Characteristics Of The Umayyad Caliphate

There is also some dissimilarity in social organization of the Umayyad and the Abbasid Caliphates. Transfer of power to the Umayyad dynasty equaled a full and open political victory over the Arab tribes. Reaching power, the Umayyads sought to rely not on all the Arabian people, but on a relatively narrow group of their supporters. The Caliph, his households in Damascus, together with his supporters in Syria were delivered in the most privileged position. Thus, four social classes arose in the Umayyad Caliphate: Muslim Arabs, Muslim non-Arabs, who mostly were the clients of the Muslim Arabs, non-Muslims, and slaves. Each of the mentioned groups has its unique social status. At that time these were the Muslim Arabs who were at the top of the society and who regarded themselves as the legal leaders of society abled to rule appropriately over the conquered territories. In spite on the fact that according to Islam principles, there should be equality between all Muslims, the Arab Muslims were considered to have higher social status than Muslim non-Arabs. Non-Arab Muslims, called mawali, most of whom were Muslim Arabs’ clients, were on the lower position of social ladder. It is known that many non-Arab Muslims were freed slaves. The most outnumbered social group in the Umayyad Caliphate was the group of non-Muslims. It was counted that in the Caliphate 90 percent were non-Muslims, among whom there were Jews, Christians, pagan Berbers and Zoroastrians. These non-Muslims were named