document_title: Lying in state

question_text: who has lay in state at the capitol

question_tokens: who has lay in state at the capitol

text: Lying in state

text: Canada[edit]

text: In Canada, official lying in state is a part of a state funeral, an honor generally reserved for former Governors General and former Prime Ministers. It is held in the Centre Block of Parliament Hill, in the national capital, Ottawa, Ontario. Ex-governors general lie in state in the Senate Chamber while former prime ministers lie in the Hall of Honour. During the period of lying in state, the coffins are flanked at each corner by a Guard of honour, made up of four members drawn from the Canadian Forces and Royal Canadian Mounted Police, as well as members of the Governor General's Foot Guards for former governors general, and guards from the parliamentary security forces for former prime ministers. Guards stand at each corner with heads bowed and weapons inverted (resting on Arms reversed) with their backs turned towards the casket.

text: Provinces may also mount state funerals and have a lying in state for a distinguished former resident. For instance, Maurice Richard, nationally known hockey player, was given a state funeral by the province of Quebec when he died in 2000; his coffin lay in state at the Molson Centre.[2] This process was repeated for fellow Canadiens legend Jean Béliveau in December 2014.

text: Municipalities may offer civic funerals to prominent deceased current or former politicians.

text: North Korea[edit]

text: In North Korea, the body of the late leader Kim Jong-il was displayed in a glass coffin surrounded with red flowers at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang prior to his funeral, which began and ended at the palace. An honor guard armed with AK-47s was present. Jong-il's father Kim Il-sung, the founding president, is on display elsewhere in the palace.[3]

text: Russia[edit]

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: In Russia, during the time of the Soviet Union (1917–1991), the state funerals of the most senior political and military leaders, such as Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, and Konstantin Chernenko all followed the same basic outline. They took place in Moscow, beginning with a public lying in state of the deceased in the House of the Unions, and ending with an interment at Red Square.

text: For the lying in state at the House of the Unions, the coffin would be placed on display in the Column Hall, which would be decorated by flowers, numerous red flags and other communist symbols. The mourners, which usually would be brought in by the thousands, shuffled up a marble staircase beneath chandeliers draped in black gauze. On the stage at the left side of the Column Hall, a full orchestra in black tailcoats played classical music. The deceased's embalmed body, dressed in a black suit, white shirt and a tie, was displayed in an open coffin on a catafalque banked with carnations, red roses and tulips, facing the queue of mourners. A small guard of honour would be in attendance in the background. At the right side of the hall, seats were placed for guests of honour, with the front row reserved for the dead leader's family.

text: On the day of the funeral, a military funeral parade would take place during which the coffin would be conveyed from the House of the Unions to Red Square where burial would take place. Lenin and Stalin were placed inside the Lenin Mausoleum, while Brezhnev, Andropov, and Chernenko were interred in individual graves in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.

text: Singapore[edit]

text: At state funerals in Singapore, the national flag is put on the coffin. The vigil guard may be deployed during the public lying in state of the deceased person at Parliament House. The deployment of the vigil guard is the highest form of respect accorded by the nation to the deceased. Similar to British traditions, the vigil guard is composed of groups of five commissioned officers from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and Singapore Police Force (SPF) who stand guard around the clock in shifts of 30 minutes. One of the five officers stands facing outward at each of the four corners of the casket, while the fifth and most senior one stands in front and faces inward. Their heads are bowed and their ceremonial swords are inverted.[4]

text: Vigil guards were stationed at the public lying in state of Goh Keng Swee in May 2010,[5] Lee Kuan Yew in March 2015 [6] as well as S R Nathan in August 2016. [7]

text: South Africa[edit]

text: Nelson Mandela was the first democratically elected president to lie in state in South Africa.[citation needed] The event took place at the Union Buildings, the same site where he was inaugurated as the President of South Africa on May 10, 1994. The body of Mandela was lying in State for three days, starting on Wednesday, December 11, 2013 and ending Friday, December 13. The body was viewed by thousands of South Africans before it was airlifted to Qunu in the Eastern Cape where Mandela was buried on December 15, 2013.

text: United Kingdom[edit]

text: In state and ceremonial funerals in the United Kingdom, the lying-in-state takes place in Westminster Hall. The coffin is placed on a catafalque and is guarded, around the clock, by detachments, each of four men, from the following units:

text:
Sovereign's Bodyguard

Her Majesty's Bodyguard of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms
The Queen's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard
The Royal Company of Archers, The Queen's Bodyguard for Scotland

Household Cavalry

The Life Guards
The Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons)

Foot Guards

Grenadier Guards
Coldstream Guards
Scots Guards
Irish Guards
Welsh Guards

text: Each unit mans the guard for a total of six hours, with each detachment standing post for twenty minutes. The four men stand at each corner with heads bowed and weapons inverted; their backs are turned towards the coffin.

text: On two occasions, the guard has been mounted by four male members of the Royal Family. At the lying in state of King George V in 1936, the guard was mounted by his four sons King Edward VIII, the Duke of York (George VI), the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent. For Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother's lying-in-state in 2002, the guard was mounted by her four grandsons, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, the Earl of Wessex, and Viscount Linley.[8]

text: United States[edit]

text: Lying in state is the rare honor granted by the United States to a deceased official whereby his or her remains are placed in the rotunda of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., for public viewing. The casket is guarded by members of the armed forces. By regulation and custom, only Presidents, military commanders, and members of Congress are granted the honor of lying in state. Except for Presidents and former Presidents, the honor is not automatic. Not all those entitled to the honor have it accepted by their survivors. The first leader to receive this honor was Henry Clay, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, when he died in 1852. Since then, the honor has been extended to 29 people, including eleven Presidents.

text: The process of lying in state at the Capitol is as follows. The coffin or casket is usually placed on a catafalque, usually the Lincoln catafalque, so named as it was constructed for lying in state upon the death of Abraham Lincoln, after his assassination in 1865. The casket is guarded at each of its corners by a serviceperson from each of the branches of the armed forces. In contrast to the practice in the United Kingdom and other countries of the Commonwealth, guards at the Capitol face the casket, hold their rifles with their right hand, and keep the rifle butt resting on the floor. After the viewing and ceremony at the Capitol, the remains are taken to the burial location.

text: Lain in state[edit]

text:
1852 – Henry Clay, long-serving Senator and Representative, Secretary of State, Speaker of the House, and three-time presidential candidate
1865 – President Abraham Lincoln, assassinated in office
1868 – Thaddeus Stevens, Representative from Pennsylvania
1874 – Charles Sumner, Senator from Massachusetts
1875 – Vice President Henry Wilson, served under Grant, died in office
1881 – President James Garfield, assassinated in office
1886 – John A. Logan, Senator from Illinois
1901 – President William McKinley, assassinated while in office
1909 – Pierre L'Enfant – although he died in 1825, his remains were disinterred; he was honored by lying in state before reinterment at Arlington National Cemetery
1917 – Admiral George Dewey, Admiral of the Navy
1921 – The Unknown Soldier for World War I
1923 – President Warren Harding, died in office
1930 – President William Howard Taft, President 1909–13, also Chief Justice 1921–30
1948 – John J. Pershing, General of the Armies of the United States during World War I and after
1953 – Robert A. Taft, U.S. Senator and Majority Leader
1958 – The Unknown Soldiers for World War II and the Korean War
1963 – President John F. Kennedy, assassinated in office
1964 – General Douglas MacArthur, General of the Army
1964 – President Herbert Hoover, serving 1929–33
1969 – President Dwight Eisenhower, President 1953–1961, Supreme Allied Commander during World War II
1969 – Everett Dirksen, Illinois Senator, Senate Minority Leader 1959–1969
1972 – J. Edgar Hoover, FBI Director 1929–1972
1973 – President Lyndon B. Johnson, President 1963–1969
1978 – Hubert Humphrey, Vice President 1965–1969, Minnesota Senator
1984 – The Unknown Soldier for the Vietnam War (later identified as 1st. Lt. Michael J. Blassie)
1989 – Claude Pepper, long-serving Senator and Representative
2004 – President Ronald Reagan, President 1981–1989
2006–07 – President Gerald Ford, President 1974–1977
2012 – Daniel Inouye, President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate, Senator from Hawaii, and recipient of the Medal of Honor[9][10]

text: Lain in honor[edit]

text:
1998 – United States Capitol Police Officer Jacob Chestnut and Detective John Gibson, killed on duty
2005 – Rosa Parks, civil rights activist [11][12]
2018 – Billy Graham, Christian evangelist[13]

text: The United States Congress has created a similar—though not identical—privilege for distinguished Americans who do not qualify for a lying in state designation. In the process of "lying in honor," the honor guard in the Rotunda is provided by the Capitol Police or another suitable source. [14][15]

text: In 1998, Chestnut and Gibson were killed while defending the Capitol against Russell Eugene Weston Jr. Congress approved their remains to lie in honor in the Rotunda. Chestnut was the first African American to lie in honor. In 2005, upon the death of civil rights activist Rosa Parks, Congress authorized her remains to lie in honor at the Rotunda; Parks was the second African American and the first woman to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda.[11] Graham was the first religious leader to be honored in this way.[16]

text: Lain in repose[edit]

text: Supreme Court Justices "lie in repose" in the Great Hall of the United States Supreme Court Building.

text:
1974 – Chief Justice Earl Warren
1993 – Justice Thurgood Marshall
1995 – Chief Justice Warren E. Burger
1997 – Justice William J. Brennan, Jr.
1999 – Justice Harry A. Blackmun
2005 – Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, the first so-honored to have died in office.
2016 – Justice Antonin Scalia

text: States and cities[edit]

text: Some U.S. states and cities extend similar honors. For example, in the state of Hawaii, three people have been laid in state at the Hawaii State Capitol, among which include famous Hawaiian singer Israel Kamakawiwoʻole upon his death in 1997, and the aforementioned Daniel Inouye, President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate and Senator from Hawaii.

text: In the City of San Francisco, California, Mayor Ed Lee laid in state at the Rotunda of San Francisco City Hall after his death in office in 2017.

text: Vatican City[edit]

text: A deceased pope customarily lies in state in the chapel of the Apostolic Palace and then in St. Peter's Basilica, between the holding of a Mass of Visitation and a Mass of Requiem.[citation needed] The funeral of Pope John Paul II was an example of this custom.

text: Coptic Patriarchate[edit]

text: The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria has a tradition of mummifying the deceased pope and placing his body on his throne to enable church followers to have a farewell look at him for a short period of time. This tradition is one of the ways that ancient Egyptian rituals have survived in the Egyptian church. [17]

text: Other notable funerals[edit]

text:
Death and funeral of Josip Broz Tito ( the largest state funeral in history )
Death and funeral of Corazon Aquino
Death and state funeral of Omar Bongo
Death and state funeral of Pierre Trudeau
Death and state funeral of Lech Kaczyński and Maria Kaczyńska


document_title: Ring a Ring o' Roses

question_text: where does the nursery rhyme ring around the rosie come from

root

text: Ring a Ring o' Roses

text: Lyrics[edit]

text: It is unknown what the earliest version of the rhyme was or when it began. Many incarnations of the game have a group of children form a ring, dance in a circle around a person, and stoop or curtsy with the final line. The slowest child to do so is faced with a penalty or becomes the "rosie" (literally: rose tree) from the French rosier) and takes their place in the center of the ring.

tag: p

text: Variations, corruptions, and vulgarized versions were noted to be in use long before the earliest printed publications. One such variation was dated to be in use in Connecticut in the 1840s.[3]

text: Common British versions include:

text:
Ring-a-ring o' roses,
A pocket full of posies,
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!
We all fall down.[4]

text:
Cows in the meadows
Eating buttercups
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!
We all jump up.

text: Common American versions include:

text:
Ring-a-round the rosie,
A pocket full of posies,
Ashes! Ashes!
We all fall down.[4]

text: The last two lines are sometimes varied to:

text:
Hush! Hush! Hush! Hush!
We've all tumbled down.[4]

text: The Indian version of the poem is:[5]

text:
Ringa ringa roses,
Pocket full of poses,
Hush-sha bush-sha,
All fall down.[4]

text: Early attestation[edit]

text: A reference to a young children's game named Ring o' Roses occurs in an 1846 article from the Brooklyn Eagle. A group of young children (the eldest being about seven) form a ring, from which a boy takes out a girl and kisses her.[6]

text: An early version of the rhyme occurs in a novel of 1855, The Old Homestead by Ann S. Stephens:

text:
A ring -- a ring of roses,
Laps full of posies;
Awake -- awake!
Now come and make
A ring -- a ring of roses.[7]

text: The novel goes on to describe a nineteenth-century Fourth of July celebration by children housed in a hospital in Roosevelt Island, New York (then known as "Blackwell's Island"): 'Then the little girls began to seek their own amusements. They played "hide and seek," "ring, ring a rosy," and a thousand wild and pretty games'. [8]

text: Another early printing of the rhyme was in Kate Greenaway's 1881 edition of Mother Goose; or, the Old Nursery Rhymes:

text:
Ring-a-ring-a-roses,
A pocket full of posies;
Hush! hush! hush! hush!
We're all tumbled down.[9]

text: In 1882, Godey's Lady's Book has the following version:

text:
Ring around a rosy
Pocket full of posies.
One, two, three—squat![10]

text: Before the last line, the children stop suddenly, then exclaim it together, "suiting the action to the word with unfailing hilarity and complete satisfaction".[10]

text: In his Games and Songs of American Children (1883), William Wells Newell reports several variants, one of which he provides with a melody and dates to New Bedford, Massachusetts around 1790:

text:
Ring a ring a Rosie,
A bottle full of posie,
All the girls in our town
Ring for little Josie.[11]

text: Newell writes that '[a]t the end of the words the children suddenly stoop, and the last to get down undergoes some penalty, or has to take the place of the child in the centre, who represents the "rosie" (rose-tree; French, rosier).'[11]

text: An 1883 collection of Shropshire folk-lore includes the following version:

text:
A ring, a ring o' roses,
A pocket-full o' posies;
One for Jack and one for Jim and one for little Moses!
A-tisha! a-tisha! a-tisha![12]

text: On the last line "they stand and imitate sneezing".[12]

text: A manuscript of rhymes collected in Lancashire at the same period gives three closely related versions, with the now familiar sneezing, for instance:

text:
A ring, a ring o' roses,
A pocket full o' posies-
Atishoo atishoo we all fall down.[13]

text: In 1892, folklorist Alice Gomme could give twelve versions.[14]

text: Other languages[edit]

text: A German rhyme first printed in 1796 closely resembles "Ring a ring o'roses" in its first stanza[15] and accompanies the same actions (with sitting rather than falling as the concluding action):[16]

text:
Ringel ringel reihen,
Wir sind der Kinder dreien,
sitzen unter'm Hollerbusch
Und machen alle Husch husch husch!

text: Loosely translated this says "Ringed, ringed row. We are three children, sitting under an elder bush. All of us going hush, hush, hush!" The rhyme is well known in Germany with the first line "Ringel, Ringel, Reihe" (as the popular collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn gave it); it has many local variants, often with "Husch, husch, husch" (which in German could mean "quick, quick") in the fourth line,[17] comparable to the "Hush! hush! hush! hush!" of the first printed English version. This popular variant is notable:[18]

text:
Ringel, Ringel, Rosen,
Schöne Aprikosen,
Veilchen blau, Vergissmeinnicht,
Alle Kinder setzen sich!

text: The translation is "A ring, a ring of roses. Beautiful apricots. Blue violets, forget-me-nots. All children sit down."

text: Swiss versions have the children dancing round a rosebush.[19] Other European singing games with a strong resemblance include "Roze, roze, meie" ("Rose, rose, May") from The Netherlands with a similar tune to "Ring a ring o' roses"[20] and "Gira, gira rosa" ("Circle, circle, rose"), recorded in Venice in 1874, in which girls danced around the girl in the middle who skipped and curtsied as demanded by the verses and at the end kissed the one she liked best, so choosing her for the middle.[21]

text: In Croatian/Serbian/Bosnian language, there is a similar rhyme called "Ringe Ringe Raja":

text:
Ringe-ringe-raja,
Doš'o čika Paja,
Pa pojeo jaja.
Jedno jaje muć,
A mi, djeco, ČUČ!

text: A rough translation is "Ringe Ringe Raya (doesn't mean anything, this is common in Croato-Serbian rhymes), uncle Ducky has came, and he ate all the eggs, one egg crashed, and we children DUCK!" On the last word, the children singing the rhyme jump or duck.

text: Meaning[edit]

text: The origins and meanings of the game have long been unknown and subject to speculation. In 1898, A Dictionary of British Folklore contained the belief that an explanation of the game was of pagan origin, based on the Sheffield Glossary comparison of Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie. The theory states that it is in reference to Pagan myths and cited a passage which states, "Gifted children of fortune have the power to laugh roses, as Treyja wept gold." Believing the first instance to be indicative of Pagan beings of light. Another suggestion is more literal, that it was making a "ring" around the roses and bowing with the all "fall down" as a curtsy.[22] In 1892, the American writer, Eugene Field wrote a poem titled Teeny-Weeny that specifically referred to fey folk playing ring-a-rosie.[23] According to Games and Songs of American Children, published in 1883, the "rosie" was a reference to the French word for rose tree and the children would dance and stoop to the person in the center.[3] Variations, especially more literal ones, were identified and noted with the literal falling down that would sever the connections to the game-rhyme. Addy's interpretation failed to account for the sneezing, which had not carried over to the United States and was losing ground in Britain, as another instance of the Pagan influence. Again in 1898, sneezing was then noted to be indicative of many superstitious and supernatural beliefs across differing cultures.[22]

text: Since the 20th century, the rhyme has often been associated with the Great Plague which happened in England in 1665, or with earlier outbreaks of the Black Death in England. Interpreters of the rhyme before the Second World War make no mention of this;[24] by 1951, however, it seems to have become well established as an explanation for the form of the rhyme that had become standard in the United Kingdom. Peter and Iona Opie, the leading authorities on nursery rhymes, remarked:

text: The invariable sneezing and falling down in modern English versions have given would-be origin finders the opportunity to say that the rhyme dates back to the Great Plague. A rosy rash, they allege, was a symptom of the plague, and posies of herbs were carried as protection and to ward off the smell of the disease. Sneezing or coughing was a final fatal symptom, and "all fall down" was exactly what happened.[25][26]

text: The line Ashes, Ashes in colonial versions of the rhyme is claimed to refer variously to cremation of the bodies, the burning of victims' houses, or blackening of their skin, and the theory has been adapted to be applied to other versions of the rhyme.[2] In its various forms, the interpretation has entered into popular culture and has been used elsewhere to make oblique reference to the plague.[27]

text: Folklore scholars regard the theory as baseless for several reasons:

text:
The plague explanation did not appear until the mid-twentieth century.[21]
The symptoms described do not fit especially well with the Great Plague.[26][28]
The great variety of forms makes it unlikely that the modern form is the most ancient one, and the words on which the interpretation are based are not found in many of the earliest records of the rhyme (see above).[2][29]
European and 19th-century versions of the rhyme suggest that this "fall" was not a literal falling down, but a curtsy or other form of bending movement that was common in other dramatic singing games.[30]

tag: ul


document_title: The Onion Song

question_text: who sang the world is like a great big onion

text: The Onion Song

text: This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

tag: table

text:
"The Onion Song"

Single by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell

from the album Easy

B-side
"California Soul"

Released
October 1969 (U.K.); March 20, 1970 (U.S.)

Recorded
1969, Detroit

Genre
Soul, pop

Label
Tamla

Songwriter(s)
Ashford & Simpson

Producer(s)
Ashford & Simpson

text: "The Onion Song" was a hit for soul singers Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell in 1969. It reached the top ten overseas, and was a more modest hit in the U.S.

text: The song, which reflected social consciousness, became Gaye & Terrell's biggest hit in the United Kingdom, entering the singles chart on 15 November 1969 and peaking at No.9 on 9 December. Terrell died, aged 24, just prior to the song's release as a single in the U.S. In the U.S., "The Onion Song peaked at No. 18 on the soul singles chart and No. 50 on the Billboard Hot 100 [1]

text: Credits[edit]

text:
All vocals by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell/Valerie Simpson
All instrumentation by The Funk Brothers


document_title: Government of the Philippines

question_text: who are the legislative branch of the philippines

text: Government of the Philippines

text: Legislative Power[edit]

text: The legislative power is vested in the Congress of the Philippines which consists of the Senate of the Philippines Senate and House of Representatives. The upper house is located in Pasay City, while the lower house is located in Quezon City. Both are in Metro Manila. The district and sectoral representatives are elected for a term of three years. They can be re-elected but they may not run for a fourth consecutive term.

text: Senators are elected to a term of six years. They can be re-elected but may not run for a third consecutive term. The House of Representatives may opt to pass for a vacancy of a legislative seat, which leads to a special election. The winner of the special election will serve the unfinished term of the previous district representative, and will be considered as one elective term. The same rule also applies in the Senate, however it only applies if the seat was vacated before a regular legislative election.

text: The current President of the Senate is Aquilino Pimentel III, while the current Speaker of the House of Representatives is Pantaleon Alvarez.

text: Legislative Power:

text: National Government

text:
Senate
House of Representatives

text: Local Government

text:
Sangguniang Panlalawigan
Regional Legislative Assembly
Sangguniang Panlungsod
Sangguniang Bayan
Sangguniang Barangay

text: Executive Power[edit]

text: The executive power is vested in the President of the Philippines. The President is elected by popular vote. The principal workplace of the President is the Malacañang Palace in San Miguel, Manila. The executive branch is currently headed by President Rodrigo Duterte. The President is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, The second highest official is elected separately from the President by popular vote. The Vice President is first in line to succession if the President resigns, is impeached or dies. The Vice President is usually, though not always, a member of the president's cabinet. If there is a vacancy in the position of vice-president, the President will appoint any member of Congress (usually a party member) as the new Vice President. The appointment must then be validated by a three-fourths vote of the Congress.[2]

text: Executive leadership:

text: National government

text:
President
Vice-President
Cabinet Secretaries

text: Local government

text:
Provincial/Regional Governor
Provincial/Regional Vice-Governor
City/Municipal Mayor
City/Municipal Vice-Mayor
Barangay Captain/Barangay Upuan

text: Judicial Power[edit]

text: The judicial power is vested in the Supreme Court of the Philippines and lower courts established by law. The Supreme Court, which has a Chief Justice as its head and 14 Associate Justices, occupies the highest tier of the judiciary. The justices serve until the age of 70. The justices are appointed by the president on the recommendation of the Judicial and Bar Council of the Philippines.[3] The sitting Chief Justice is Maria Lourdes Sereno, the 24th to serve in that position...

text:
Other court types of courts, of varying jurisdiction around the archipelago, are the:
Lower Collegiate Courts:

text:
Court of Appeals
Court of Tax Appeals
Sandiganbayan

text: Regular Courts:

text:
Regional Trial Courts
Municipal Circuit Trial Courts

text: Muslim Courts

text:
Sharia District Courts
Sharia Circuit Courts yessy

text: Constitutional Commissions[edit]

text: Article 9 of the Constitution of the Philippines establishes three constitutional commissions: the Civil Service Commission, the Commission on Elections, and the Commission on Audit.

text: Office of the Ombudsman[edit]

text: The government and all three of its branches are independently monitored by the office of the Ombudsman (Filipino: Tanodbayan). The Ombudsman is given the mandate to investigate and prosecute any government official allegedly guilty of crimes, especially Graft and Corruption. The Ombudsman is assisted by six deputies: the Overall Deputy, the Deputy for Luzon, the Deputy for Visayas, the Deputy for Mindanao, the Deputy for the Armed Forces, and the Special Prosecutor.

text: Local government[edit]

text: The Philippines has four main classes of elected administrative divisions, often lumped together as local government units (LGUs). They are, from the highest to the lowest division:

text:
Autonomous regions
Provinces (lalawigan, probinsiya, kapuoran) and independent cities (lungsod, siyudad/ciudad, dakbayan, dakbanwa, lakanbalen)
Municipalities (bayan, balen, bungto, banwa) and component cities (lungsod, siyudad/ciudad, dakbayan, dakbanwa, lakanbalen)
Barangays (also known as barrio)

tag: ol

text: Beyond these, the national government groups provinces and independent cities into regions, e.g. Metro Manila or Region VI. The President has the prerogative to create, abolish and determine the composition of regions, which is done so most often in consultation with the local government units affected, with the exception of autonomous regions, where the residents of the local government units have to ratify in a plebiscite their inclusion in such a setup.


document_title: Umayyad Caliphate

question_text: who is the last ruler of ummayed dynasty

question_tokens: who is the last ruler of ummayed dynasty

text: Umayyad Caliphate

text: Origins[edit]

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: According to tradition, the Umayyad family (also known as the Banu Abd-Shams) and Muhammad both descended from a common ancestor, Abd Manaf ibn Qusai, and they originally came from the city of Mecca in the Hijaz. Muhammad descended from Abd Manāf via his son Hashim, while the Umayyads descended from Abd Manaf via a different son, Abd-Shams, whose son was Umayya. The two families are therefore considered to be different clans (those of Hashim and of Umayya, respectively) of the same tribe (that of the Quraish). However Muslim Shia historians suspect that Umayya was an adopted son of Abd Shams and thus not a blood relative of Abd Manaf ibn Qusai. Umayya was later discarded[by whom?] from the noble family.[9]

text: Sunni historians disagree with this and view Shia claims as nothing more than outright polemics due to Shia hostility to the Umayyad family in general. They point to the fact that the grandsons of Uthman, Zaid bin Amr bin Uthman bin Affan and Abdullah bin Amr bin Uthman got married to Sukaina and Fatima (according to a Sunni reference only), the daughters of Hussein son of Ali, to show the closeness of the Banu Hashim and the Bani Ummayah.[10]

text: While the Umayyads and the Hashimites may have had bitterness between their two clans before Muhammad (born c. 570 CE), the rivalry turned into a severe case of tribal animosity after the Battle of Badr of 624 CE. The battle saw three top leaders of the Umayyad clan (Utba ibn Rabi'ah, Walid ibn Utbah and Shaybah) killed by Hashimites (Ali, Hamza ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib and Ubaydah ibn al-Harith) in a three-on-three melee.[11] This fueled the opposition of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, the grandson of Umayya, to Muhammad and to Islam.[12]

text: Abu Sufyan sought to exterminate the adherents of the new religion by waging another battle against the Medina-based Muslims only a year after the Battle of Badr. He did this to avenge the defeat at Badr.Scholars[which?] generally regard the Battle of Uhud (March 625) as the first defeat for the Muslims, since they incurred greater losses than the Meccans. After the battle, Abu Sufyan's wife Hind, who was also the daughter of Utba ibn Rabi'ah, is reported to have cut open the corpse of Hamza, taking out his liver which she then attempted to eat.[12] In 629, within five years of his defeat in the Battle of Uhud, however, Muhammad took control of Mecca[13] and announced a general amnesty for all. Abu Sufyan and his wife Hind embraced Islam on the eve of the conquest of Mecca, as did their son (the future caliph Muawiyah I).

text: Most historians[who?] consider Caliph Muawiyah (661–80) to have been the second ruler of the Umayyad dynasty, even though he was the first to assert the Umayyads' right to rule on a dynastic principle. It was really the caliphate of Uthman Ibn Affan (644–656), a member of Umayyad clan himself, that witnessed the revival and then the ascendancy of the Umayyad clan to the corridors of power. Uthman placed some of the trusted members of his clan at prominent and strong positions throughout the state.[14]

text: Most notable was the appointment of Marwan ibn al-Hakam, Uthman's first cousin, as his top advisor, which created a stir among the Hashimite companions of Muhammad, as Marwan (along with his father Al-Hakam ibn Abi al-'As) had been permanently exiled from Medina by Muhammad during his lifetime. Uthman also appointed as governor of Kufa his half-brother, Walid ibn Uqba, whom Hashimites accused of leading prayer while under the influence of alcohol.[14] Uthman also consolidated Muawiyah's governorship of Syria by granting him control over a larger area[15] and appointed his foster-brother Abdullah ibn Saad as the Governor of Egypt. However, since Uthman never named an heir, he cannot be considered the founder of a dynasty.[citation needed]

text: In 639 Muawiyah was appointed[by whom?] as the governor of Syria after the previous governor Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah died in a plague along with 25,000 other people.[16][17] To stop Byzantine harassment from the sea during the Arab-Byzantine Wars, in 649 Muawiyah set up a navy manned by Monophysite Christian, Copt and Jacobite Syrian Christian sailors and Muslim troops. This resulted in the defeat of the Byzantine navy at the Battle of the Masts in 655, opening up the Mediterranean.[18][19][20][21][22]

text: Muawiyah proved a very successful governor and built up a very loyal and disciplined army from the old Roman Syrian army. He also befriended Amr ibn al-As, who had conquered Egypt but was removed by Uthman ibn al-Affan.

text: The Quran and Muhammad talked about racial equality and justice - as in the Farewell Sermon.[23][24][page needed][25][26][need quotation to verify][27][28][29] Tribal and nationalistic differences were discouraged. But after Muhammad's passing, the old tribal differences between the Arabs started to resurface. Following the Roman–Persian Wars (66 BCE to 628 CE) and the Byzantine–Sassanid Wars (285 to c. 628), deep-rooted differences between Iraq (formerly under the Persian Sassanid Empire) and Syria (formerly under the Byzantine Empire) also existed. Each wanted the capital of the newly established Islamic state to be in their area.[30] Previously, the second caliph Umar ibn Al-Khattab was very firm on the governors and his spies kept an eye on them. If he felt that a governor or a commander was becoming attracted to wealth, he had him removed from his position.[31]

text: Early Muslim armies stayed in encampments away from cities because Umar ibn Al-Khattab feared that they might get attracted to wealth and luxury. In the process, they might turn away from the worship of God and start accumulating wealth and establishing dynasties.[31][32][33][34] When Uthman ibn al-Affan became very old, Marwan, a relative of Muawiyah, slipped into the vacuum, became his secretary, slowly assumed more control and relaxed some of these restrictions. Marwan had previously been excluded[by whom?] from positions of responsibility. In 656, Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr, the son of Abu Bakr, the adopted son of Ali ibn Abi Talib, and the great grandfather of Ja'far al-Sadiq, showed some Egyptians the house of Uthman ibn al-Affan. Later the Egyptians ended up killing Uthman ibn al-Affan.[35]

text: After the assassination of the Caliph Uthman in 656, Ali, a member of the Quraysh tribe and the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, was elected as the caliph. He soon met with resistance from several factions, owing to his relative political experience. Ali moved his capital from Medina to Kufa. The resulting conflict, which lasted from 656 until 661, is known as the First Fitna ("civil war"). Muawiyah, the governor of Syria, a relative of Uthman ibn al-Affan and of Marwan, wanted the culprits arrested. Marwan manipulated everyone and created conflict.[citation needed] Aisha, the wife of Muhammad, and Talhah and Al-Zubayr, two of the companions of Muhammad, went to Basra to tell Ali to arrest the culprits who had murdered Uthman. Marwan and other people who wanted conflict manipulated everyone to fight.[citation needed]} The two sides clashed at the Battle of the Camel in 656, where Ali won a decisive victory.

text: Following this battle, Ali fought a battle against Muawiyah, known as the Battle of Siffin (July 657). The battle was stopped before either side had achieved victory, and the two parties agreed to arbitrate their dispute. After the battle Amr ibn al-As was appointed by Muawiyah as an arbitrator, and Ali appointed Abu Musa Ashaari. Seven months later, in February 658, the two arbitrators met at Adhruh, about 10 miles north-west of Ma'an (in present-day Jordan).[citation needed] Amr ibn al-As convinced Abu Musa Ashaari that both Ali and Muawiyah should step down and a new Caliph be elected. Ali and his supporters were stunned by the decision, which they saw as having lowered the Caliph to the status of the rebellious Muawiyah. Ali was therefore outwitted by Muawiyah and Amr.[36]

text: Ali refused to accept the verdict and found himself technically in breach of his pledge to abide by the arbitration. This put Ali in a weak position even amongst his own supporters. The most vociferous opponents in Ali's camp were the very same people who had forced Ali into the ceasefire. They broke away from Ali's force, rallying under the slogan "arbitration belongs to God alone". This group came to be known as the Kharijites ("those who leave"). In 659 Ali's forces and the Kharijites met in the Battle of Nahrawan. Although Ali won the battle, the constant conflict had begun to affect his standing, and in the following years some Syrians seem to have acclaimed Muawiyah as a rival caliph.[36]

text: In 661 a Kharijite partisan assassinated Ali. Six months later in the same year, in the interest of peace, Hasan ibn Ali (the Second Imam for the Shias, and the grandson of Muhammad), highly regarded for his wisdom and as a peacemaker, made a peace treaty with Muawiyah. In the Hasan-Muawiya treaty, Hasan ibn Ali handed over power to Muawiya on the condition that he be just to the people and keep them safe and secure, and that he not establish a dynasty to rule after his death.[37][need quotation to verify][38] This brought to an end the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs for the Sunnis, and Hasan ibn Ali was also the last Imam for the Shias to be a Caliph. Following this, Mu'awiyah broke the conditions of the agreement and began the Umayyad dynasty, with its capital in Damascus.[39]

text: After Mu'awiyah's death in 680, conflict over succession broke out again in a civil war known as the "Second Fitna". After making every one else fight,[40] the Umayyad dynasty later fell into the hands of Marwan I, who was also an Umayyad.

text: Syria would remain the base of Umayyad power until the end of the dynasty in 750. However, this dynasty became reborn in Cordoba (Al Andalus, today's Portugal and Spain) in the form of an Emirate and then a Caliphate, lasting until AD 1031. (Muslim rule continued in Iberia for another 500 years in several forms: taifas, Berber kingdoms, and under the Kingdom of Granada until the 15th century.)

text: In the year 712, Muhammad bin Qasim, an Umayyad general, sailed from the Persian Gulf into Sindh in Pakistan and conquered both the Sindh and the Punjab regions along the Indus river. The conquest of Sindh and Punjab, in modern-day Pakistan, although costly, were major gains for the Umayyad Caliphate. However, further gains were halted by Hindu kingdoms in India in the Caliphate campaigns in India. The Arabs tried to invade India but they were defeated by the north Indian king Nagabhata of the Gurjara Pratihara Dynasty and by the south Indian Emperor Vikramaditya II of the Chalukya dynasty in the early 8th century. After this the Arab chroniclers admit that the Caliph Mahdi "gave up the project of conquering any part of India".[citation needed]

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text: Sufyanids[edit]

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text: Muawiyah's personal dynasty, the "Sufyanids" (descendants of Abu Sufyan), reigned from 661 to 684, until his grandson Muawiya II. The reign of Muawiyah I was marked by internal security and external expansion. On the internal front, only one major rebellion is recorded, that of Hujr ibn Adi in Kufa. Hujr ibn Adi supported the claims of the descendants of Ali to the caliphate, but his movement was easily suppressed by the governor of Iraq, Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan.

text: Muawiyah also encouraged peaceful coexistence with the Christian communities of Syria, granting his reign with "peace and prosperity for Christians and Arabs alike",[41] and one of his closest advisers was Sarjun, the father of John of Damascus. At the same time, he waged unceasing war against the Byzantine Roman Empire. During his reign, Rhodes and Crete were occupied, and several assaults were launched against Constantinople. After their failure, and faced with a large-scale Christian uprising in the form of the Mardaites, Muawiyah concluded a peace with Byzantium. Muawiyah also oversaw military expansion in North Africa (the foundation of Kairouan) and in Central Asia (the conquest of Kabul, Bukhara, and Samarkand).

text: Following Muawiyah's death in 680, he was succeeded by his son, Yazid I. The hereditary accession of Yazid was opposed by a number of prominent Muslims, most notably Abd-Allah ibn al-Zubayr, son of one of the companions of Muhammad, and Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of Muhammad and younger son of Ali. The resulting conflict is known as the Second Fitna.

text: In 680 Ibn al-Zubayr fled Medina for Mecca. Hearing about Husayn's opposition to Yazid I, the people of Kufa sent to Husayn asking him to take over with their support. Al-Husayn sent his cousin Muslim bin Aqeel to verify if they would rally behind him. When the news reached Yazid I, he sent Ubayd-Allah bin Ziyad, ruler of Basrah, with the instruction to prevent the people of Kufa rallying behind Al-Husayn. Ubayd-Allah bin Ziyad managed to disperse the crowd that gathered around Muslim bin Aqeel and captured him.[42]

text: Realizing that Ubayd-Allah bin Ziyad had been instructed to prevent Husayn from establishing support in Kufa, Muslim bin Aqeel requested a message to be sent to Husayn to prevent his immigration to Kufa. The request was denied and Ubayd-Allah bin Ziyad killed Muslim bin Aqeell. While Ibn al-Zubayr would stay in Mecca until his death, Husayn decided to travel on to Kufa with his family, unaware of the lack of support there. Husayn and his family were intercepted by Yazid I's forces led by Amru bin Saad, Shamar bin Thi Al-Joshan, and Hussain bin Tamim. They fought Al-Husayn and his male family members until they were killed.[43]

text: There were 200 people in Husayn's caravan, many of whom were women, including his sisters, wives, daughters and their children. The women and children from Husayn's camp were taken as prisoners of war and led back to Damascus to be presented to Yazid I. They remained imprisoned until public opinion turned against him as word of Husayn's death and his family's capture spread. They were then granted passage back to Medina. The sole adult male survivor from the caravan was Ali ibn Husayn who was with fever too ill to fight when the caravan was attacked.[44]

text: Following the death of Husayn, Ibn al-Zubayr, although remaining in Mecca, was associated with two opposition movements, one centered in Medina and the other around Kharijites in Basra and Arabia. Because Medina had been home to Muhammad and his family, including Husayn, word of his death and the imprisonment of his family led to a large opposition movement. In 683, Yazid dispatched an army to subdue both movements.

text: The army suppressed the Medinese opposition at the Battle of al-Harrah. The Grand Mosque in Medina was severely damaged and widespread pillaging caused deep-seated dissent. Yazid's army continued on and laid siege to Mecca. At some point during the siege, the Kaaba was badly damaged in a fire. The destruction of the Kaaba and Grand Mosque became a major cause for censure of the Umayyads in later histories of the period.

text: Yazid died while the siege was still in progress, and the Umayyad army returned to Damascus, leaving Ibn al-Zubayr in control of Mecca. Yazid's son Muawiya II (683–84) initially succeeded him but seems to have never been recognized as caliph outside of Syria. Two factions developed within Syria: the Confederation of Qays, who supported Ibn al-Zubayr, and the Quda'a, who supported Marwan, a descendant of Umayya via Wa'il ibn Umayyah. The partisans of Marwan triumphed at a battle at Marj Rahit, near Damascus, in 684, and Marwan became caliph shortly thereafter.

text: First Marwanids[edit]

text: Marwan's first task was to assert his authority against the rival claims of Ibn al-Zubayr, who was at this time recognized as caliph throughout most of the Islamic world. Marwan recaptured Egypt for the Umayyads, but died in 685, having reigned for only nine months.

text: Marwan was succeeded by his son, Abd al-Malik (685–705), who reconsolidated Umayyad control of the caliphate. The early reign of Abd al-Malik was marked by the revolt of Al-Mukhtar, which was based in Kufa. Al-Mukhtar hoped to elevate Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah, another son of Ali, to the caliphate, although Ibn al-Hanafiyyah himself may have had no connection to the revolt. The troops of al-Mukhtar engaged in battles both with the Umayyads in 686, defeating them at the river Khazir near Mosul, and with Ibn al-Zubayr in 687, at which time the revolt of al-Mukhtar was crushed. In 691, Umayyad troops reconquered Iraq, and in 692 the same army captured Mecca. Ibn al-Zubayr was killed in the attack.

text: The second major event of the early reign of Abd al-Malik was the construction of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Although the chronology remains somewhat uncertain, the building seems to have been completed in 692, which means that it was under construction during the conflict with Ibn al-Zubayr. This had led some historians, both medieval and modern, to suggest that the Dome of the Rock was built as a destination for pilgrimage to rival the Kaaba, which was under the control of Ibn al-Zubayr.

text: Abd al-Malik is credited with centralizing the administration of the Caliphate and with establishing Arabic as its official language. He also introduced a uniquely Muslim coinage, marked by its aniconic decoration, which supplanted the Byzantine and Sasanian coins that had previously been in use. Abd al-Malik also recommenced offensive warfare against Byzantium, defeating the Byzantines at Sebastopolis and recovering control over Armenia and Caucasian Iberia.

text: Following Abd al-Malik's death, his son, Al-Walid I (705–15), became caliph. Al-Walid was also active as a builder, sponsoring the construction of Al-Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina and the Great Mosque of Damascus.

text: A major figure during the reigns of both al-Walid and Abd al-Malik was the Umayyad governor of Iraq, Al-Hajjaj bin Yousef. Many Iraqis remained resistant to Umayyad rule, and to maintain order al-Hajjaj imported Syrian troops, which he housed in a new garrison town, Wasit. These troops became crucial in the suppression of a revolt led by an Iraqi general, Ibn al-Ash'ath, in the early eighth century.

text: Al-Walid was succeeded by his brother, Sulayman (715–17), whose reign was dominated by a protracted siege of Constantinople. The failure of the siege marked the end of serious Arab ambitions against the Byzantine capital. However, the first two decades of the eighth century witnessed the continuing expansion of the Caliphate, which pushed into the Iberian Peninsula in the west, and into Transoxiana in the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana (under Qutayba ibn Muslim) and northern India in the east.

text: Arab sources claim Qutayba ibn Muslim briefly took Kashgar from China and withdrew after an agreement[45] but modern historians entirely dismiss this claim.[46][47][48]

text: The Arab Umayyad Caliphate in 715 AD desposed Ikhshid, the king the Fergana Valley, and installed a new king Alutar on the throne. The deposed king fled to Kucha (seat of Anxi Protectorate), and sought Chinese intervention. The Tang dynasty Chinese sent 10,000 troops under Zhang Xiaosong to Ferghana. He defeated Alutar and the Arab occupation force at Namangan and reinstalled Ikhshid on the throne.[49]

text: The Tang dynasty Chinese defeated the Umayyad invaders at the Battle of Aksu (717). The Arab Umayyad commander Al-Yashkuri and his army fled to Tashkent after they were defeated.[50][51]

text: Sulayman was succeeded by his cousin, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz (717–20), whose position among the Umayyad caliphs is somewhat unusual. He is the only Umayyad ruler to have been recognized by subsequent Islamic tradition as a genuine caliph (khalifa) and not merely as a worldly king (malik).

text: Umar is honored for his attempt to resolve the fiscal problems attendant upon conversion to Islam. During the Umayyad period, the majority of people living within the caliphate were not Muslim, but Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian, or members of other small groups. These religious communities were not forced to convert to Islam, but were subject to a tax (jizyah) which was not imposed upon Muslims. This situation may actually have made widespread conversion to Islam undesirable from the point of view of state revenue, and there are reports that provincial governors actively discouraged such conversions. It is not clear how Umar attempted to resolve this situation, but the sources portray him as having insisted on like treatment of Arab and non-Arab (mawali) Muslims, and on the removal of obstacles to the conversion of non-Arabs to Islam.

text: After the death of Umar, another son of Abd al-Malik, Yazid II (720–24) became caliph. Yazid is best known for his "iconoclastic edict", which ordered the destruction of Christian images within the territory of the Caliphate. In 720, another major revolt arose in Iraq, this time led by Yazid ibn al-Muhallab.

text: Hisham and the limits of military expansion[edit]

text: The final son of Abd al-Malik to become caliph was Hisham (724–43), whose long and eventful reign was above all marked by the curtailment of military expansion. Hisham established his court at Resafa in northern Syria, which was closer to the Byzantine border than Damascus, and resumed hostilities against the Byzantines, which had lapsed following the failure of the last siege of Constantinople. The new campaigns resulted in a number of successful raids into Anatolia, but also in a major defeat (the Battle of Akroinon), and did not lead to any significant territorial expansion.

text: From the caliphate's north-western African bases, a series of raids on coastal areas of the Visigothic Kingdom paved the way to the permanent occupation of most of Iberia by the Umayyads (starting in 711), and on into south-eastern Gaul (last stronghold at Narbonne in 759). Hisham's reign witnessed the end of expansion in the west, following the defeat of the Arab army by the Franks at the Battle of Tours in 732. In 739 a major Berber Revolt broke out in North Africa, was probably the largest military setback in the reign of Caliph Hisham. From it, emerged some of the first Muslim states outside the Caliphate. It is also regarded as the beginning of Moroccan independence, as Morocco would never again come under the rule of an eastern Caliph or any other foreign power until the 20th century. It was followed by the collapse of Umayyad authority in al-Andalus. In India the Arab armies were defeated by the south Indian Chalukya dynasty and by the north Indian Pratiharas Dynasty in the 8th century and the Arabs were driven out of India.[52][53][54]

text: In the Caucasus, the confrontation with the Khazars peaked under Hisham: the Arabs established Derbent as a major military base and launched several invasions of the northern Caucasus, but failed to subdue the nomadic Khazars. The conflict was arduous and bloody, and the Arab army even suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Marj Ardabil in 730. Marwan ibn Muhammad, the future Marwan II, finally ended the war in 737 with a massive invasion that is reported to have reached as far as the Volga, but the Khazars remained unsubdued.

text: Hisham suffered still worse defeats in the east, where his armies attempted to subdue both Tokharistan, with its center at Balkh, and Transoxiana, with its center at Samarkand. Both areas had already been partially conquered, but remained difficult to govern. Once again, a particular difficulty concerned the question of the conversion of non-Arabs, especially the Sogdians of Transoxiana. Following the Umayyad defeat in the "Day of Thirst" in 724, Ashras ibn 'Abd Allah al-Sulami, governor of Khurasan, promised tax relief to those Sogdians who converted to Islam, but went back on his offer when it proved too popular and threatened to reduce tax revenues.

text: Discontent among the Khurasani Arabs rose sharply after the losses suffered in the Battle of the Defile in 731. In 734, al-Harith ibn Surayj led a revolt that received broad backing from Arabs and natives alike, capturing Balkh but failing to take Merv. After this defeat, al-Harith's movement seems to have been dissolved. The problem of the rights of non-Arab Muslims would continue to plague the Umayyads.

text: Third Fitna[edit]

text: Hisham was succeeded by Al-Walid II (743–44), the son of Yazid II. Al-Walid is reported to have been more interested in earthly pleasures than in religion, a reputation that may be confirmed by the decoration of the so-called "desert palaces" (including Qusayr Amra and Khirbat al-Mafjar) that have been attributed to him. He quickly attracted the enmity of many, both by executing a number of those who had opposed his accession, and by persecuting the Qadariyya.

text: In 744, Yazid III, a son of al-Walid I, was proclaimed caliph in Damascus, and his army tracked down and killed al-Walid II. Yazid III has received a certain reputation for piety, and may have been sympathetic to the Qadariyya. He died a mere six months into his reign.

text: Yazid had appointed his brother, Ibrahim, as his successor, but Marwan II (744–50), the grandson of Marwan I, led an army from the northern frontier and entered Damascus in December 744, where he was proclaimed caliph. Marwan immediately moved the capital north to Harran, in present-day Turkey. A rebellion soon broke out in Syria, perhaps due to resentment over the relocation of the capital, and in 746 Marwan razed the walls of Homs and Damascus in retaliation.

text: Marwan also faced significant opposition from Kharijites in Iraq and Iran, who put forth first Dahhak ibn Qays and then Abu Dulaf as rival caliphs. In 747, Marwan managed to reestablish control of Iraq, but by this time a more serious threat had arisen in Khorasan.

text: Abbasid Revolution[edit]

text: The Hashimiyya movement (a sub-sect of the Kaysanites Shia), led by the Abbasid family, overthrew the Umayyad caliphate. The Abbasids were members of the Hashim clan, rivals of the Umayyads, but the word "Hashimiyya" seems to refer specifically to Abu Hashim, a grandson of Ali and son of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya. According to certain traditions, Abu Hashim died in 717 in Humeima in the house of Muhammad ibn Ali, the head of the Abbasid family, and before dying named Muhammad ibn Ali as his successor. This tradition allowed the Abbasids to rally the supporters of the failed revolt of Mukhtar, who had represented themselves as the supporters of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya.

text: Beginning around 719, Hashimiyya missions began to seek adherents in Khurasan. Their campaign was framed as one of proselytism (dawah). They sought support for a "member of the family" of Muhammad, without making explicit mention of the Abbasids. These missions met with success both among Arabs and non-Arabs (mawali), although the latter may have played a particularly important role in the growth of the movement.

text: Around 746, Abu Muslim assumed leadership of the Hashimiyya in Khurasan. In 747, he successfully initiated an open revolt against Umayyad rule, which was carried out under the sign of the black flag. He soon established control of Khurasan, expelling its Umayyad governor, Nasr ibn Sayyar, and dispatched an army westwards. Kufa fell to the Hashimiyya in 749, the last Umayyad stronghold in Iraq, Wasit, was placed under siege, and in November of the same year Abul Abbas as-Saffah was recognized as the new caliph in the mosque at Kufa.[citation needed] At this point Marwan mobilized his troops from Harran and advanced toward Iraq. In January 750 the two forces met in the Battle of the Zab, and the Umayyads were defeated. Damascus fell to the Abbasids in April, and in August, Marwan was killed in Egypt.

text: The victors desecrated the tombs of the Umayyads in Syria, sparing only that of Umar II, and most of the remaining members of the Umayyad family were tracked down and killed. When Abbasids declared amnesty for members of the Umayyad family, eighty gathered to receive pardons, and all were massacred. One grandson of Hisham, Abd al-Rahman I, survived, escaped across North Africa, and established an emirate in Moorish Iberia (Al-Andalus). In a claim unrecognized outside of al-Andalus, he maintained that the Umayyad Caliphate, the true, authentic caliphate, more legitimate than the Abbasids, was continued through him in Córdoba. It was to survive for centuries.

text: Previté-Orton argues that the reasons for the decline of the Umayyads was the rapid expansion of Islam. During Umayyad period, mass conversions brought Persians, Berbers, Copts, and Aramaics to Islam. These mawalis (enslaved) were often better educated and more civilised than their Arab invaders. The new converts, on the basis of equality of all Muslims, transformed the political landscape. Previté-Orton also argues that the feud between Syria and Iraq further weakened the empire.[55]

text: Umayyad administration[edit]

text: The first four caliphs created a stable administration for the empire, following the practices and administrative institutions of the Byzantine Empire which had ruled the same region previously.[56] These consisted of four main governmental branches: political affairs, military affairs, tax collection, and religious administration. Each of these was further subdivided into more branches, offices, and departments.

text: Provinces[edit]

text: Geographically, the empire was divided into several provinces, the borders of which changed numerous times during the Umayyad reign. Each province had a governor appointed by the khalifah. The governor was in charge of the religious officials, army leaders, police, and civil administrators in his province. Local expenses were paid for by taxes coming from that province, with the remainder each year being sent to the central government in Damascus. As the central power of the Umayyad rulers waned in the later years of the dynasty, some governors neglected to send the extra tax revenue to Damascus and created great personal fortunes.[57]

text: Government workers[edit]

text: As the empire grew, the number of qualified Arab workers was too small to keep up with the rapid expansion of the empire. Therefore, Muawiya allowed many of the local government workers in conquered provinces to keep their jobs under the new Umayyad government. Thus, much of the local government's work was recorded in Greek, Coptic, and Persian. It was only during the reign of Abd al-Malik that government work began to be regularly recorded in Arabic.[57]

text: Currency[edit]

text: The Byzantine and Sassanid Empires relied on money economies before the Muslim conquest, and that system remained in effect during the Umayyad period. Byzantine copper coins were used until 658, while Byzantine gold coins were still in use until the monetary reforms c.700.[58] In addition to this, the Umayyad government began to mint its own coins in Damascus, these were initially similar to pre-existing coins but evolved in an independent direction. These were the first coins minted by a Muslim government in history. Gold coins were called dinars while silver coins were called dirhams.[57]

text: Central diwans[edit]

text: To assist the Caliph in administration there were six Boards at the Centre: Diwan al-Kharaj (the Board of Revenue), Diwan al-Rasa'il (the Board of Correspondence), Diwan al-Khatam (the Board of Signet), Diwan al-Barid (the Board of Posts), Diwan al-Qudat (the Board of Justice) and Diwan al-Jund (the Military Board)

text: Diwan al-Kharaj[edit]

text: The Central Board of Revenue administered the entire finances of the empire. It also imposed and collected taxes and disbursed revenue.

text: Diwan al-Rasa'il[edit]

text: A regular Board of Correspondence was established under the Umayyads. It issued state missives and circulars to the Central and Provincial Officers. It co-ordinated the work of all Boards and dealt with all correspondence as the chief secretariat.

text: Diwan al-Khatam[edit]

text: In order to check forgery, Diwan al-Khatam (Bureau of Registry), a kind of state chancellery, was instituted by Mu'awiyah. It used to make and preserve a copy of each official document before sealing and despatching the original to its destination. Thus in the course of time a state archive developed in Damascus by the Umayyads under Abd al-Malik. This department survived till the middle of the Abbasid period.

text: Diwan al-Barid[edit]

text: Mu'awiyah introduced postal service, Abd al-Malik extended it throughout his empire, and Walid made full use of it. The Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik developed a regular postal service. Umar bin Abdul-Aziz developed it further by building caravanserais at stages along the Khurasan highway. Relays of horses were used for the conveyance of dispatches between the caliph and his agents and officials posted in the provinces. The main highways were divided into stages of 12 miles (19 km) each and each stage had horses, donkeys or camels ready to carry the post. Primarily the service met the needs of Government officials, but travellers and their important dispatches were also benefitted by the system. The postal carriages were also used for the swift transport of troops. They were able to carry fifty to a hundred men at a time. Under Governor Yusuf bin Umar, the postal department of Iraq cost 4,000,000 dirhams a year.

text: Diwan al-Qudat[edit]

text: [citation needed]

text: In the early period of Islam, justice was administered by Muhammad and the orthodox Caliphs in person. After the expansion of the Islamic State, Umar al-Faruq had to separate judiciary from the general administration and appointed the first qadi in Egypt as early as AD 643/23 AH. After 661, a series of judges succeeded one after another in Egypt under the Umayyad Caliphs, Hisham and Walid II.

text: Diwan al-Jund[edit]

text: The Diwan of Umar, assigning annuities to all Arabs and to the Muslim soldiers of other races, underwent a change in the hands of the Umayyads. The Umayyads meddled with the register and the recipients regarded pensions as the subsistence allowance even without being in active service. Hisham reformed it and paid only to those who participated in battle. On the pattern of the Byzantine system the Umayyads reformed their army organization in general and divided it into five corps: the centre, two wings, vanguards and rearguards, following the same formation while on march or on a battle field. Marwan II (740–50) abandoned the old division and introduced Kurdus (cohort), a small compact body. The Umayyad troops were divided into three divisions: infantry, cavalry and artillery. Arab troops were dressed and armed in Greek fashion. The Umayyad cavalry used plain and round saddles. The artillery used arradah (ballista), manjaniq (the mangonel) and dabbabah or kabsh (the battering ram). The heavy engines, siege machines and baggage were carried on camels behind the army.

text: Social organization[edit]

text: The Umayyad Caliphate exhibited four main social classes:

text:
Muslim Arabs
Muslim non-Arabs (clients of the Muslim Arabs)
Dhimmis, non-Muslim free persons (Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, and others)
Slaves

text: The Muslim Arabs were at the top of the society and saw it as their duty to rule over the conquered areas. Despite the fact that Islam teaches the equality of all Muslims, the Arab Muslims held themselves in higher esteem than Muslim non-Arabs and generally did not mix with other Muslims.

text: The inequality of Muslims in the empire led to social unrest. As Islam spread, more and more of the Muslim population was constituted of non-Arabs. This caused tension as the new converts were not given the same rights as Muslim Arabs. Also, as conversions increased, tax revenues from non-Muslims decreased to dangerous lows. These issues continued to grow until they helped cause the Abbasid Revolt in the 740s.[60]

text: Non-Muslims[edit]

text: Non-Muslim groups in the Umayyad Caliphate, which included Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, and pagan Berbers, were called dhimmis. They were given a legally protected status as second-class citizens as long as they accepted and acknowledged the political supremacy of the ruling Muslims, i.e. paid a tax the Muslims did not have to pay. They were allowed to have their own courts, and were given freedom of their religion within the empire.[citation needed] Although they could not hold the highest public offices in the empire, they had many bureaucratic positions within the government. Christians and Jews still continued to produce great theological thinkers within their communities, but as time wore on, many of the intellectuals converted to Islam, leading to a lack of great thinkers in the non-Muslim communities.[61]

text: Legacy[edit]

text: Currently many Sunni scholars agree that Muawiyah's family, including his progenitors, Abu Sufyan ibn Harb and Hind bint Utbah, were originally opponents of Islam and particularly of Muhammad until the Conquest of Mecca.

text: However many early history books like the Islamic Conquest of Syria Fatuhusham by al-Imam al-Waqidi state that after the conversion to Islam Muawiyah's father Abu Sufyan ibn Harb and his brothers Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan were appointed as commanders in the Muslim armies by Muhammad. Muawiyah, Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan and Hind bint Utbah[62][63][63][64][65][66] fought in the Battle of Yarmouk. The defeat of the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius at the Battle of Yarmouk opened the way for the Muslim expansion into Jerusalem and Syria.

text: In 639, Muawiyah was appointed as the governor of Syria by the second caliph Umar after his brother the previous governor Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan and the governor before him Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah died in a plague along with 25,000 other people.[67][68] 'Amr ibn al-'As was sent to take on the Roman Army in Egypt. Fearing an attack by the Romans, Umar asked Muawiyah to defend against a Roman attack.

text: With limited resources Muawiyah went about creating allies. Muawiyah married Maysum the daughter of the chief of the Kalb tribe, that was a large Jacobite Christian Arab tribe in Syria. His marriage to Maysum was politically motivated. The Kalb tribe had remained largely neutral when the Muslims first went into Syria.[69] After the plague that killed much of the Muslim Army in Syria, by marrying Maysum, Muawiyah started to use the Jacobite Christians, against the Romans. Muawiya's wife Maysum (Yazid's mother) was also a Jacobite Christian.[70] With limited resources and the Byzantine just over the border, Muawiyah worked in cooperation with the local Christian population. To stop Byzantine harassment from the sea during the Arab-Byzantine Wars, in 649 Muawiyah set up a navy; manned by Monophysitise Christians, Copts and Jacobite Syrian Christians sailors and Muslim troops.[71][72]

text: Muawiya was one of the first to realize the full importance of having a navy; as long as the Byzantine fleet could sail the Mediterranean unopposed, the coast line of Syria, Palestine and Egypt would never be safe. Muawiyah along with Adbullah ibn Sa'd the new governor of Egypt successfully persuaded Uthman to give them permission to construct a large fleet in the dockyards of Egypt and Syria[71][72]

text: The first real naval engagement between the Muslim and the Byzantine navy was the so-called Battle of the Masts (Dhat al-sawari) or battle of Phoenix off the Lycian coast in 655.[73] This resulted in the defeat of the Byzantine navy at the Battle of the Masts in 655, opening up the Mediterranean.[71][72][74][75][76][77][78]

text: Muawiyah came to power after the death of Ali and established a dynasty.

text: Historical significance[edit]

text:
History of the Levant

Stone Age

Kebaran culture
Natufian culture
Halaf culture
Ghassulian culture
Jericho

Ancient history

Ebla
Akkadian Empire
Canaanites
Amorites
Arameans
Hittites
Israel and Judah
Philistines
Phoenicians
Neo-Assyrian Empire
Neo-Babylonian Empire
Achaemenid Empire

Classical antiquity

Wars of Alexander the Great
Seleucid Empire
Hasmonean dynasty
Nabataeans
Roman Empire
Herodians
Palmyra
Byzantine Empire
Sassanid Empire

Middle Ages

Muslim conquest
Early Caliphates

Umayyads
Abbasids

Fatimids
Hamdanids
Seljuks
Crusades
Ayyubids
Mamluks

Modern history

Ottoman Syria

Mount Lebanon
Jerusalem

Mandatory Syria and Lebanon
Mandatory Palestine

Transjordan

Syria
Lebanon
Jordan
Israel
Palestine

Gaza Strip

v
t
e

text: The Umayyad caliphate was marked both by territorial expansion and by the administrative and cultural problems that such expansion created. Despite some notable exceptions, the Umayyads tended to favor the rights of the old Arab families, and in particular their own, over those of newly converted Muslims (mawali). Therefore, they held to a less universalist conception of Islam than did many of their rivals. As G.R. Hawting has written, "Islam was in fact regarded as the property of the conquering aristocracy."[79]

text: During the period of the Umayyads, Arabic became the administrative language. State documents and currency were issued in the language. Mass conversions brought a large influx of Muslims to the caliphate. The Umayyads also constructed famous buildings such as the Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem, and the Umayyad Mosque at Damascus.[80]

text: According to one common view, the Umayyads transformed the caliphate from a religious institution (during the rashidun) to a dynastic one.[80] However, the Umayyad caliphs do seem to have understood themselves as the representatives of God on earth, and to have been responsible for the "definition and elaboration of God's ordinances, or in other words the definition or elaboration of Islamic law."[81]

text: The Umayyads have met with a largely negative reception from later Islamic historians, who have accused them of promoting a kingship (mulk, a term with connotations of tyranny) instead of a true caliphate (khilafa). In this respect it is notable that the Umayyad caliphs referred to themselves not as khalifat rasul Allah ("successor of the messenger of God", the title preferred by the tradition), but rather as khalifat Allah ("deputy of God"). The distinction seems to indicate that the Umayyads "regarded themselves as God's representatives at the head of the community and saw no need to share their religious power with, or delegate it to, the emergent class of religious scholars."[82] In fact, it was precisely this class of scholars, based largely in Iraq, that was responsible for collecting and recording the traditions that form the primary source material for the history of the Umayyad period. In reconstructing this history, therefore, it is necessary to rely mainly on sources, such as the histories of Tabari and Baladhuri, that were written in the Abbasid court at Baghdad.

text: Modern Arab nationalism regards the period of the Umayyads as part of the Arab Golden Age which it sought to emulate and restore.[dubious – discuss] This is particularly true of Syrian nationalists and the present-day state of Syria, centered like that of the Umayyads on Damascus.[citation needed]

text: The Umayyad dynastic color was white, after the banner of Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan;[83] it is now one of the four Pan-Arab colors which appear in various combinations on the flags of most Arab countries.

text: Theological opinions concerning the Umayyads[edit]

text: Sunni opinions[edit]

text: Many Muslims criticized the Umayyads for having too many non-Muslim, former Roman administrators in their government. St John of Damascus was also a high administrator in the Umayyad administration.[84] As the Muslims took over cities, they left the peoples political representatives and the Roman tax collectors and the administrators. The taxes to the central government were calculated and negotiated by the peoples political representatives. The Central government got paid for the services it provided and the local government got the money for the services it provided. Many Christian cities also used some of the taxes on maintain their churches and run their own organizations. Later the Umayyads were criticized by some Muslims for not reducing the taxes of the people who converted to Islam. These new converts continues to pay the same taxes that were previously negotiated.[85]

text: Later when Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz came to power, he reduced these taxes. He is therefore praised as one of the greatest Muslim rulers after the four Rightly Guided Caliphs. Imam Abu Muhammad Adbullah ibn Abdul Hakam who lived in 829 and wrote a biography on Umar Ibn Adbul Aziz[86] stated that the reduction in these taxes stimulated the economy and created wealth but it also reduced the government budget and this then led to a reduction in the defense budget.

text: Only Umayyad ruler (Caliphs of Damascus), Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, is unanimously praised by Sunni sources for his devout piety and justice. In his efforts to spread Islam he established liberties for the Mawali by abolishing the jizya tax for converts to Islam. Imam Abu Muhammad Adbullah ibn Abdul Hakam stated that Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz also stopped the personal allowance offered to his relatives stating that he could only give them an allowance if he gave an allowance to everyone else in the empire. Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz was later poisoned in the year 720. When successive governments tried to reverse Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz's tax policies it created rebellion.

text: Shi'a opinions[edit]

text: The negative view of the Umayyads by Shias is briefly expressed in the Shi'a book "Sulh al-Hasan".[87] According to Shia hadiths, which are not considered authentic by Sunnis, Ali described them as the worst Fitna.[88] In Shia sources, the Umayyad Caliphate is widely described as "tyrannical, anti-Islamic and godless".[89][90] Shias point out that the founder of the dynasty, Muawiyah, declared himself a caliph in 657 and went to war against Muhammad's son-in-law, ruling Rashidun caliph Ali, clashing at the Battle of Siffin. Muawiyah also declared his son, Yazid, as a successor in breach of a treaty with Hassan, Muhammad's grandson. Another of Muhammad's grandsons, Husayn ibn Ali, would be killed by Yazid in the Battle of Karbala. Further Shia Imams, such as Muhammad's great-grandson, Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin would be killed at the hands of ruling Umayyad caliphs.

text: Early literature[edit]

text: The book Al Muwatta by Imam Malik was written in the early Abbasid period in Madina. It does not contain any anti-Umayyad content because it was more concerned with what the Quran and what Muhammad said and was not a history book on the Umayyads.

text: Even the earliest pro-Shia accounts of al-Masudi are more balanced. al-Masudi in Ibn Hisham is the earliest Shia account of Muawiyah. He recounted that Muawiyah spent a great deal of time in prayer, in spite of the burden of managing a large empire.[91]

text: Az-Zuhri stated that Muawiya led the Hajj Pilgrimage with the people twice during his era as caliph.

text: Books written in the early Abbasid period like al-Baladhuri's "The Origins of the Islamic State" provide a more accurate and balanced history. Ibn Hisham also wrote about these events.

text: Much of the anti-Umayyad literature started to appear in the later Abbasid period in Persia.

text: After killing off most of the Umayyads and destroying the graves of the Umayyad rulers apart from Muawiyah and Umar Ibn Adbul Aziz, the history books written during the later Abbasid period are more anti-Umayyad.[92] The Abbasids justified their rule by saying that their ancestor Abbas ibn Abd al Muttalib was a cousin of Muhammad.

text: The books written later in the Abbasid period in Iran are more anti-Umayyad. Iran was Sunni at the time. There was much anti-Arab feeling in Iran after the fall of the Persian empire.[93] This anti-Arab feeling also influenced the books on Islamic history. Al-Tabri was also written in Iran during that period. Al-Tabri was a huge collection including all the texts that he could find, from all the sources. It was a collection preserving everything for future generations to codify and for future generations to judge whether the histories were true or false.

text: Bahá'í standpoint[edit]

text: Asked for an explanation of the prophecies in the Book of Revelation (12:3), `Abdu'l-Bahá suggests in Some Answered Questions that the "great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads,"[94] refers to the Umayyad caliphs who "rose against the religion of Prophet Muhammad and against the reality of Ali".[95][96]

text: The seven heads of the dragon is symbolic of the seven provinces of the lands dominated by the Umayyads: Damascus, Persia, Arabia, Egypt, Africa, Andalusia, and Transoxania. The ten horns represent the ten names of the leaders of the Umayyad dynasty; Abu Sufyan, Muawiya, Yazid, Marwan, Abd al-Malik, Walid, Sulayman, Umar, Hisham, and Ibrahim. Some names were re-used, as in the case of Yazid II and Yazid III, which were not counted for this interpretation.

text: List of Caliphs[edit]

text:
Caliph
Reign

Caliphs of Damascus

Muawiya I ibn Abu Sufyan
28 July 661 – 27 April 680

Yazid I ibn Muawiyah
27 April 680 – 11 November 683

Muawiya II ibn Yazid
11 November 683– June 684

Marwan I ibn al-Hakam
June 684– 12 April 685

Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan
12 April 685 – 8 October 705

al-Walid I ibn Abd al-Malik
8 October 705 – 23 February 715

Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik
23 February 715 – 22 September 717

Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz
22 September 717 – 4 February 720

Yazid II ibn Abd al-Malik
4 February 720 – 26 January 724

Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik
26 January 724 – 6 February 743

al-Walid II ibn Yazid
6 February 743 – 17 April 744

Yazid III ibn al-Walid
17 April 744 – 4 October 744

Ibrahim ibn al-Walid
4 October 744 – 4 December 744

Marwan II ibn Muhammad (ruled from Harran in the Jazira)
4 December 744 – 25 January 750

Emirs of Cordoba

Abd al-Rahman I
756–788

Hisham I
788–796

al-Hakam I
796–822

Abd ar-Rahman II
822–852

Muhammad I
852–886

Al-Mundhir
886–888

Abdallah ibn Muhammad
888–912

Abd ar-Rahman III
912–929

Caliphs of Cordoba

Abd ar-Rahman III, as caliph
929–961

Al-Hakam II
961–976

Hisham II
976–1008

Muhammad II
1008–1009

Sulayman ibn al-Hakam
1009–1010

Hisham II, restored
1010–1012

Sulayman ibn al-Hakam, restored
1012–1017

al-Mu'ayti, rival in Denia
1014–1016

Abd ar-Rahman IV
1021–1022

Abd ar-Rahman V
1022–1023

Muhammad III
1023–1024

Hisham III
1027–1031