History During the Years: 661-1258

In Damascus, the Islamic empire was seized by Muawiyah and the Umayyads due to overlordship. The Umayyad caliphs made sure the Holy Cities remained and that they were the only spiritual places of Islam. At that point, the Umayyad caliphs made sure to keep control of power and in Hejaz, Yemen, and Oman they had governors appointed by the caliphs. The Persian Gulf was mostly under power of Iraquian governors and this gulf was very a very important route for trade, which was now mostly in control by the Abbasids. At this time was when the main Islamic religion had its sects formed – the Sunnites and the Shi’ites (“history of Arabia”).

The Umayyad had a continuous fight for power. They defeated the caliph of Hejaz who soon after was killed and from there the domino effect took place: Medina was taken over which led to Mecca was besieged and then the haram was bombed along with the Islamic Ka’bah (the sacred Black Stone talked about in previous blog sections) was set on fire and spilt in three places (“history of Arabia”). Not too long after the rebellion the Umayyads had power they spent a lot of money on their new Holy Cities. This didn’t last too long, the Umayyads collapsed in 750, before the Abbasids. From there, the Abbasids continued their strict religious observance and were devoted to the continuous spending of money on the Holy Cities.

Sources: "history of Arabia." Encyclopædia Britannica 2009.<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/31568/history-of-Arabia>. Accessed May 30 2009.