ibn Qays and then Abu Dulaf as rival caliphs. In 747, Marwan managed to reestablish control of Iraq, but by this time

20992-472: The office of the caliph into a kingship. The act was met with disapproval or opposition by the Iraqis and the Hejaz-based Quraysh, including the Umayyads, but most were bribed or coerced into acceptance. Yazid acceded after Mu'awiya's death in 680 and almost immediately faced a challenge to his rule by the Kufan partisans of Ali who had invited Ali's son and Muhammad's grandson Husayn to stage

21156-481: The organizational skills of the Quraysh were put to use in the service of Islam". With Muhammad's death in 632, rivalry emerged between the Quraysh and the two other components of the Muslim elite, the Ansar and the Thaqif, over influence in state matters. The Ansar wanted one of their own to succeed the prophet as caliph , but were persuaded by Umar to agree to Abu Bakr. During the reigns of Abu Bakr ( r.  632–634 ) and Umar ( r.  634–644 ), some of

21320-474: The prominent general Khalid ibn al-Walid , to guarantee the loyalty of the key military components of Syria. Mu'awiya preoccupied his core Syrian troops in nearly annual or bi-annual land and sea raids against Byzantium, which provided them with battlefield experience and war spoils, but secured no permanent territorial gains. Toward the end of his reign the caliph entered a thirty-year truce with Byzantine emperor Constantine IV ( r.  668–685 ), obliging

21484-468: The province of Arminiya . In 695–698 the commander Hassan ibn al-Nu'man al-Ghassani restored Umayyad control over Ifriqiya after defeating the Byzantines and Berbers there. Carthage was captured and destroyed in 698, signaling "the final, irretrievable end of Roman power in Africa ", according to Kennedy. Kairouan was firmly secured as a launchpad for later conquests, while the port town of Tunis

21648-738: The province. Other minor sanctuaries in the province include the Saiysad Natural Reserve in the city of Ta'if and the Eastern Forest near Jeddah. The Hejaz mountains run through the center of the province, separating the Nafud desert from the western coastal plains, which run parallel to the coast of the province on the Red Sea . According to the Population Characteristics Surveys conducted by

21812-402: The reason for the decline of the Umayyads was the rapid expansion of Islam. During the Umayyad period, mass conversions brought Persians, Berbers, Copts, and Aramaic to Islam. These mawalis (clients) were often better educated and more civilised than their Arab overlords. The new converts, on the basis of equality of all Muslims, transformed the political landscape. Previté-Orton also argues that

21976-432: The region was ruled by a series of Saudi tribes. Under the Quraysh it became a type of city-state, with strong commercial links to the rest of Arabia , Ethiopia , and Europe . Mecca became a place for trade, for pilgrimage, and for tribal gatherings. The city of Jeddah is believed to have been a fishing hamlet occupied by early Yemeni tribes. The region has held significant religious importance greatly increased with

22140-469: The relatively flat Nafud desert and coastal plains. Agriculture takes place in the region's many wadis and oases , with the most commonly-grown crops being dates and barley , alongside other vegetables and fruits . The city of Ta'if is famous for its cultivation of the Rosa × damascena flower, simplified as Damask rose and locally known as Ta'if rose. The province has an extended coastline that

22304-421: The remainder each year being sent to the central government in Damascus. As the central power of the Umayyad rulers waned in the later years of the dynasty, some governors neglected to send the extra tax revenue to Damascus and created great personal fortunes. As the empire grew, the number of qualified Arab workers was too small to keep up with the rapid expansion of the empire. Therefore, Muawiya allowed many of

22468-399: The rest are Category B. The City of Mecca ( Arabic : أمانة مكة ) constitutes Mecca and the area surrounding the city and is the administrative center and capital of the province. Quraysh The Quraysh or Qureshi ( Arabic : قُرَيْشٍ ) is an Arab tribe that inhabited and used to control Mecca and the Kaaba . Comprising ten main clans, it includes the Hashim clan into which

22632-400: The rest of Quraysh to embrace Islam. Muhammad sought to consolidate the unity of his expanding Muslim community by "winning over this powerful group [the Quraysh]", according to Donner; to that end he guaranteed Qurayshi participation and influence in the nascent Islamic state. Thus, despite their long enmity with Muhammad, the Quraysh were brought in as political and economic partners and became

22796-613: The rest, Category B, with Mecca serving as the administrative headquarters and capital of the province. It is governed by an Emir , translated as Governor from Arabic, who is assisted by the Deputy Governor, both appointed by the King of Saudi Arabia . The current emir is Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud , who has held the position for a second term since 2015. Ancient Mecca was an oasis on the old caravan trade route that linked

22960-803: The south. The province is bordered by the Madinah Province to the north, the Riyadh Province to the east, and the Al Baha and ʽAsir provinces to the south. The Mecca Region hosts two of Saudi Arabia's 15 designated protected areas managed by the Saudi Wildlife Authority : the Mahazat as-Sayd Protected Area and the Saja Umm Ar-Rimth Natural Reserve , located on the eastern extremes of

23124-403: The strongman of Quraysh, he was not officially a king of the tribe, but one of many leading shaykhs (tribal chieftains). According to historian Gerald R. Hawting , if the traditional sources are to be believed, Qusayy's children, "must have lived in the second half of the fifth century". However, historian W. Montgomery Watt asserts that Qusayy himself likely died in the second half of

23288-504: The summer. The Quraysh established networks with merchants in these Syrian cities. They also formed political or economic alliances with many of the Bedouin (nomadic Arab) tribes in the northern and central Arabian deserts to ensure the safety of their trade caravans. The Quraysh invested their revenues in building their trading ventures, and shared profits with tribal allies to translate financial fortune into significant political power in

23452-429: The support of the Kufan elite. The caliph's Syrian army defeated the rebels and pursued and nearly eliminated the influential Muhallabids , marking the suppression of the last major Iraqi revolt against the Umayyads. Yazid II reversed Umar II's equalization reforms, reimposing the jizya on the mawali , which sparked revolts in Khurasan in 721 or 722 that persisted for some twenty years and met strong resistance among

23616-531: The time of Qusayy and his immediate offspring was not yet a commercial center; rather, the city's economy was based on pilgrimage to the Kaaba, and "what pass[ed] for municipal offices [designated by Qusayy] have to do only with military operations and with control of the shrine". During that time, the tribesmen of Quraysh were not traders; instead, they were entrusted with religious services, from which they significantly profited. They also profited from taxes collected from incoming pilgrims. Though Qusayy appeared to be

23780-429: The tombs of the Umayyads in Syria, sparing only that of Umar II , and most of the remaining members of the Umayyad family were tracked down and killed. When Abbasids declared amnesty for members of the Umayyad family, eighty gathered to receive pardons, and all were massacred. One grandson of Hisham, Abd al-Rahman I , survived, escaped across North Africa, and established an emirate in Moorish Iberia ( Al-Andalus ). In

23944-418: The troops of Basra, prompting the caliph to leave for Iraq's other garrison town, Kufa, where he could better confront his challengers. Ali defeated them at the Battle of the Camel , in which al-Zubayr and Talha were slain and A'isha consequently entered self-imposed seclusion. Ali's sovereignty was thereafter recognized in Basra and Egypt and he established Kufa as the caliphate's new capital. Although Ali

24108-438: The two forces met in the Battle of the Zab , and the Umayyads were defeated. Damascus fell to the Abbasids in April, and in August, Marwan was killed in Egypt. Some Umayyads in Syria continued to resist the takeover. The Umayyad princes Abu Muhammad al-Sufyani , al-Abbas ibn Muhammad, and Hashim ibn Yazid launched revolts in Syria and the Islamic–Byzantine frontier around late 750, but they were defeated. The victors desecrated

24272-448: The village of Hudaybiyyah, where the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah is said to have been agreed upon. More recently, the province was modernized under the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia after the oil boom . Most of the population is concentrated in three cities: Jeddah, Mecca and Ta'if . Jeddah is the largest city in the province and the second-largest in Saudi Arabia with an estimated population of 2,867,446 as of 2020. Mecca

24436-427: Was a wealthy Umayyad and early Muslim convert with marital ties to Muhammad. He was elected by the shura council, composed of Muhammad's cousin Ali , al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam , Talha ibn Ubayd Allah , Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas and Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf , all of whom were close, early companions of Muhammad and belonged to the Quraysh. He was chosen over Ali because he would ensure the concentration of state power into

24600-421: Was able to replace Uthman's governors in Egypt and Iraq with relative ease, Mu'awiya had developed a solid power-base and an effective military against the Byzantines from the Arab tribes of Syria. Mu'awiya did not claim the caliphate but was determined to retain control of Syria and opposed Ali in the name of avenging his kinsman Uthman, accusing the caliph of culpability in his death. Ali and Mu'awiya fought to

24764-493: Was carried out under the sign of the black flag . He soon established control of Khurasan, expelling its Umayyad governor, Nasr ibn Sayyar , and dispatched an army westwards. Kufa fell to the Hashimiyya in 749, the last Umayyad stronghold in Iraq, Wasit , was placed under siege , and in November of the same year Abul Abbas as-Saffah was recognized as the new caliph in the mosque at Kufa. At this point Marwan mobilized his troops from Harran and advanced toward Iraq. In January 750

24928-415: Was closer to the Byzantine border than Damascus, and resumed hostilities against the Byzantines, which had lapsed following the failure of the last siege of Constantinople. The new campaigns resulted in a number of successful raids into Anatolia , but also in a major defeat (the Battle of Akroinon ), and did not lead to any significant territorial expansion. From the caliphate's north-western African bases,

25092-413: Was effectively abandoned, and the frontier between the two empires stabilized along the line of the Taurus and Anti-Taurus Mountains , over which both sides continued to launch regular raids and counter-raids during the next centuries. Contrary to expectations of a son or brother succeeding him, Sulayman had nominated his cousin, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz , as his successor and he took office in 717. After

25256-402: Was founded and equipped with an arsenal on Abd al-Malik's orders to establish a strong Arab fleet. Hassan ibn al-Nu'man continued the campaign against the Berbers, defeating them and killing their leader, the warrior queen al-Kahina , between 698 and 703. His successor in Ifriqiya, Musa ibn Nusayr , subjugated the Berbers of the Hawwara , Zenata and Kutama confederations and advanced into

25420-446: Was further subdivided into more branches, offices, and departments. Geographically, the empire was divided into several provinces, the borders of which changed numerous times during the Umayyad reign. Each province had a governor appointed by the caliph. The governor was in charge of the religious officials, army leaders, police, and civil administrators in his province. Local expenses were paid for by taxes coming from that province, with

25584-621: Was launched by the commander Uqba ibn Nafi in 670, which extended Umayyad control as far as Byzacena (modern southern Tunisia), where Uqba founded the permanent Arab garrison city of Kairouan . In contrast to Uthman, Mu'awiya restricted the influence of his Umayyad kinsmen to the governorship of Medina, where the dispossessed Islamic elite, including the Umayyads, was suspicious or hostile toward his rule. However, in an unprecedented move in Islamic politics, Mu'awiya nominated his own son, Yazid I , as his successor in 676, introducing hereditary rule to caliphal succession and, in practice, turning

25748-425: Was likely restricted to Damascus and Syria's southern districts. Mu'awiya II had been ill from the beginning of his accession, with al-Dahhak assuming the practical duties of his office, and he died in early 684 without naming a successor. His death marked the end of the Umayyads' Sufyanid ruling house, called after Mu'awiya I's father Abu Sufyan. Umayyad authority nearly collapsed in their Syrian stronghold after

25912-403: Was replaced in 696 or 697 with image-less coinage inscribed with Qur'anic quotes and other Muslim religious formulas. In 698/99, similar changes were made to the silver dirhams issued by the Muslims in the former Sasanian Persian lands of the eastern caliphate. Arabic replaced Persian as the language of the dīwān in Iraq in 697, Greek in the Syrian dīwān in 700, and Greek and Coptic in

26076-409: Was secured over the rest of conquered Transoxiana through tributary alliances with local rulers, whose power remained intact. From 708/09, al-Hajjaj's kinsman Muhammad ibn al-Qasim conquered northwestern South Asia and established out of this new territory the province of Sind . The massive war spoils netted by the conquests of Transoxiana, Sind and Hispania were comparable to the amounts accrued in

26240-410: Was slain. Not long after, the South Arabians of Homs and the Judham joined the Quda'a to form the tribal confederation of Yaman . Marj Rahit led to the long-running conflict between the Qays and Yaman coalitions. The Qays regrouped in the Euphrates river fortress of Circesium under Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi and moved to avenge their losses. Although Marwan regained full control of Syria in

26404-491: Was subsequently given authority over the rest of the eastern caliphate. Resentment among the Iraqi troops towards al-Hajjaj's methods of governance, particularly his death threats to force participation in the war efforts and his reductions to their stipends, culminated with a mass Iraqi rebellion against the Umayyads in c.  700 . The leader of the rebels was the Kufan nobleman Ibn al-Ash'ath , grandson of al-Ash'ath ibn Qays. Al-Hajjaj defeated Ibn al-Ash'ath's rebels at

26568-447: Was succeeded by Al-Walid II (743–44), the son of Yazid II. Al-Walid is reported to have been more interested in earthly pleasures than in religion, a reputation that may be confirmed by the decoration of the so-called "desert palaces" (including Qusayr Amra and Khirbat al-Mafjar ) that have been attributed to him. He quickly attracted the enmity of many, both by executing a number of those who had opposed his accession and by persecuting

26732-452: Was succeeded by his eldest son Abd al-Malik . Although Ibn Ziyad attempted to restore the Syrian army of the Sufyanid caliphs, persistent divisions along Qays–Yaman lines contributed to the army's massive rout and Ibn Ziyad's death at the hands of the pro-Alid forces of Mukhtar al-Thaqafi of Kufa at the Battle of Khazir in August 686. The setback delayed Abd al-Malik's attempts to reestablish Umayyad authority in Iraq, while pressures from

26896-465: Was the result of Mu'awiya's twenty-year entrenchment in the province, the geographic distribution of its relatively large Arab population throughout the province in contrast to their seclusion in garrison cities in other provinces, and the domination of a single tribal confederation, the Kalb-led Quda'a , as opposed to the wide array of competing tribal groups in Iraq. The long-established, formerly Christian Arab tribes in Syria, having been integrated into

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