After the assassination of ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth Rashidun (“rightly-guided”) caliph, Mu’awiya seized power and established the Umayyad caliphate, the first Islamic dynasty (661–750). Syria was the Umayyads’ power base, with Damascus as the capital of a vast, multiethnic empire that eventually extended from the Atlantic to the Indus.

The Umayyad era is often considered the formative period in Islamic art and architecture. The Umayyads built the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem (al-Qods) as well as the Great Mosque of Damascus. Other Umayyad constructions include the “desert palaces” of Khirbat al-Majfar, Mshatta and Qusayr ‘Amra. These elite residences included audience halls, baths, and mosques, and were richly decorated with figural mosaics, sculpture and paintings.

The Umayyads were overthrown by the Abbasids in 750. Survivors of the dynasty escaped across North Africa and established themselves in Córdoba (modern Spain). The Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba survived for centuries as a rival to the Abbasid Caliphate, and Córdoba became a world center of science, philosophy and the arts. The Umayyad caliphs in Spain undertook major architectural projects, such as the Great Mosque of Córdoba and the palace of Madinat al-Zahra. Web resources here and here.

The Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem. Umayyad. 687–691/92.