Empire661 CE – 750 CEMiddle East, Africa, Europe, Central Asia

Umayyad Caliphate

The first hereditary Islamic dynasty after the Rashidun Caliphate, the Umayyads expanded Muslim rule from the Iberian Peninsula to the borders of India and China, creating the largest empire the world had seen to that point.

Key Figures
Muawiya IAbd al-MalikWalid IUmar IIAbd al-Rahman I

Historical Consequences

Spread Islam across North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus), and Central Asia. Arabic became the administrative and scholarly language across this vast territory. The Umayyad advance into Western Europe was checked at the Battle of Tours/Poitiers (732), though the battle's significance is debated by modern historians. After overthrow, an Umayyad prince established the Emirate of Córdoba in Spain.

Dynasty750 CE

Abbasid Caliphate

The Abbasid Caliphate presided over the Islamic Golden Age, making Baghdad one of the world's largest and most learned cities, and a global center of science, mathematics, medicine, and philosophy.

Cause-Effect Graph

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