Umayyad Period
661 - 750

Umayyads, founded by Muawiyah and headed by Abu Sufyan, were a largely merchant family of the Quraysh tribe centered at Mecca. They had initially resisted Islam, not converting until 627. Umayyad was the first Arab Muslim dynasty of religious and secular caliphs to rule over the conquered nations. The caliphs ruled initially from Medina in present day Saudi Arabia, then from Damascus, Syria. Under the Umayyad dynasty, political and social ascendancy remained in the hands of a few Arab families from Mecca and Medina. This caused the Muslim population, which had grown enormously as the empire expanded, to become increasingly discontented, especially since the Umayyads had found it necessary to increase their income from taxation.

661 Mu'awiya founded the Umayyad dynasty of Caliphs and made Damascus his capital.
It is ironic that a man who became the political-religious head of Islam was born into the family of Abu Sufyan, who rejected the Prophet in his home city, Mecca, and continued to oppose him on the battlefield after he had emigrated to Medina. Mu'awiya did not become a Muslim until Mohammad (S) had conquered Mecca.
- The Umayyads shifted the focal point of Muslim political power to Damascus.
680 Hassan Ibn Ali (A) passed away in Medina.
- Umayyad Caliph Mu'awiya died, and his son Yazid succeeded him as the leader of all Muslim territories.
Imam Hossein (A), the third Imam of the Shias, was invited by the governor of Medina to take an oath of allegiance to Yazid.
680 Imam Hossein (A) refused to recognize the legitimacy of Yazid.
680 Imam Hossein (A) was invited by the townsmen of Kufa, a city in Iraq with a Shia majority, to go there and raise the banner of revolt against the Umayyads.
680 Imam Hossein (A) set out for Kufa with a small band of relations and followers.
He was inspired by a definite ideology to found a regime that would reinstate a true Islamic rule as opposed to what he considered the unjust rule of the Umayyads.According to the traditional accounts, he met the poet alFarazdaq on the way and was told that the hearts of the people of Kufa were for him, but their swords were for the Umayyads.
- The governor of Iraq, on behalf of the Caliph, sent 4,000 men to arrest Imam Hossein (A) and his small company.
680 The Umayyads massacred Imam Hossein (A) along with his 72 comrades in arms, and took the women and children of his family captive on Ashura, the tenth day of the lunar month of Muharram.
Imam Hossein (A) was trapped at Karbala, near the banks of the Euphrates. He gave his companions the choice to leave him to his fate, but 72 of his men refused to desert him. Despite the odds, Imam Hossein (A) took the high ground of principle by declaring that death is preferable to compromise between right and wrong. The Tragedy of Karbala (Ashura) was a most perfect example of piety sacrificing itself for justice.
This battle seemingly helped secure the position of the Umayyads for a short time, but among Shia Muslims the day, even month, of Imam Hossein (A)'s Martyrdom became an annual holy time of public mourning to express solidarity with him.
691 Dome of the Rock (Qubbat us-Sakhra) was completed on the platform formerly occupied by Solomon's Temple at Jerusalem, under the Caliph Abdul Malik.
Primarily intended for pilgrimage, this commemorative monument with Byzantine influences in the design is widely considered as probably the first superior work of architecture of Islamic period. Its central rock evokes Arabian litholatry, association of the Creation and the Last Judgment and the Prophet Mohammad (S)'s Night Journey to Heaven.
693 Muslims defeated the Greeks.
696 Umayyads had the Greek and Pahlavi records translated into Arabic, and discarded the originals.
698 Muslims captured Carthage, in Tunisia.
- Muslims conquered some provinces of Byzantine Empire and all of those of Sassanians. Muslims retained all of the Sassanian imperial traditions. Persian Muslims were clients of certain Muslim families and tribes throughout the empire. There was an uprising to end the influence of Muslim tribes and division among Muslims. The success of the revolution launched a series of religious movements in Khorasan.
710 Raabia al-Adawiyya was born to a very poor family near Basra.She became promoted to the rank of Sufi Saint.
710 Muslim conquest of Africa was completed.
710 Muslims began conquest of Transoxiana. They reached India.
711 Muslims, led by general Tariq Ibn Ziyad, invaded Spain.
715 Umayyad Mosque was built in Damascus. 
Having purchased the complex that had for centunes served as the Roman temple of Jupiter Damascenus and Christian church of St. John the Baptist, the Caliph al-Walid had the entire site Islamicized, and made it into a mosque. Following the revered model of the Prophet (S)'s house, he had the enclosure walls used as the walls of the mosque, had the church in the center razed, and the major facade of the building turned inside out for it to face the interior courtyard. This inward looking facade became one of the most characteristic features of Islamic architecture.
728 Ibn Sirin (b.654), renowned Muslim interpreter of dreams, died.He was also a traditionalist, renowned for his piety and for the reliability of the information he handed on.
740 Khirbat al-Mafjar, the best-known example of Umayyad secular architecture, was built near Jericho, north of the Dead Sea.The complex had a square palace, an enclosed court in front with fountain, a bath, a mosque, and a service building. It is a loosely planned combination of the separate units found in the Roman and Byzantine palaces.
740 Imam Ja'far Sadiq (A) C'Ja'far the Trustworthy") the sixth Imam of Shia Muslims, flourished.
He was the son of the fifth Imam, Mohammad Baqir (A) and great-grandson of Imam Ali (A).
Various Muslim writers have ascribed three fundamental religious ideas to him. First, he adopted a middle road about the question of predestination, asserting that God decreed some things absolutely but left others to human agency  a compromise that was widely adopted. Second,in the science of Hadith, he proclaimed the principle that what was contrary to the Qur'an should be rejected, whatever other evidence might support it. Third, he described Mohammad (s)'s prophetic mission as a ray of light, created before Adam and passed on from Mohammad (s) to his descendants.
746 Raabia al-Adawiyya was about thirty-six years old when God awakened her.
746 A movement was led by Bihafarid who claimed to be a prophet from the line of Zoroaster.
Many more religious uprisings and campaigns against the legitimate Caliphs occurred in Khorasan and Central Asia.
749 Zoroastrians persuaded the leader of the revolution, Abu Moslem Khorasani, to kill Bihafarid.
The leader of the Abbasid movement was Abu Moslem Khorasani of Persian origin. His intention was to form a coalition of all those who opposed the Umayyads.
750 Abu Moslem defeated the last Umayyad Caliph, Marwan Hammar, and thus the Caliphate was passed down to the Abbasids.