The Authoritarianism of the Umayyads and the Confrontation With the Hashemites

Abstract

During the 5th and 6th centuries AD, the Quraysh clan dominated the land of Hijaz and its important city of Mecca, and with the support of holding the keys to the Kaaba and commercial activities, its two clans, Bani Hashim and Bani Umayya, benefited from abundant prestige and wealth. It created a competition between the Hashemites and the Umayyads, which had a great impact on the political and social-cultural history of the Arabian Peninsula.

This article, using a descriptive-analytical method, seeks to reread the causes and factors of the confrontation between the Umayyads and the Hashemites over the authoritative and comprehensive leadership in Hijaz and Najd and on the threshold of the rise of Islam. The result of the research shows that despite the equality of social status of the two clans, the elevation of the Hashemian social base compared to the superiority of the Umayyad economic power, as well as the belief of the Hashimes in the minimal distance between the people in power and the people, gave them the opportunity to have a popular and legitimate position, different from the Umayyads. and this acceptability aroused the Umayyads' jealousy and sympathy.