History of the Umayyad Empire

Now this lesson is going to be a bit lengthy compared to most of the other lessons in this course, in general, I like to keep the lessons under 20 minutes, so that it's easy to digest this might go longer than that, hopefully not. The reason why we're going to spend a bit more time on this topic is that I really most people have less understanding of the Omega Empire compared to the Abbas's, or the Ottomans, in general, they have a bad rap, a bad reputation.

Because most of the history books were written in the abasi, the Ottoman era, and some of them tend to reflect upon the Omega is negatively. And when we studying the Muslim culture and the Golden Ages and these kinds of things, reality is that the Omega it's contributed just as much to this aspect of our history as the Apaches the Ottomans. So we need to give them, you know, a fair history. And so we're going to make perhaps go into more details than any of the other empires about the history in this course, just to make things a bit more fair, because again, so many people know about the Abbas's and Ottomans. And unfortunately, most people have a very negative attitude towards the

Romanians, because only those amongst them who committed certain crimes and sins have been popularized, while those who did some great things for Islam tend to be forgotten. So who were the roommates? You made with the first Islamic caliphate and really the first media to rule the Muslim was not even a fan or the Allahu anhu many people don't know this they assume it was more Alia. Alia was the one who started in May a dynasty but his cousin was man was a caliphate before him. So technically assmang was the first Umayyad Caliph, but after him, it went back to the curry she's with Ali Hassan before returning to the immediate family with Alia. So for those of you wondering,

what's an omega, omega is simply a tribe of Arabia, right? Bonnie omega Devi, a tribe of Arabia, one of the branches of the Quraysh. So this was a this is actually a very important branch of the creation, it helps us to see why they succeeded in politics, the image with technically the leaders of the Corniche, because Mao he his father was Abu sufian. And Abu sufian was the leader of Makkah. So Malia came from a family that had political

they had a political history. So meaning he grew up understanding politics, he had experience in this field, unlike most of the other Muslims of his generation, who didn't really have any political experience or any parents who came from such background. Right now. Many people aren't aware of this. They know that of the Omega dynasty as something that lasted for a short period of time in the beginning of Islam. But technically we can see the with three omega dynasties, right, they were three omega dynasties. The first one was Alia, his son is eat and his son Alia the second, so for about 24 years, 20 years in Mongolia, three and a half years of years eat and about half a year of

Malia the second. This was the first automated family to form a sort of dynasty very short, very brief, doesn't really impact much on the history of Islam. But we focused on in this course, right after this, there was a period of civil war. And

basically, people were fighting over the caliphate after the death of Maria the second. And this ended with the Romanians actually winning this Civil War, which lasted about 11 years. And then it was the descendants of Marwan even hukam who were the second omega dynasty. So a lot even How come he fought the civil war against the Sahaba Abdullah, even Sudan, as well as a Shiite leader, and it was basically two different camps fighting over the caliphate, eventually Marwan son, Abdul Malik Evan Marwan he ended the Civil War and this brought the oma back under omega jewel to this became the second omega dynasty, the rule of Abdul Malik, Eben Marwan and his sons,

right. And this lasted until the Abbas ej took over about 60 years later, or 70 years later, and it was this is the one that you that you might focus on most in this course. The third, there's actually a third category many people don't know about, and that is after the Abbas it took over the Muslim world, and they assassinated the majority of the immediate Princess, one of these princes managed to escape Prince by the name of the man even Maria, he escaped to Spain, and he and his descendants ruled Spain for 290 years. So

Approximately 100 years after the death of Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wasallam. The oma split into two separate empires, the image of Spain, and the Abbas's ruling the rest of the Muslim world. This refutes the myth that many Muslims have that the oma has always had one caliber added that was only for the first 100 years of our history. Since then the mo has been split between multiple caliphates. Right. So technically, we have made caliphs for the first 350 years of Islamic history. From the time of Maria, right until the last descendant of the Abdullah Eva Maria passed away in Spain. We have a long history of origami of the homemade Empire. Some people wrongly assume it was

just 70 years. No, it was 70 years of the main family that ruled the entire Muslim world. But if you put all three dynasties together, we're looking at 350 years of history.

So why are the immediate important? Well, firstly, they were the first dynasty of Emperor or Empire in the Muslim world. They were a family that consolidated power and gave it to the family and pass it down in a monarchy system. And

it really became an empire during the reign of Abdulmalik Eva Marwan What do we mean by this? Well, Abdul Malik evil, Marwan established Arabic as the national language across the Empire, this cause countries like Syria and Egypt, and Iraq to adopt Arabic as the main language. Before this, these were not the main languages, but they became the main languages in the tempo of the molecule Macron because he made it the national language, you will also be the first one to start an Islamic currency. So before this in the kind of the Sahaba, the Muslims use Roman currency, they use Roman money for the business dealings, he established their own currency now that they have their own

currency currency. You know, this is a sign of being on an equal footing to the Romans and the Persians, and a great step forward in terms of

being recognized as the Empire and even had a standardized flag

to be displayed across the entire Empire. In during his salary, the sons reign, while he the first, the oma grew faster than it ever did. In the history of this world during the time of war lead the first the Muslims, they took over Spain, they took over India, they took over North Africa, it became a truly large Empire spanning three separate continents. And

it was the first point time in history the Muslim experience real power and luxury. Unfortunately, because of this, because the Muslims had no experience in dealing with this level of power and luxury. Many of the male rulers fell into sin and into greed. And this caused animosity between them and the Muslims ruling living in their countries, which eventually led to an uprising by the apostles. Who were the apostles. The bosses were the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad's large sums, Uncle Abbas. So they claimed that being family of the prophets like some gave them more right to rulership, the nomads, then they told the people if you allow us to take over we will bring the

relationship back to Islam away from all of the sin. And so they had a very bloody revolt in which they massacred the image and took over.

But they were unable to massacre all of the oma yet some of them escaped to Spain. And so the oma split, the Abbas's became the rulers of the majority of the Muslim world, and the mermaids remained the rulers of Spain.

Right? So the mud that is on my head, one Caliph until the end of the Ottoman era. This is something completely unfounded. right from the very beginning. 100 years after the death of Rasulullah sallallahu wasallam. We see the must split between two caliphs to make ends in in Baghdad and the or I'm sorry, the Abbas's in Baghdad and the image in Spain, and many, many more splits will occur later on the points in time, with the five or six different people claiming to be callup at the same time.

Now, when it comes to the Islamic Golden Ages, the image of Spain are particularly important. The early imagery important for turning the Muslim world into an empire by establishing its own currency and flagging national language and making it a transcontinental empire that expanded across Europe, Asia and Africa. But he was really the image of Spain who, who ushered in a golden age of technological and scientific advancements. So when the image ruled Spain, they had less land to rule and so they could concentrate on doing the best they could in Rolling that red. So during that time, they turned Spain into the most technologically and scientifically advanced civilization in Europe.

If you have started to study the history of Islamic Spain under the omae, it's the way the world leaders of science, technology, entertainment, education, everything. The rest of Europe would come to Spain to learn about any of these things. But as with any other Empire, as we will discuss in a later lesson, you know, there was a stagnation and decline and eventually ended in civil war with different people fighting over the rulership before it will pass on to the robits.

So after the omits felpham power in Spain, Spain remained a Muslim country for 400 more years. Most of those years were years of civil war, and different caliphates ruling for small pockets of time. Eventually, the Christians took advantage of this and the Inquisition to place. Inquisition is one of the saddest events in our history. Essentially, the Christians came in and they massacred the Muslims and forced him to convert to Christianity or leave the country and just took over Spain very brutally short period of time, Muslims went from the majority of people in Spain to almost being non existent. Very, very brutal massacre.

And so Spain never returned to its glory days right there, the golden age of Islamic Spain was the omiya era. So this is why domains are important. Even we ever we talk about Spain, and this was discovered in Spain, and that was invented in Spain. We talking about the Omega era, after the Omega arrow, Spain never recovered. It went through various small caliphates and civil wars, until eventually, the Christian took over. And that was the end of Islamic Spain, that same Christian family took over our ruling Spain right until today.

So yes, some lessons we can learn as this was the first dynasty in the history of Islam, I'm sure there's quite a few things we can learn from them. Well, the first thing is something that even he'll do and highlights in his history books, which is that every Empire goes through three main phases, they grow, they enter Golden Age, and then they decline and disappear. And you know, every single Muslim Empire experienced this. This is why

I don't say the was a Muslim golden age, I see the multiple Muslim Golden Ages, to the immediate experience a golden age in Spain, the Abbas's went through a golden age in Baghdad, the Ottomans went through a golden age in Istanbul, you know, so every Muslim Empire had the glowing phase, the golden age and their decline. This is the way the world works, and the way it will always work.

interesting lesson that I derive whenever I look at your marriage is that, you know, the first person to do something always has it the hardest, because they really don't have any experience to draw from. So diomedes, they didn't have any body to look up to in terms of how to route such a large Empire and handle such a high level of wealth and luxury. And so they made a lot of mistakes. I mean, really, the idea of Muslims ruling across three separate continents at the same time, they had no experience in this at all. And so they were trying new things, some work, some didn't. And they made many mistakes. The Abbas's in the Ottomans had the advantage of learning from the mistakes

of the humans. And so they had a much easier time ruling compared to the omegas.

And another lesson we can take from the why the Omega the Empire, the one that ruled over the entire Muslim world lasted for so short, is that the key to a long lasting Empire is the happiness of the subjects. Right, we see two separate trends, the early humans did not keep the subjects happy. And this led to rebellions. And this led to the abattis taking over the later on the years learned their lesson. And so the image of Spain really kept the people happy. I mean, the best place to live in the world at that time was made Spain, you know, people used to call it general or not, that's how good it was. And so he ruled for much longer, comparatively, the Romanians that rule the entire oma

lasted 70 years, you may use that rule over Spain last 290 years, the difference you made of Spain kept people happy. And so they were a took many centuries longer before any kind of rebellion started.

Another lesson that we can take from this and I know some of you may be shaken by this part of our history, but it needs to be discussed. And that is that politics is brutal, even in Muslim world. And so politics tend to bring out the worst in people. And

you know, this is why when you study Islamic political history, there's a lot of things which are unsettling Muslims fighting each other in Civil War, massacring each other as assassinating each other. Really, politics bring out the worst in people and this is why Islam does not encourage us to have political aspirations. If Allah gives you power, do the best you can. If Allah does not give you power, don't chase after it because it's not a nice

To have a very big responsibility, and it often brings out the worst in people. Reality is, especially in the ancient times, it's almost impossible for a politician to avoid any form of violence and killing, it's almost impossible. At the very least, you're going to execute murders, right? There's definitely going to be some kind of violence that comes into play when you are in a position of political power.

Another lesson we take from this moving on to a more positive lesson is that we see that science and technology were a priority to the omits. And so this is how they had a golden age of science and technology in omega Spain.

We also see that the Omega took themselves very seriously, the fact that they went ahead and develop their own currency, their own national language and flag, they basically consolidated the Muslim Empire, the Muslim world into an empire shows that they took himself seriously they do any professional about it. And this really had a long lasting impact for the oma because it established the oma as a rival to the Persians enrollments. And so these are some of the lessons we can take from the omits. Now, we're not done yet with this lesson. There's one more thing I want to discuss something controversial.

And that is the concept of monarchy.

In the time we are living in a lot of Muslims have a very negative attitude towards kings and kingship Indic tend to have this misconception that being a king is haram. Right? It comes from the fact that the kings of our time are just not good.

But you know, I want you to think about this advisedly. The presidents of our time are not good either. Right? So what makes one system better than the others? I'm Diigo. If you're against monarchy, because the kings are terrible people today, how would democracy solve it? The democracy has given us Donald Trump, it hasn't solved anything. It's still just as terrible people in positions of power. So I'm going to make a statement here that may be controversial to some of you. Reality is Islam does not have a specific political model. Islam does not say that is specific way for someone to come into power or to stay in power. Rather, Muslims adapt the political systems of

their time and shape it around Sharia law. So the way Abu Bakar came into power was different from how Omar came into power, which is different about what ceman came into power, which is different from the omegas. And which is different from the above seeds, which is different from Muslim presidents and kings today. The point is, Allah has given us a very flexible political system. The main thing that matters is the implementation of Sharia law. Everything else around that is very, very flexible. And this is something most Muslims don't understand. You think everything's linear, everything straightforward. Everything's black and white. Allah has lifted, very flexible and open.

And for the majority of Islamic history, we had kings. And the reality is this was the best thing for the Muslim world at that time. Because the Muslim world had kings because they had the obedience, the Abbas's, and the Ottomans, this prevented a lot more civil wars. He created a lot more stability. People didn't have to worry about who's going to be the next ruler, there's happy elections. And what if someone egotistical trying to come to power, there wasn't civil wars every three or four years over the caliphate. Rather, the oma was stable. If there was a civil war, it was once every 400 or 500 years, which is far far less than what would have happened under any other

system that existed at that time. And so whether you like the monarchy system or not a kingship system or not. Reality is, it was the best thing for the Ummah at that point in time, and it was actually a very good move on the part of our rajala politically, not his choice of successor but but establishing the system itself. Furthermore, this is something Muslim and non Muslim historians agree upon. This world has produced far more successful kings and presidents. If you look at the great Muslim rulers, Salahuddin Omar even Abdulaziz Harun al Rashid Suleiman the Magnificent, guess what, the only part of the monarchy system, none of them were presidents. Right? And so, I mean, if

you look at the presidential system, how many amazing presidents has this world actually produced, much less in number compared to the amount of amazing kings it has produced?

So the reality is that the monarchy system has been very, very effective. Most of the great rulers in this world even prophets, they doubt and similarly Some were kings, they were part of a monarchy system. Great people like Mansa Musa homina, Roshi, Salah, Houdini, UB Suleiman the Magnificent, all part of the monarchy system. So, if you have this idea that monarchy is bad and democracy is good, that's not an Islamic understanding. Rather, Islam leaves the political system

flexible and open to the times. And for the most of our history, monarchy was a good thing. So those of you who harbor animosity towards Maui or Angela anhu, or even to do a major passage in general, really you need to get rid of this from your heart, this hatred for fellow Muslims over political issues, get rid of it from your heart understand that what they did was what they felt was best for their times. And if they were right male like sippy from them if they wrongly ALLAH forgive them for it. This isn't a matter of Eman And goofer is not a matter of right and wrong. It's a matter of, of choosing a system that works between all the different permissible options.

So the endings is it haram to be a king? You know my answer? No, it's not. For those of you who think it's around a few points to think about, right number one, Alicia Hannah with Allah in the Quran praises derwood Elisa, Elisa Lam, dilute oil. These are all kings. Allah praises them. He didn't say what they were doing or how it was Haram. Furthermore, prophets don't do Haram. So why would the Prophet be a king and ask for the greatness of kingdoms? If kingship was Hara? Right? If you believe that the concept of monarchy is haram, how do you explain the idea of doubt and filament Ali salam, and filaments do to have a kingdom the lecture which nobody has ever had before? Think

about that. Number two, you will not find a single verse in the Quran or Hadith that explicitly states that it is haram to have a kingship. It's not there doesn't exist. There may be some pieces you could interpret in that way. But nothing explicit and you cannot establish prohibition without explicit evidence. Number three, the majority of Sahaba did not object to it. Now, when Why are we appointed his Sandhya z to be the next Caliph. Some of the Sahaba. About for Sahaba only for objected to it. But they objected to his choice of successor yazeed. Not to the idea of monarchy itself. That's something people don't realize. They objected to the idea of being the next ruler

while Sahaba were still alive, and they had the right to do so the the argument makes a lot of sense. It's

it's understandable, but they did not object to the idea of a monarchy itself. Right.

The Sahaba did not oppose the idea of a son succeeding his father in of itself, what they say what they oppose, or rather what for optimal pose was the idea of being an extra ruler. So this habit did not object to the concept of monarchy in of itself. Neither did

the majority of Muslims throughout history, especially the major Muslim scholars, Abu hanifa, Shafi, Malik, Muhammad, even humble even Tamia, Al ghazali, and Noah, we, all of them lived under monarchies. They lived in at a time with a Muslim ruled by kings, yet you will not hear a single statement from them declaring the system how wrong and demanding we go back to the old ways and to the ways of the Sahaba. None of them said this, none of them have any statement of this nature that I am aware of. Right. The majority of Muslims throughout history, including the whole Ummah, did not have a problem with the monarchy system. Therefore, we can conclude from all of this, that it is not

haram to have a monarchy system, those of us who think it is need to change our perspective, because really, the evidence is very clear from the Quran from the Hadees from the Sahaba. From the early scholars, there is no real objection towards the system. Rather it was applied throughout the most of our history. It was very effective and it was the best thing for each time.