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Syria Umayyad Caliphate
After Ali's murder in 661, Muawiyah--the governor of Syria
during the early Arab conquests, a kinsman of Uthman, and a
member of the Quraysh lineage of the Prophet--proclaimed himself
caliph and established his capital in Damascus. From there he
conquered Muslim enemies to the east, south, and west and fought
the Byzantines to the north. Muawiyah is considered the architect
of the Islamic empire and a political genius. Under his
governorship Syria became the most prosperous province of the
caliphate. Muawiyah created a professional army and, although
rigorous in training them, won the undying loyalty of his troops
for his generous and regularly paid salaries. Heir to Syrian
shipyards built by the Byzantines, he established the caliphate's
first navy. He also conceived and established an efficient
government, including a comptroller of finance and a postal
system.
Muawiyah cultivated the goodwill of Christian Syrians by
recruiting them for the army at double pay, by appointing
Christians to many high offices, and by appointing his son by his
Christian wife as his successor. His sensitivity to human
behavior accounted in great part for his political success. The
modern Syrian image of Muawiyah is that of a man with enormous
amounts of hilm, a combination of magnanimity, tolerance,
and self-discipline, and of duha, political expertise--
qualities Syrians continue to expect of their leaders. By 732 the
dynasty he founded had conquered Spain and Tours in France and
stretched east to Samarkand and Kabul, far exceeding the greatest
boundaries of the Roman Empire
(see
fig. 4). Thus, Damascus
achieved a glory unrivaled among cities of the eighth century.
The Umayyad Muslims established a military government in
Syria and used the country primarily as a base of operations.
They lived aloof from the people and at first made little effort
to convert Christians to Islam. The Umayyads administered the
lands in the manner of the Byzantines, giving complete authority
to provincial governors.
In the administration of law, the Umayyads followed the
traditions set by the Hellenistic monarchies and the Roman
Empire. The conqueror's law--in this case Muslim law (sharia)--
applied only to those of the same faith or nationality as the
conquerors. For non-Muslims, civil law was the law of their
particular millet (separate religious community, also
called milla); religious leaders administered the law of
the millet. This system prevailed throughout Islam and has
survived in Syria's legal codes
(see Islam
, ch. 2;
Constitutional Framework
, ch. 4).
During the 89 years of Umayyad rule, most Syrians became
Muslims, and the Arabic language replaced Aramaic. The Umayyads
minted coins, built hospitals, and constructed underground canals
to bring water to the towns. The country prospered both
economically and intellectually. Foreign trade expanded, and
educated Jews and Christians, many of them Greek, found
employment in the caliphal courts, where they studied and
practiced medicine, alchemy, and philosophy.
Data as of April 1987
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