Caliphates

It depends on which Umayyad Caliphate you are talking about.

The Umayyad Caliphate in Damascus from 660 C.E. to 750 C.E. was overthrown by a coup d'état led by the Abbassid Family.

The Umayyad Caliphate in Cordoba from 711 C.E. to 1038 C.E. ended when the final Caliph, Hisham III, died without any successors.

Umayyad Caliphate in Damascus
In the Umayyad Caliphate in Damascus case, there were a few major issues.

1) Mawali: Mawali (or non-Arab Muslims) were traditionally excluded from political and social affairs. The Umayyad in particular treated them as second-class Muslims. The evidence of this treatment was that Mawali were not allowed to have many government positions and that they were taxed whereas Arab Muslims were not taxed at all. Mawali made up an important component of the Umayyad Caliphate, especially Persians. Persia was always a high seat of culture in the Islamic Empire. As a result, ideas moved quite freely throughout Persia and Persians considered themselves to be of equal worth to Arabs.

2) Shiites: Under the Sunni Umayyads, Shiites were also discriminated against. After Yazid I martyred Hussein, the Shiites made it their mission in life to oppose every action of the Umayyad dynasty. It did not help matters that the Umayyads tortured and murdered Shiite Imams and Infallibles, leading to irreconcilability between the Shiites and the Umayyads.

3) Distance: There were no effective routes of communication between the Western Edges of the Caliphate and Damascus. This made local administrators more powerful as they would have to make their own decisions anyway (it would take too long for a messenger to go to Damascus and return). Many figured that they might as well make the change more permanent.

4) Political Issues: Not all Arabs of high political standing supported the Umayyads. There were several other families that were just as power-hungary and the Umayyads spent much of their time thwarting coups d'état. Abu Al-Abbas As-Saffah of the Abbassids rose against the Umayyads and murdered the reigning Umayyad Caliph. He ordered the rest of his family to murder every single other Umayyad. As a result of the uprising, only one Umayyad, Amir Abd El-Rahman, survived. He would later flee to Spain and set it up as a Caliphate in opposition to the Abbassids.

Umayyad Caliphate in Spain
There were really only two issues here.

1) Christian Victories: In the mid-800s, the Umayyads in Spain arrived at a turning point. A massive number of Christians were beginning to immigrate to the weak Christian Kingdoms of Leon, Castille, the Basque Provinces, Aragon, Navarre, and Catalonia. Many of the Christians came from France and Germany and brought more recent European technologies with them. This led to the successes of the Reconquista in the late 800s and early 900s. By 1038, King Alfonso VI was ruling the Kingdom of Castille-Leon from Burgos and had El Cid (a famous Spanish general) conquer the Umayyad bastion of Toledo. These Christian victories strongly weakened faith in the longevity of the Umayyad project.

2) No Heirs: The Umayyad Caliph Hisham III had no heirs. When he died in 1038, there were no longer any Umayyads left to succeed him and continue the line. He did not style a soldier or bureaucrat to be his successor and regional governors claimed regional authority, resulting in the first Taifa Period of Andalucía.

Islamic States, like Christian States, are ruled by different individuals with various different motivations and desires to maintain power and control in a local sense. As a result, they would consistently avoid uniting, preferring to combat each other for greater local power.

The Abbassid Caliphate contracted in two general phases. The first phase was from 750 CE to 850 CE which led to the loss of the distant provinces in Spain, Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The second phase occurred from 1100-1258 CE which resulted in the capitulation of the entire state.

Abbassid Caliphate Contraction in the First Phase
The reasons that Abbassid territory diminished between 750 to 850 CE, fracturing into the Umayyads (Spain), Idrissids (Morocco), Aghlabids (Algeria, Tunisia, Sicily), and other smaller states.

1) Religious Issues: The Abbassids came to power with the help of the Shiites and Mawali (Non-Arab Moslems like Persians and Amazigh). Even though the Abbassids did increase the rights and station of Mawali, it was never practical nor desirable for the Abbassids to become Shiite. As a result, he alienated much of North Africa, which at this time had a large Shiite and Kharijite population. (The Kharijites would have been alienated anyway as they were a very religious minority.)

2) Distance: There were no effective routes of communication between the Western Edges of the Caliphate and Baghdad. This made local administrators more powerful as they would have to make their own decisions anyway (it would take too long for a messenger to go to Baghdad and return). Many figured that they might as well make the change more permanent.

3) Political Issues: This refers specifically to Umayyad Spain which was the only part of the Umayyad Caliphate that never became Abbassid when Abu Al-Abbas As-Saffah rose against the Umayyads. As a result of the uprising, Amir Abd El-Rahman fled to Spain and set it up as a Caliphate in opposition to the Abbassids.

The Fall of the Abbassid Caliphate
The reasons for the eventual fall of the Abbassid Caliphate which occurred in 1100-1258 CE are the following.

1) Corruption: The Abbassid Caliphate had become one of the richest and most prosperous states in the world at that time, changing its leadership from honest brokers of power (Amir al-Mu'aminin - Prince of the Believers used to actually mean something) to individuals more concerned with money. This created strong resentment from those who were outside of the Abbassid purview.

2) Mawali Inclusion: The Abbassids were an Arab Caliphate (as opposed to the Samanids who were a Persian Caliphate) and were expected by many Arabs to treat other Arabs better than the Mawali. However, the Abbassids consistently treated Persians equal to or better than their Arab brethren which created animosity and a sense of betrayal. Many Arabs saw the Persians as the major backers of the Caliphate and that they were a tool for Persian interests. It was also perceived that the Persians were first servants to the caliphs but climbed way up the social ladder to a place they did not belong.

3) Turkish Armies: Armies like the Mamluk (who were retained by the Abbassids for the defense of the Caliphate) were Turks who defended an Arab State. Beginning in this period, they began to realize that they had the capacity to create their own states considering how vast their powers were as a military. This idea also came to the fore for Turks outside of the Caliphate. As a result, there were Mamluk uprisings, Seljuq attacks, and other Turkish Armies turning against Baghdad.

4) Rise of the Mongols: Hülegü Khan put the final nail in the coffin by massacring Baghdad and a number of Persian cities when he conquered the territory for the Great Khanate.

The Muslims had conquered many modern countries by that point including parts of Libya, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Iran, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain.

See the Related Link for a map.

Arabs controlled all of the eastern and central part of North Africa AND all of the Middle East, except for western Anatolia, but including the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Persia.

Muslims, Christians, and Jews worshiped the same God. Islam teachings require no compulsion in religion and require respect of all human faiths and beliefs. In addition, Muslims believe in all God prophets (including Moses and Jesus and Muhammad; Peace be upon them) and believe in all God holy books (including Torah, the Bible, and Quran).

The Safavid dynasty ruled one of the greatest Persian empires since the Muslim conquest of Persia and established the Twelve school of Shi'a Islam as the official religion of their empire, marking an important turning points in Muslim history.

The farthest east area with Muslim-majority population are the Halmahera Islands in the Indonesian archipelago.

Confucianism

Calligraphy

Chaldiran

Mawali (or non-Arab Muslims) were traditionally excluded from political and social affairs. The Umayyad in particular treated them as second-class Muslims. The evidence of this treatment was that Mawali were not allowed to have many government positions and that they were taxed whereas Arab Muslims were not taxed at all. Mawali made up an important component of the Umayyad Caliphate, especially Persians. Persia was always a high seat of culture in the Islamic Empire. As a result, ideas moved quite freely throughout Persia and Persians considered themselves to be of equal worth to Arabs.

The Abbassids counteracted this. Mawali were treated as equals with Arabs under Abbassid rules and much of the Abbassid power base came from Persians and Khorasanis who were Mawali themselves. They did not receive favorable treatment, but equal treatment.

It is a carpet made by The Mohawk Carpet Mills in Amsterdam, NY and the pattern is called "The Royal Caliph" carpet patton #60155-11 and the size of the carpet is 8' x 10'

They allowed some religious toleration NOT because they believed it was the right thing to do. They had toleration because it was in the interest of their empire. Having religious toleration allowed the lands they conquered to be less driven revolt and not be dreading there conquer. This allowed less revolt, and the different religions of the country allowed for them to be more diverse.

Conquest: The Umayyads supervised the conquest of the Shiite territories in the east (such as southern Iraq and Persia), the conquest of eastern Anatolia, and the conquest of the Maghreb and Andalucia (modern Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Spain).

Culture: The Umayyad Dynasty was not known for its cultural ascendancy, that belonged to the later Abbassid Dynasty. The Umayyads did lead to the conversion of many Maghrebis to Islam on account of the prevalent "to the victor's religion mentality". They also instituted a number of policies to make conversion more appealing for imperial subjects, but this was an issue of laws, not of culture.

Most shia Muslims are of northern semitic extraction, while Sunni Muslims in the Arabian peninsula are largerly descended from Ishmael, as is the general "claim." Most historians hold Biblical patriarchs, including the patriarch of the Arabs, to be myths, despite genetic evidence of relative genetic homoge-whatever among the Arabs. The general claim is that the biblical Abraham did not exist, and yet throughout the eastern hemisphere a Y chromosomal genetic marker was found that can be traced back to a single man. The identity of that man however, is a mystery.

Some theories hold it was Genghis Khan, however, the problem with that theory is that he only had a small handfull of concubines, relatively small for a powerful Mongol Chieftain-turned-emperor.

Although this is not written anywhere, and violating wiki answers rules here this is a personal opinion, highly likely that man was Marco Polo believe it or not, who most prolifically fathered children across the eastern hemisphere.

Even in Muslim era Persia, many of the isolated tribes still followed old customs regarding sexual practices, and the whole idea of virginity was alien to them. Then there is also the issue of traveller hospitality; if a traveler wished for a woman, hospitality rules beyond the Arabian peninsula, and in parts of Persia, said that you had to give them a woman, usually one of your daughters. Far as pregnancy issues, in those times people were not racist like they are now, nor were children seen as a burden but a blessing; if a kid resulted, if it was a boy, it was a helping hand on the fields, or in battle, if it was a girl hey, she was born pretty she could be married off to a wealthy family.

The appearance of blue eyes, is frequent, along the area of the silk route; its highly possible, those are descendants of Marco Polo. Marco Polo was 15 I believe when he left Italy, and well into the silk road, he'd have been a horny teenager. What I am suggesting, is that Marco Polo impregnated men's daughters, and possibly wives, from Iran, throughout northern India, and parts of China, hence the reason that particular genetic marker is found all over the place. This COULD be confirmed, if any descendants of Marco Polo were tested today, and see if their genes match those of those people.

Again many parts of the silk road had vague sexual morals, but strict hospitality rules dictating you had to give a traveler a woman if they needed one, being a teenager again the likelihood is very high, Marco Polo was spoiled sexually, from western Persia, all the way to China.

Of course that's just an opinion; a scientist has yet to test this.

It helped the scattered states from revolting

Baghdad's economy relied on taxes, and wealth generated by trade and manufacturing. The empire was rich in gold, silver, copper, and iron and used them in trade. Farmers grew dates, rice, and other grains. In addition, the Abbasids introduced new breeds of livestock. They also spread cotton. Traders from Scandinavia to Africa came to Baghdad for the products of its industries too. Leather goods, textiles, paper, metalwork, and perfumes were sold in the city. The Abbasids developed something very similar to the banking system. They did not have bank buildings but business people invested in long distance trade and goods were bought on credit. They also had a postal system. Muslim rule unified the eastern world. They introduced a uniform coinage system that made commerce easier. The Abbasids treated non-Muslims well. In their time, there were 11000 Christian churches, and hundreds of synagogues and fire temples.

because the Umayyads separated themselves from the general islamic populace and surrounded themselves with foreigners.

The umayyad were overthrown by the Abbasid

Arabic

They're basically the same. Women stayed at home to do house chores and men went out to work.

A caliph is responsible for governing the Islamic community, upholding Islamic law, promoting justice, protecting the community, and serving as a religious and political leader. The caliph is also seen as a successor to the Prophet Muhammad and is expected to lead by example with humility and wisdom.