Abstract
The complex and enduring movement known as Islam can be likened to a tree. Germinated in Makkah by Muhammad, Islam was transplanted to al-Madmah and took root there. Islam then spread throughout the Middle East. The Umayyad caliphs of Damascus succeeded the four orthodox caliphs of Madlnah. One of the flowers of the Umayyad branch was the assimilation of Hellenistic learning into Islam. The Umayyads also pushed the boundaries of Islam into Asia, India and North Africa. | It was under the Umayyads that al-Andalus was invaded and conquered. The Umayyad branch was then broken in 750 by the 'Abbasids. The subsequent flight of the Umayyad 'Abd al-Rahman I led him to Spain, the last strong-hold of his family. It was in Spain that the Umayyad branch of Islam survived and began to prosper as the independent amirate of Cordoba. In short, the Umayyads attempted to perpetuate Damascus in the form of Cordoba. In 929, a western caliphate was declared at Cordoba by 'Aba al-Rahman III. But the Cordoban caliphate was doomed to failure; a branch cannot become the tree to which it belongs.