CHAPTER 4: THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MUSLIM STATE
CHAPTER 4: THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MUSLIM STATE
Key points from this chapter:
- Following the death of Ali (RA), Mu’awiyah (RA) remained the only man with the power to unite the Muslim World and so became the Caliph
- Mu’awiyah’s (RA) successors slowly turned the caliphate into a monarchy
- Ummayyad policies were very unpopular amongst the public who supported the rise of the Abbasids and the downfall of the Umayyads
The 4th chapter of the book looks at the era after the Rashidun Khilafah. It goes through various important periods in the Umayyad rule and their eventual downfall. The summary of this chapter will be split into three chronological sections. The first will look at the Khilafah of Mu’awiyah (RA) and the turmoil following his death. The second will look at the reigns of his successors whilst the final section will look at the collapse of the Umayyad Khilafah and the Rise of the ‘Abbasid Khilafah.
The reign of Mu’awiyah (RA) was relatively more peaceful than Ali Ibn Abi Talib (RA) and those who came after him. However, it was not without its difficulties. Being the only man in the Muslim World with enough power, influence and support to unify the Muslim world, he was able to use his political skills to do just that and prevented the Muslim world from falling into total anarchy. There did exist some support for Hassan Ibn Ali (RA) to take the position of Khalifah. However, Mu’awiyah (RA) agreed with Hassan (RA) that the latter would retire to a life of worship and scholarship in Makkah. The new Khalifah slowly began to transform the Khilafah into more of a monarchy. He was the first to ever sit on a throne and pray in an enclosed area in the masjid. As a result, the asceticism of the 4 rightly guided Khulafaa was slowly being lost. However, it would be wrong to assume that he had completely turned away from the ways of the first four Khulafaa. Instead, it could be more accurate to say that, he was the bridge between the old system of the Khilafah and a monarchy. Military expansion continued under the reign of Mu’awiyah with the first siege of Constantinople in 674 CE. Further expansions into North Africa resumed and by 680 CE, conquests into Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria (known as the Maghreb region) began. In 680, Uqba’s (RA) army was able to take much of North Africa with little resistance and great speed – perhaps owing to the fact that the Berber population was closer in culture and lifestyle to the Nomad Arabs than the Byzantines. Another reason may have been religion, as the Berbers would openly reject the established Christian orthodox teaching. Large groups would accept Islam. As a result, the Umayyads had pushed all the way into Morocco by 680. As stated earlier, the reign of Mu’awiyah (RA) was not without its difficulties. In an act of great controversy, he named Yazid, his son, as his successor. This was something that had not been done in the history of the newly-established Islamic state. However, some have argued that the reason for doing this was to prevent wars of succession and any turmoil following the death of the Khalifah. Regardless, this decision was not met without opposition. Accusations of Yazid not leading a life of piety led to prominent figures in Islam rebelling. Among these was the other son of Ali (RA), Hussain (RA). He had received information that there was a large support base for him in Iraq and so marched out with a very small group of people to Iraq. Upon his arrival, the support base abandoned him and he was martyred at Karbala by Hajjaj Ibn Yusuf. There was even greater opposition now to Yazid’s rule and using this, Abdullah Ibn Zubayr (RA) initiated another revolt in Makkah in 680. Yazid was not able to deal with this during his reign nor could his successor. Abdullah Ibn Zubayr (RA) then proclaimed himself to be the Khalifah but in 692, the rebellion was finally put down. The Umayyads regained their control of the Muslim world following the martyrdom of ‘Abdullah Ibn Zubayr (RA).
After reasserting their authority over the Muslim World, the Umayyads continued to expand their territories. In 698, they sent their armies to take the last remaining Byzantine outposts in North Africa. Having asserted their control over North Africa, Tariq Bin Ziyaad led a naval force of 10,000 men and landed in Gibraltar. He decisively defeated a Spanish army at the Battle of Guadalete in 711. Within a few months, most of the major cities fell and by 715 the vast majority of the Iberian Peninsula was brought under Muslim rule. Further expansion into Gaul was initially successful and the Muslims marched all the way into southern France in the 720s. However, in 732, the Muslims were defeated at the battle of Tours with some historians arguing that this stopped Muslim rule from spreading all across Europe. The expansion was not limited only to the western borders of the Umayyad Khilafah. Whilst, the wars were raging against the Byzantines and Europeans, the Muslims also marched into the northwest of India. This campaign was in reaction to the ruler of India refusing to comply with Umayyad demands following an attack on the Muslim civilians in that region. As a result, Muhammad Ibn Qaasim defeated Raja Dahir, who was the ruler of India, in battle. The consequential collapse of the central government led to a part of India easily being brought under direct Muslim rule. The author does not go much into the lives of the rulers following Yazid’s succession. However, it is clear from other books of history such as ‘Saviours of Islamic Spirit’ by Sh Abul Hassan Ali Nadwi that the rulers became more and more distant from the simple lifestyle of The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his earliest successors. There was an attempt to halt this and revert back to the old ways by ‘Umar Ibn ‘Abdul Aziz. His tireless efforts earned him the title of ‘The Fifth rightly-guided Khalifah’ and also ‘Mujaddid’ (revivor) of the first Islamic Century. However, his rule was very short and after 2 years he had been assassinated with some sources claiming that it was from dissatisfied powerful members of the Umayyad clan.
Although Umayyad rule expanded Islam and its influence to the very far corners of the world, its citizens were not entirely satisfied with the policies of their rulers. The non-muslims had to pay jizya, which, although was low during the Rashidun Khilafah, had been made higher than the Zakaat the Muslims paid by the Umayyad Khulafaa. This opened the path for non-muslims to convert so as not to pay the jizya. In an attempt to stop this and also not to lose a large source of tax revenue, the Umayyads introduced a new policy in which those who accepted Islam after being conquered still had to pay the Jizya. Since most of these people were non-Arabs, the tax was seen as “institutionalised discrimination based on race” (p68). Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz (RA) tried to undo this non-Islamic taxation policy but was poisoned two years into his reign by the Umayyads. As a result, dissatisfaction spread across the Muslim world and riding this wave was another old family from Makkah – The Abbasids. These were members from the family of the uncle of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ Abbas (RA) who had initially stayed away from politics as the civil wars of the 600s raged on. However, they soon began to rise to power by gathering support from different groups in the Muslim world and in 747 CE, they openly declared their revolt. Abu Muslim, whose identity is still to this day shrouded in mystery, led the armies and soon brought Khorasan under the rule of the ‘Abbasids. The author says “What initially seemed like an insignificant expression of discontent in distant Merv now became a danger to the existence of the Umayyad dynasty as Abbasid armies flowed out of Persia and into the Arab world.” (p70) Following the conquest of Kufa, formal allegiances were given to Abu Al-A’bbas. Umayyad armies finally gathered and the two opposing armies met at the ‘climactic battle of the Zab’ (p71) in early 750 where the Abbasids won a decisive victory. The path to Damascus now lay open. One by one, the cities capitulated to Abbasid rule and Umayyad dynasty members were killed one by one. One Umayyad dynasty member survived – A’bdur-Rahman who fled to Al-Andalus and established an emirate that would last almost 300 years. The Abbasids assumed leadership of the Muslim world in the mid-700s and became the second dynasty to rule. However, their promises of reverting back to a Khilafah more in line with the teaching of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and giving the descendants of Ali (RA) a greater role in the government were short-lived. They proved to be more of the same authoritarians they had overthrown. The Abbasids did, however, increase the role the non-Arabs played in administration and civil governance. They put the experience of the Persians in administrating a complex bureaucratic system to use. They then moved their capital to the newly built round city of Baghdad. It quickly became the largest city in the world and a centre of knowledge and science. Unlike their predecessors, the Abbasids did not focus on military expansion with expansion coming to a near standstill under their rule. The author concludes the chapter by saying “The era of Muslim military conquest was over for the time being. Instead, the era of Muslim intellectual conquest was about to begin”
In conclusion, it is clear that the peace, prosperity and spiritual golden age enjoyed under the rule of The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and the earliest rightly-guided Khulafaa was something not to be seen again. Following their demise and the establishment of the Umayyad Khilafah, the Muslim world changed drastically and not for the better. Although expansion continued, the ascetic ways of the early rulers were lost and the Muslims entered into a ‘state of decadence’ as described by Shaykh Abul Hassan Ali Nadwi in Islam and The World.