Mu’awiya (Rad.A) as a King Mu’awiya (Rad.A) was the first man who transferred the Caliphate to a Mulk-republican to kingship. He once said. ”I am first of the kings”. He made the Caliphate a hereditary kingship b> nominating his son Yazid in 676 A.D. to the future throne. His example of nominating the next Khalifah became a precedent and was followed by the subsequent Khalifahs of the Umayyad dynasty. This practice was equally followed by the Abbasids and by the later dynasties. Hence he may be called the founder of hereditary kingship in the history of Islam. The tribal democracy of his predecessors was gone for ever and Mu’awiya (Rad.A)’ replaced it by his personal rule and autocracy which his successors turned into the pattern of the Byzantine or Persian absolutism. Outwardly, Mu’awiya (Rad.A) observed the forms and functions of the Khalifah. Like the Pious Khalifahs he led the prayers on Friday. But unlike them, he kept himself aloof from the common Muslims. He gave up the simplicity and accessibility of the Orthodox Khalifahs. His palace was guarded by armed soldiers and when he appeared in the public, he was surrounded by his bodyguards. He regarded the public treasury as his personal property. He tackled all important problems in his personal capacity and had no connection with the Council of Elders. In this way, he did away the democratic traditions of the Republic. Thus ”the accession of Mu’awiya (Rad.A) to the throne at Damascus heralded the end of Klulafat and the beginning of Kingship’. Thus the foundation for hereditary kingship was laid by the founder of the Umayyad dynasty.
