The Umayyad Caliphate originated from the Umayyad clan that opposed Muhammad but later embraced Islam, leading the Muslim faith after Muhammad. They conquered large areas rapidly but were halted in Western Europe. The Abbasid Caliphate overthrew the Umayyads due to resentment of their lavish lifestyle. The Abbasids established an absolute bureaucracy under sharia law with Baghdad as their capital, encouraging more conversion and trade which increased urbanization and craft industries. Both empires declined due to internal revolts and pressures from outside forces that broke away territories.
The Umayyad Caliphate originated from the Umayyad clan that opposed Muhammad but later embraced Islam, leading the Muslim faith after Muhammad. They conquered large areas rapidly but were halted in Western Europe. The Abbasid Caliphate overthrew the Umayyads due to resentment of their lavish lifestyle. The Abbasids established an absolute bureaucracy under sharia law with Baghdad as their capital, encouraging more conversion and trade which increased urbanization and craft industries. Both empires declined due to internal revolts and pressures from outside forces that broke away territories.
The Umayyad Caliphate originated from the Umayyad clan that opposed Muhammad but later embraced Islam, leading the Muslim faith after Muhammad. They conquered large areas rapidly but were halted in Western Europe. The Abbasid Caliphate overthrew the Umayyads due to resentment of their lavish lifestyle. The Abbasids established an absolute bureaucracy under sharia law with Baghdad as their capital, encouraging more conversion and trade which increased urbanization and craft industries. Both empires declined due to internal revolts and pressures from outside forces that broke away territories.
The Umayyad Caliphate originated from the Umayyad clan that opposed Muhammad but later embraced Islam, leading the Muslim faith after Muhammad. They conquered large areas rapidly but were halted in Western Europe. The Abbasid Caliphate overthrew the Umayyads due to resentment of their lavish lifestyle. The Abbasids established an absolute bureaucracy under sharia law with Baghdad as their capital, encouraging more conversion and trade which increased urbanization and craft industries. Both empires declined due to internal revolts and pressures from outside forces that broke away territories.
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UMAYYAD AND ABBASID CALIPHATES COMPARED
Category Umayyad Caliphate Abbasid Caliphate
Origin (657-750CE) Umayyad clan starts as a foe to Muhammad. (750-1258 CE)Umayyad troops, garrisoned on the frontier They are defeated at Mecca by Muhammads forces but are for years at a time, were becoming increasingly disgusted embraced by Muhammad and become a powerful Muslim with the lavish lifestyle of the Umayyad caliphs. This led to clan that will lead the faith after Muhammad. more and more revolts. Abu-al-Abbas led a successful revolt After the first three caliphs, The followers of Ali will split starting around Merv (Marw in Arabic), on the frontier in away from the faith and form the Shiites (who think caliphs Northern Iran (former Sassanian Empire) after he, a Sunni, should be related to Muhammad) and the Umayyads will lead allied himself with many of the Shiites in the northeast of the the remaining vast majority of Muslims (the Sunnis) who empire. After gaining power by killing many Umayyad believe the caliphs should be chosen from among all family members (the survivors will flee to Spain) he betrays Muslims. Umayyads will conquer much of North Africa, the and persecutes his Shiite allies (since their core belief is a Middle East, South Asia, and parts of Western Europe (Spain) bloodline descent from Muhammad being required for all very rapidly. They will be halted from taking more of western caliphs). Europe at the Battle of Tours in France in 732CE. Political The Abbasids set up a bureaucracy of absolute authority While the Umayyads will win political victory militarily (by the sword) they will not generally force their conquered under Sharia law. This absolute authority is symbolized by people to convert on pain of death. The Umayyad capital will the ever present Royal Executioner at the side of each be Damascus and they will govern as ARAB ELITE caliph. The empire was soon governed by mostly Persian Muslims looking down upon non-Arab converts known as bureaucrats in the Persian bureaucratic style with a Wazir Mawali and using an ethnic Arab military and ethnic Arab (vizier in Egyptian) as the chief operating officer. Persian bureaucracy. The caliphs will be resented by the soldiers on would soon largely take over control of the empire after the the frontier for leading non-Islamic lavish lifestyles. first century. The empire would also begin to break up into Umayyads will set up a theocracy where religious and many smaller Muslim kingdoms still recognizing the political law is one and the same. Their inspiration for all law religious authority of the Abbasid Caliph but not necessarily will be the Koran. These laws will be known as Sharia Law. the Political authority. They moved the capital to Baghdad. Economic The Abbasids would encourage conversion of the Dhimmis (people Umayyads will not aggressively seek to convert people of the book known as Dhimmis because these Jews, of the book) far more than the Umayyads and many Persians and others would convert to avoid the extra taxes forced on non-Muslims. Christians, and later Zoroastrians and Hindus will pay a These new converts (Mawalis) were treated much more equally than higher tax, making their status as non-Muslims very in the Umayyad caliphate. Trade exploded with a continuing growth profitable for the Umayyads. of a new Muslim merchant (middle) class. Urbanization increased Trade will be controlled by Muslims under standardized through trade and growing cities created large handy-craft Sharia law making it flourish as never before. The central industries (leather, rug, cloth, making). These were the first craft- location of the Umayyad caliphate will link trading networks guilds where the guild system controlled employment and prices. from around the old world on a continuous basis. Goods and Farmland was soon controlled by a noble landed class and most ideas will be globally exchanged as never before. peasants were tenant farmers. This would cause problems later. Slavery increased during the Abbasid Caliphate causing much hypocrisy when slaves converted to Islam. Social Women will have advantages and a higher status in the Umayyad Caliphate as compared to the Abbasid Caliphate. Due to urbanization, women lost status during the Abbasid Caliphate This higher status dates back to both the teachings of as the Islamic culture copied the traditional gender restrictions in Muhammad and the nomadic Bedouin Arab traditions. Non- their locally conquered areas. Cloistering, the Veil, and the Harem, believers (Dhimmis) while certainly losing profitable jobs would symbolize this loss of status. As in many cultures, poor and trade routes and paying higher taxes to the Umayyad women were the only ones allowed to go to the city or market unaccompanied by an adult male relative. Learning flowered at the Arabs, and while being considered second class at best, will Baghdad House of Wisdom (the first international center dedicated not be actively persecuted as some of them had been under to learning for learnings sake) the Byzantine and Sassanian Empires. Decline The Lavish, wealthy lifestyles of the elite Umayyad Arabs The decline of the Abbasid caliphate comes from both within and was considered by many in the army to be outside the faith of without. From within, Persian Bureaucrats became more and more Islam, given Muhammads message about Social justice, influential in the first century of the Abbasid caliphate until they equality, and helping the poor. Further, Many Arab soldiers declare their independence as the Buyid Dynasty in 934CE. The Fatimids will break away from Abbasid rule in Egypt in 909 CE were growing tired of being posted (garrisoned) on the Later, a slave class of Muslim soldiers who served the Abbasids will frontier of the empire year after year. Revolts began. The declare independence in Egypt in 1250 forming the Mamluk final rebellion by soldiers in the northeast corner of the Sultanate. Seljuk Turks will take the Anatolian peninsula from the empire led to the overthrow and murder of most of the Abbasids by 1100CE. Finally, from without, the weakened Abbasid Umayyad clan by Abu al-Abbas (founder of the Abbasid caliphate will be destroyed by the Mongols in 1258CE Caliphate)