UMAYYAD CALIPHATE

Assessment of the Umayyad Caliphate Achievements

Assessment of the Umayyad Caliphate Achievements

Introduction

The Umayyad Caliphate was next important to the four major Caliphates in Islam after the termination of the prophet hood in Islam by the Last Prophet Muhammad. The four major Caliphates of Islam known as Rightly Guided Caliphs, which includes Caliph Abu Bakar, Caliph Umar, Caliph Othman and the last of the Rightly Guided Caliph was Caliph Ali.

After Ali Caliph passed the Islam split in to two different directions, where the son of Caliph Ali, Husain lead Muslims under the principle that the leaders ahs to be the one who is the blood of Caliph Ali. The other was Muawiyah, who had the privileged to become the first leader of Umayyad Dynasty. Muawiya Bin Abu Sufi'an made Damascus the capital of the empire in 661 A.D., who was the first leader of Umayyad Dynasty. The Umayyad dynasty ruled for less than a hundred years over Damascus and made a significant contribution towards the artistic heritage and cultural heritage of the city. During the Umayyad Dynasty there has been noted a considerable amount of development associated to the art, architecture, development of routes and trade, currency, union if lands under the Umayyad ruled, development of the roads, postal routes were recognized and civil administration was made strong with the made up of bureaucrats. The protection and security was provided to the Non-Muslims of better living conditions, practise of religion along with the safety of property and lives.

Discussion

During the hundred years of the rule of the Umayyad Caliphs, there were many contribution made to trade, currency, irrigation system, built roads, creation of postal routes, official language made Arabic, and expansion of Islam.

Administration

The initial task accomplished by the Muawiya was the creation of the stable and sound administration for the empire under his rule. The idea of Byzantine Empire followed, which was previously under his rule and accompanied by three branches, which includes the tax collection; political and military; and religious administration. Each of these branches further divided into offices, branches and department. The empire under the Muawiya rule divided into provinces, where each province was regulated by the governor appointed by the Caliph. The governor had accountability and was in-charge for the police, army leader, religious affairs and civil administration. The taxes generated from the provinces used for the development of the province and meeting the general expenses of the province, whereas the remainder amount after the use of the province use sent back to the central hub that was Damascus each year.

Today the same of the administration is followed, where the country has its states and is has a allocated central body, with provision of expenses for the running and the revenue generated from each of the states goes to the national treasure, where further allocation is done in the sector of the education, defence, health and care administration, security, etc. The breakdown of the administration between regions and the tax allocation system has provided us the base to ...