Ummawiyys

Caliph dynasty reigning from 661 to 750, located most of the time to Damascus, Syria. The Ummawiyys were the descendants of Ummayya ibn Abdi sh-Shams, a member of the Quraysh family of Mecca. The first Caliph was Mu'awiyya, who in fought against Caliph Ali, until his murder in 661. Though the Caliphate was a religious institution, the Ummawiyys were to a large extent secular rulers, who participated only partly in religious administration and questions. Historical sources present the Ummawiyy Caliphs as tyrannical often as if they were non-Muslims. This is particularly the case among Shi'is, while Sunnis have an ambiguous relationship to them. Only Umar II (717-20) and Yazid III are considered just and fair.
The Ummawiyys are most famous for the buildings they erected, like the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem (690s), Aqsa Mosque, also in Jerusalem (690s) and the Ummawiyy Mosque in Damascus (705) There are two Ummawiyy families, from 661 to 684 it was the Sufaynid branch, but from 684 the Marwanid branch took over the control.
The Ummawiyys extended its territories massively during its Caliphate, at least until the 710s. Most of the new land was to the west in Africa and the Iberian peninsula, but they also reached the borders of China and northern India. There were a number of unsuccessful attempts to conquer Constantinople, in 674-78 and 717-18.
The time of the Ummawiyys was not a time of conversion to Islam, as people converting to Islam, were exempted from certain taxes, like the jizya, the tax of the dhimmis.
It was the Abbasids that overthrew the Ummawiyys, by a revolt that began in Khurasan in Persia, when there were tensions in the Arab army which brought the dissatisfaction over difference in treatment between Muslims of true Arab origin, and non-Arab converts. The Abbasids addressed this, and met a weak enemy that had relied too much upon forces that were all too happy to see the Ummawiyys gone.
But even with the Ummawiyys out of Damascus, they were not all cut away from power, as some members of the family moved to Muslim Spain, where he got the position as emir. From 756 to 1031 Ummawiyys ruled Spain, and for the last 100 years they carried the tile Caliph over again.