At a glance
Era 2- Dates
- Ruled 41-60 AH (661-680 CE)
- Who
- Companion, governor of Syria and first caliph of the Umayyad dynasty
- Era
- The Umayyads
ProfileMuawiya ibn Abi Sufyan
Muawiya (may Allah be pleased with him) was a son of Abu Sufyan, the Quraysh chief who had led Makkah's opposition to the Prophet ﷺ for years. The family accepted Islam around the opening of Makkah in 8 AH, and Muawiya became one of the scribes who wrote for the Prophet ﷺ. His sister, Umm Habibah, was one of the Mothers of the Believers.
Under Umar he served in the armies in Syria, and after the plague of 18 AH he was given the governorship of Damascus, which Uthman later widened to most of the province. In some twenty years there he won the loyalty of its Arab tribes, Muslim and Christian alike, and he pressed for a navy to guard the long coast. His ships raided Cyprus, and in 655 the fleets of Syria and Egypt beat the Byzantine navy at the Battle of the Masts.
After Uthman was killed, Muawiya called for justice for his kinsman before he would pledge allegiance to Ali, and the two sides met at Siffin. When al-Hasan stepped aside in 41 AH to end the fighting, Muawiya became caliph of a reunited state and ruled it from Damascus. He relied on able governors, patient bargaining and generous gifts. His armies kept up the war with Byzantium, including a siege of Constantinople from 674, and in North Africa Qayrawan was founded.
In his last years he asked the leading men of the empire to pledge loyalty to his son Yazid. No caliph had named his son before, and the turn to hereditary rule has been debated ever since. He died in Damascus in 680.
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