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Hello and welcome to literature and history.

Episode 121, the Umayad Caliphate.

In this program, we will learn the history of the second caliphate of Islam.

Under the Umayyads, between 661 and 7.50, Islamic leadership expanded into the largest empire the world had ever known,

stretching from modern-day Portugal to the westernmost reaches of India.

Yet even as it expanded, the Umayyad caliphate shuddered, fighting multiple civil wars and suppressing

rebellions throughout its territories, as recently conquered populations sought to reassert themselves against Muslim emirs all over Central Eurasia.

While the Umayyad caliphate is universally understood as an Islamic caliphate,

the Umayyad empire was predominantly Muslim only at its heartland and topmost ranks.

One recent estimate holds that 90% of the empire's population, even at the end of the Umayyad

era around 7.50, were neither Muslims nor of Arabian extraction, which should remind us

that a preponderance of Umayy citizens were from the old indigenous populations of regions

that Muslims conquered. The Umayyad era then, which once again stretched from 661 to 750, was a period

of transition, a period during which the first generation of Muslims passed away, and new generations made their way forward in a

world very different from the West Arabian one in which Islam had first emerged.

The Umayyad dynasty has a checkered reputation in Islamic history. The geopolitical achievements

of the Umayyads are unquestionable. They managed to

conquer even more territory than the previous caliphs, including what is today Spain. They built

the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and Al-Aksaw mosque next to it, the great mosque of Damascus, and they greatly expanded the Prophet's

mosque in Medina. They were also, however, responsible for keeping Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law

Ali and his sons out of power and killing Ali's youngest son Hussein. They practiced nepotism on an intercontinental scale,

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