Arabs/History

Arabs are a major panethnic group, with 463,450,000 people across the world claiming Arab descent. Arabs can refer to the Bedouin from the Arabian Peninsula, the Phoenicians of the Levant whom they assimilated into their culture, the Nilotic Egyptians also assimilated into their culture, Berbers in North Africa, Tuaregs in the Sahara region, mixed-race Arabs along the Red Sea and Swahili Coast regions, and Druze people in Israel, Syria, and Lebanon. The majority of Arabs are Muslim, with most of the Muslims being Sunni and a minority being Shia or Druze. Christianity and Bahaism are minor, with most Arab Christians living outside of the Arab World.

Under the Umayyad dynasty, the Arabs controlled a vast empire from 661 to 750. When the Umayyads were overthrown by the Abbasids, prince Abd al-Rahman fled to Spain and the Umayyads dynasty continued in Cordoba until 1027.

The Umayyads
The Umayyad were by origin an important clan from Mecca who became the most important clan in the Islamic world, and altogether brought forth fourteen ruling caliphs. Their capital was Damascus.

The Umayyad Caliphate was the second Islamic caliphate, ruling from 661 to 750. Founded by Muawiyah I after the murder of Hassan ibn Ali and the fall of his Rashidun Caliphate, the Umayyads ruled over a vast empire from the city of Damascus in Syria, with their empire extending from Pakistan to southern France and Spain.

The Umayyads gave autonomy to Jews and Christians in their lands, allowing them to answer to their own religious courts, and non-Muslims could practice their beliefs if they paid the jizya tax; many people of other Abrahamic faiths would convert to Islam under the Umayyads.

The Umayyads constantly campaigned against both the Christian kingdoms of the west, the Tengri and Hindu states to the east, and the Berbers to the south, and they also fought against rebellious officials and nobles as these tried to carve out their own fiefs within the empire. The Umayyads remained in power for 89 years, gaining power after the First Fitna and losing power in 750 when the Abbasid Revolution toppled the Umayyads and led to the rise of the Abbasid Caliphate.