Umayyad Caliphate · 661-750

The Umayyads: an empire ruled from Damascus

From Damascus, the Umayyad caliphs ruled lands from Spain to the Indus. Students explore how they held such an empire together with a capital, a common language, new coins and great buildings.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
12–15
On the map
3 steps, AD 715 to AD 661
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

From Damascus, the Umayyad caliphs ruled lands from Spain to the Indus. Students explore how they held such an empire together with a capital, a common language, new coins and great buildings.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Describe the extent of the Umayyad Caliphate around 740 using the map.
  • Explain how Arabic, coins and buildings helped the Umayyads rule.
  • Give two reasons why the Umayyads fell in 750.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 715

Damascus, the capital

Open the map in 715 and turn on the Cities layer. Find Damascus and the Umayyad Caliphate around it. Which lands around the Mediterranean that once were Roman does it now hold?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 715

The Great Mosque

Zoom in on Damascus. Caliph al-Walid built the Great Mosque here in 705-715, on the site of a church that had once been a Roman temple. Why build on a place that was already holy?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 661

Spain to the Indus

Open Stories, start The Islamic Caliphates and go to the second step, 661. How far does the story say the Umayyads ruled within a century?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Why did Muawiya rule from Damascus rather than from Medina?
  2. Abd al-Malik made Arabic the language of government. How does one shared language help to run an empire?
  3. The new Islamic coins of the 690s had words instead of pictures of rulers. What message did that send?
  4. Most people in the empire were not Arabs, and many were not Muslims. How might they have felt about Umayyad rule?
  5. The Umayyads were overthrown in 750, but their mosque in Damascus still stands. What do buildings tell us that battles do not?
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Charlemagne, who ruled the Franks soon after the Umayyads fell. Discuss: what did the Umayyad caliphs and Charlemagne both need to hold a huge realm together, such as a capital, a common language, coins and loyal governors?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.