Umayyad Caliphate

Abstract

The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750) was the first Islamic dynasty. Muʿawiya ibn Abi Sufyan established himself as caliph in Damascus after his victory over ʿAli ibn Abi Talib in the civil war that followed the murder of ʿUthman ibn ʿAffan in Medina. Muʿawiya and his successors expanded the territory under Muslim rule dramatically. At their peak, the Umayyads ruled an empire stretching from Spain to the frontiers of China and India. The Umayyads made significant contributions to the development of the Islamic faith and to the spread of the Arabic language throughout the region. Dynastic crises, revenue shortfalls, and the limitations of an empire based on conquest ultimately led to their demise at the hands of the Abbasids in 750.

Britain's Decision to Withdraw from the Persian Gulf: A Pattern Not a Puzzle

“…8 Writing somewhat earlier, Denis Judd asserted that the Wilson government's 'urgent need to reduce its overall expenditure, while not appearing to undermine the funding of the Welfare State and the more popular forms of public spending, was the root cause of the decision' announced in January 1968 to withdraw from East of Suez. 9 Identifying a link between the devaluation of sterling and the closure of the Suez Canal following the 1967 Six Day War, Steven Galpern contends that 'denial of oil from the Middle East helped finish off sterling as a prominent trading and reserve currency. The upshot was the end of empire itself.'…”