CAUSES OF THE DECLINE The Umayyads achieved victory after victory on the battlefield and within a short span of time their empire extended from the Indus to the Atlantic. Islam is greatly indebted to them for carrying its standard of conquest to distant regions and climes. Had they enjoyed a longer period of rule and an age of political tranquility they might have surpassed the intellectual activity of their successors, the Abbasids. The enduring monument of glory the Abbasids built on the feundations laid by the Umayyads but the decline of such a glorious dynasty set in at such an early age. According to Ibn Khaldun the life of a dynastic empire is equal to that of a man. And the period of one hundred years is the biggest span that a human being is granted. The Umayyad dynasty was not an exception to this rule. Founded by Mu’awiya and consolidated by Abdul Malik and extended by al-Walid it met its end at the hands of the Abbassids. Hisham and Marwan II were the ablest rulers of this dynasty but they had to pay the penalty for the wrongs and injustices done by their predecessors
