Umayyid

Umayyad Caliphate
ٱلْخِلافَةُ ٱلأُمَوِيَّة
661–750
The Umayyad Caliphate at its greatest extent
Capital		Damascus (661–744) Harran (744–750)
Capital-in-exile		Córdoba (756–1031)
Languages		Arabic (official) – Coptic, Greek, Latin, Persian (official in certain regions until the reign of Abd al-Malik) – Aramaic, Armenian, Berber languages, African Romance, Mozarabic, Sindhi, Georgian, Prakrit
Religion		Sunni Islam
Government		Caliphate
Caliph
•	661–680	Muawiya I
•	743–744	Al-Walid II
•	744–750	Marwan II
History
•	Muawiya becomes Caliph	estimated from 660 to 665
•	Defeat and death of Marwan II by the Abbasids	750
Area
•	AD 720	11,100,000 km2 (4,300,000 sq mi)
Population
•	750 (132 AH) est.	34,000,000
Currency		Gold dinar and dirham
Preceded by Succeeded by Rashidun Caliphate Byzantine Empire Visigothic Kingdom Exarchate of Africa Mauretania Tingitana Abbasid Caliphate Emirate of Córdoba Barghawata Kingdom of Nekor
Today part of		39 countries  Afghanistan  Algeria  Andorra  Armenia  Azerbaijan  Bahrain  Cyprus  Egypt  France  Georgia  India  Iran  Iraq  Israel  Jordan  Kazakhstan  Kuwait  Kyrgyzstan  Lebanon  Libya  Morocco  Oman  Pakistan Palestinian Authority  Portugal  Qatar  Russia  Saudi Arabia  Spain  Syria  Tajikistan  Tunisia  Turkey  Turkmenistan  United Arab Emirates  United Kingdom( Gibraltar)  Uzbekistan  Western Sahara  Yemen

The Umayyad Caliphate (Arabic: ٱلْخِلافَةُ ٱلأُمَوِيَّة‎‎, trans. Al-Khilāfatu al-ʾUmawiyyah), also spelled Omayyad, was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. This caliphate was centred on the Umayyad dynasty (Arabic: ٱلأُمَوِيُّون‎‎, al-ʾUmawiyyūn, or بَنُو أُمَيَّة, Banū ʾUmayya, "Sons of Umayya"), hailing from Mecca. The Umayyad family had first come to power under the third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan (r. 644–656), but the Umayyad regime was founded by Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, long-time governor of Syria, after the end of the First Muslim Civil War in AD 661/41 AH. Syria remained the Umayyads' main power base thereafter, and Damascus was their capital.

The Umayyads continued the Muslim conquests, incorporating the Caucasus, Transoxiana, Sindh, the Maghreb and the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus) into the Muslim world. At its greatest extent, the Umayyad Caliphate covered 11,100,000 km² (4,300,000 sq mi) and 62 million people (29% of the world's population), making it one of the largest empires in history in both area and proportion of the world's population.