Empire661 CE – 750 CE · 89 years
Umayyad Caliphate
The dynasty that pushed the Caliphate from Spain to the Indus in less than a century.
What it was
The Umayyads ruled the Caliphate from Damascus from 661 to 750 CE, completing the conquests of North Africa and Spain in the west and the Sind in the east. Resentment over their Arab-aristocratic favoritism toward Syrian elites led to their overthrow by the Abbasid revolution.
Why it mattered
The Umayyad period set the territorial maximum the Caliphate ever reached as a single state — almost everything that followed was about managing fragmentation.
From Wikipedia
The Umayyad Caliphate or the Umayyad Empire was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty from 661 to 750. It succeeded the Rashidun Caliphate, of which the third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, was also a member of the Umayyad clan. The Umayyad family established hereditary rule under Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, the long-time governor of Greater Syria, who became caliph after emerging victorious in the First Fitna following the assassination of Ali in 661. Syria remained the Umayyads' core power base thereafter, with Damascus as their capital. After Mu'awiya's death in 680, Umayyad authority was challenged in the Second Fitna, during which the Sufyanid line was replaced in 684 by Marwan ibn al-Hakam, who founded the Marwanid line that restored Umayyad rule over the Caliphate.
Wikipedia: Umayyad Caliphate·CC BY-SA 4.0
Borders & accuracy
Solid borders are reconstructed from canonical historical-basemap data or hand-crafted from scholarly atlases.
- SOURCEaourednik / historical-basemaps
- DETAILhistorical-basemaps:700:Umayyad Caliphate
- SNAPSHOT700 CE
- MATCHEDUmayyad Caliphate
- POLITY TYPEstate
Wars of this empire32
Conflicts whose belligerents name this polity, best-documented first.
- Visigothic Invasion of Iberia711–719 CEMajor conflict · 50K dead
- Siege of Constantinople (717-718)717–718 CEMajor conflict · 50K dead
- Siege of Carthage (698)695–698 CEMajor conflict
- Battle of Covadonga722 CEMajor conflict
- Berber Revolt740–743 CEMajor conflict
- Early Islamic civil wars632–763 CESignificant
- Arab–Aksumite raids640–702 CESignificant
- Kusaila's Revolt680–688 CESignificant
- Second Fitna680–692 CESignificant
- Kahina's Berber Resistance689–703 CESignificant
- Battle of the Nobles740 CESignificant
- Battle of Bagdoura741 CESignificant
- Third Fitna744–750 CESignificant
- Battle of Amorium669 CERegional
- Battle of Syllaeum677 CERegional
- Battle of Biskra683 CERegional
- Battle of Marj Rahit684 CERegional
- Battle of Mams688 CERegional
- Battle of Mecca692 CERegional
- Battle of Maskin701 CERegional
- Battle of Ecija711 CERegional
- Battle of Guadalete711 CERegional
- Umayyad conquest of Sindh711–714 CERegional
- Battle of Raor712 CERegional
+ 8 more in the atlas.
Open in the atlas →Seeks the timeline to 661 CE and fits the map to these borders.
Cite as: Umayyad Caliphate (661 CE – 750 CE). War Atlas. https://waratlas.org/e/umayyad-caliphate · Sources & methodology