From Syria to Spain: History of the Umay

This course is about the Umayyads, one of the premier families of pre-Islamic Mecca who converted to Islam during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad. They were the first to make the position of caliph hereditary. Based in Syria, the Umayyad caliphs ruled an Empire that was—at the time—larger than any other in recorded history, ranging from Uzbekistan and Pakistan in the east to Spain and Portugal in the west. In 750, they were overthrown by another family, the ʿAbbasids, who shifted political power eastwards and founded the city Baghdad. A scion of the Umayyads escaped the fate of the rest of his family and fled to Spain, where he ruled as emir in his own name. Generations later, the Umayyads in Spain hearkened back to their Syrian ancestors and proclaimed themselves to be caliphs. They were overthrown in 1031. The history of the Umayyads in Syria is frequently studied separately from Spain; our project this semester is to assess whether this Syrian-Spain divide makes sense.

This course grapples with important historical questions through the example of the Umayyads. They were much maligned in later sources, as the ʿAbbasids controlled the contours of their legacy. They were branded as “not really Muslim” and criticized for their role in the death of the Husayn (the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad) and for bombing Mecca (twice). At the same time, they ruled over the Islamic world in a very formative period. They built the Great Mosque of Damascus, al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of their Rock, and the Mezquita in Cordoba. Telling their history requires balancing extremely negative accounts in written sources with the material remains of their rule. It also requires engaging with many different types of historical sources as their empire reached from Central Asia to Spain.