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| 684–85 |
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| MARWAN I. Elected after a major conference among the Arab tribes, Marwan represented the first ruler of the Marwanid branch of the Umayyad clan. (The first three Umayyad rulers had been descendants of the Sufyanid branch of the family.) | 1 |
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| 685–705 |
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| ABD AL-MALIK. He ended the second civil war, initiated the centralization of the Umayyad Empire, and insisted that all administrative business be conducted in Arabic, which slowly became the tongue of the majority in the Middle East. Abd al-Malik also instituted the barid, a postal and spy system designed to keep the ruler informed about events in the provinces. | 2 |
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| 692 |
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| Completion of the Dome of the Rock mosque in Jerusalem. Built on the Temple Mount, on the orders of Abd al-Malik, it features an octagonal plan and is today considered the earliest outstanding example of Islamic architecture. | 3 |
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| c. 697 |
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| Umayyad coinage reformed by Abd al-Malik, who instituted a standard Umayyad currency that did not rely on the imitation of either Byzantine or Sassanid issues. The new coins of gold (dinar) and silver (dirham) were standardized in weight. For the first time all the issues were devoid of pictorial representation and bore Arabic inscriptions. | 4 |
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| 700–701 |
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| Revolt of Ibn al-Ash’ath, an Arab tribal leader in Iraq. He found support among many of Kufa's inhabitants, including non-Arab converts to Islam, but was defeated by the governor of Iraq, al-Hajjaj. | 5 |
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| 706–9 |
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| Bukhara captured by the Umayyads. | 6 |
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| 711 |
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| Invasion of Spain (al-Andalus) by the Muslims under the command of the Berber Tariq ibn Ziyad (See 732). The peninsula was subdued by 716. Raids across the Pyrenees began in the next year and culminated at Poitiers in 732, where Arab forces were defeated by Charles Martel (See 732). The battle retrospectively retained far greater significance in European annals than in Islamic accounts, where it is described only as a skirmish. | 7 |
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| 711–13 |
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| Conquest of Transoxania and the Sind. Arab armies reached the port of Daybul on the Indus River by 713 (See 712–66). These forays did not result in settlement but did achieve the exaction of tribute from local authorities. | 8 |
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| 715 |
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| Completion of the Great Mosque of Damascus, built by the caliph al-Walid (705–15) on the site of the church of St. John, which was largely destroyed. | 9 |
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| 717–20 |
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| UMAR II, known for his piety, ended former policies of military expansion. Umar attempted to ameliorate the status of the mawali (non-Arab Muslims) by reducing their tax burden. This policy did not provide a permanent solution to grievances of the mawali, although Umar remained the only Umayyad ruler to advocate a more egalitarian policy toward them. | 10 |
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| 720 |
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| Rebellion of Yazid ibn al-Muhallab in Iraq. A deposed appointee of the brutal governor al-Hajjaj, he declared a holy war against Umayyad rule and was killed in battle. | 11 |
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| 728 |
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| Death of al-Hasan al-Basri. A scholar and mystic, he attracted a wide following near Basra, where he preached asceticism. At this early stage, Muslim mystics signaled their rejection of the luxurious material world of Umayyad urban centers by wearing wool (suf), the cloth from which the Sufi movement of Islamic mysticism later took its name. | 12 |
| Death of Wasil ibn Ata, religious scholar and founder of the school of theology known as the Mu’tazila. In debates over the authority of the caliph, the Mu’tazila took a middle position between those who argued that the caliph had to stay within the limits set by the Qur'an and tradition, and those who allowed him freedom of interpretation to meet the changing needs of society. The Mu’tazila also assumed neutrality in disputes over the moral positions of Ali and his enemies. Their doctrines would become the focus of intense controversy about a hundred years later. | 13 |
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