The Umayyad Caliphate
661–750 CE · 41 AH–132 AHMuʿawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan founded the Umayyad dynasty in 41 AH (661 CE) with its capital at Damascus. Under the Umayyads the Muslim world reached from al-Andalus in the west to Sindh and Central Asia in the east — one of the largest states in history.
Caliph ʿAbd al-Malik made Arabic the language of administration and minted the first purely Islamic coins. Great monuments such as the Dome of the Rock and the Great Mosque of Damascus were built.
Capital: Damascus
- 691: the Dome of the Rock completed in Jerusalem.
- 711: Tariq ibn Ziyad crosses into Iberia; Muhammad ibn al-Qasim reaches Sindh.
- 715: the Great Mosque of Damascus completed.
- 717–720: the short, just rule of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz.
- 750: the Abbasid revolution ends Umayyad rule in the east.
- Muʿawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan
- ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwan
- al-Walid I
- ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz
- Tariq ibn Ziyad
The Umayyads created the administrative and architectural language of the Islamic empire; their surviving prince, ʿAbd al-Rahman I, founded Umayyad rule in al-Andalus.
Prepared from standard sources; pending scholar review.