Mu'awiya I in the context of "Banu Kalb"

Constans II (Greek: Κώνστας, romanized: Kōnstās; 7 November 630 – 15 July 668), also called "the Bearded" (Greek: ὁ Πωγωνᾶτος, romanized: ho Pōgōnãtos), was the Byzantine emperor from 641 to 668. Constans was the last attested emperor to serve as consul, in 642, although the office continued to exist until the reign of Leo VI the Wise (r. 886–912). His religious policy saw him steering a middle line in disputes between the Orthodox and Monothelites by refusing to persecute either and prohibited discussion of the natures of Jesus Christ under the Typos of Constans in 648. His reign coincided with Arab invasions under Umar, Uthman, and Mu'awiya I in the late 640s to 660s. Constans was the first emperor to visit Rome since the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, and the last one to visit Rome while the Empire still held it.

The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (US: /uːˈmaɪæd/; Arabic: ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, romanized: al-Khilāfa al-Umawiyya) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty from 661 to 750. It succeeded the Rashidun Caliphate, of which the third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, was also a member of the clan. The Umayyad family established dynastic, hereditary rule with Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, the long-time governor of Greater Syria, who became caliph after the end of the First Fitna in 661. After Mu'awiya's death in 680, conflicts over the succession resulted in the Second Fitna, and power was eventually claimed by Marwan ibn al-Hakam, from another branch of the clan. Syria remained the Umayyads' core power base thereafter, with Damascus as their capital.

The Umayyads continued the Muslim conquests, conquering Ifriqiya, Transoxiana, Sind, the Maghreb and Hispania (al-Andalus). At its greatest extent, the Umayyad Caliphate covered 11,100,000 km (4,300,000 sq mi), making it one of the largest empires in history in terms of area. The dynasty was toppled by the Abbasids in 750. Survivors of the dynasty established themselves in Córdoba which, in the form of an emirate and then a caliphate, became a world center of science, medicine, philosophy and invention during the Islamic Golden Age.

Mu'tazilism (Arabic: المعتزلة, romanized: al-muʿtazila, singular Arabic: معتزلي, romanized: muʿtazilī) is an Islamic theological school that appeared in early Islamic history and flourished in Basra and Baghdad. Its adherents, the Mu'tazilites, were known for their neutrality in the dispute between Ali and his opponents such as Mu'awiya after the death of the third caliph, Uthman. By the 10th century the term al-muʿtazilah had come to refer to a distinctive Islamic school of speculative theology (kalām). This school of theology was founded by Wasil ibn Ata.

The later Mu'tazila school developed an Islamic type of rationalism, based around fundamental principles: the oneness (Tawhid) and justice (Al-'adl) of God, human freedom of action, and the creation of the Quran. The Mu'tazilites are best known for rejecting the doctrine of the Quran as uncreated and co-eternal with God, asserting that if the Quran is the literal word of God, he logically "must have preceded his own speech". This went against a common Sunni position (followed by the Ashʿarī and Māturīdī) which argued that with God being all-knowing, his knowledge of the Quran must have been eternal, hence uncreated just like him. The school also worked to resolve the theological "problem of evil", arguing that since God is just and wise, he cannot command what is contrary to reason or act with disregard for the welfare of His creatures; consequently evil must be regarded as something that stems from errors in human acts, arising from man's divinely bestowed free will.The Mu'tazila opposed secular rationalism, but believed that human intelligence and reason allowed Man to understand religious principles; that good and evil are rational categories that could be "established through reason".

Bilad al-Sham (Arabic: بِلَاد الشَّام, romanized: Bilād al-Shām), often referred to as Islamic Syria or simply Syria in English-language sources, was a province of the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, and Fatimid caliphates. It roughly corresponded with the Byzantine Diocese of the East, conquered by the Muslims in 634–647. Under the Umayyads (661–750), Bilad al-Sham was the metropolitan province of the Caliphate and different localities throughout the province served as the seats of the Umayyad caliphs and princes.

Bilad al-Sham was first organized into the four ajnad (military districts; singular jund) of Dimashq (Damascus), Hims (Homs), al-Urdunn (Jordan), and Filastin (Palestine), between 637 and 640 by Caliph Umar following the Muslim conquest. The jund of Qinnasrin was created out of the northern part of Hims by caliphs Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680) or Yazid I (r. 680–683). The Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) was made an independent province from the Mesopotamian part of Qinnasrin by Caliph Abd al-Malik in 692. In 786, the jund of al-Awasim and al-Thughur were established from the northern frontier region of Qinnasrin by Caliph Harun al-Rashid. As centralized Abbasid rule over Bilad al-Sham collapsed in the 10th century, control over the region was divided by several potentates and the ajnad only represented nominal divisions. The Abbasids and the Egypt-based Fatimid Caliphate continued to officially recognize the province and its ajnad until the Crusader invasions of the coastal regions in 1099.

The First Fitna (Arabic: الفتنة الكبرى) was the first civil war in the Islamic community. It led to the end of the Rashidun Caliphate and the establishment of the Umayyad Caliphate. The civil war involved three main factions; the supporters of the fourth Rashidun caliph Ali, the supporters of Uthman, primarily led by Mu'awiya and Aisha, and the Kharijites.

The roots of the first civil war can be traced back to the assassination of the second caliph, Umar. Before he died from his wounds, Umar formed a six-member council which elected Uthman as the next caliph. During the final years of Uthman's caliphate, he was accused of nepotism and killed by rebels in 656. After Uthman's assassination, Ali was elected the fourth caliph. Aisha, Talha, and Zubayr opposed Ali's accession and revolted against Ali to depose him. The two parties fought the Battle of the Camel in December 656, from which Ali emerged victorious. Afterwards, Mu'awiya, the long-time governor of the Levant, refused to recognise Ali as caliph and declared war. The two parties fought the Battle of Siffin in July 657, which ended in a stalemate and arbitration.

The Second Fitna was the second civil war in the Islamic community during the early Umayyad Caliphate. It followed the death of the first Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya I in 680, and lasted for about twelve years. The war involved the defeat of three main challenges to the authority of the Umayyad dynasty, the first by Husayn ibn Ali, as well as his supporters including Sulayman ibn Surad and Mukhtar al-Thaqafi who rallied to avenge his death in Iraq, the second by Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr who proclaimed himself caliph in Mecca and Medina and would be nominally recognized throughout most of the Caliphate, and the Kharijites who took over central Arabia and southern Iraq and Persia.

The roots of the civil war go back to the First Fitna. After the assassination of the third Rashidun caliph Uthman, the Islamic community experienced its first civil war over the immediate question of retribution for his murder. Following the assassination of the fourth Rashidun caliph Ali in 661 and the abdication of his successor Hasan the same year, Mu'awiya became the sole ruler of the caliphate. Mu'awiya's unprecedented decision to nominate his son Yazid as his heir sparked opposition, and tensions soared after Mu'awiya's death. Husayn ibn Ali was invited by the pro-Alids of Kufa to overthrow the Umayyads but was killed with his small company en route to Kufa at the Battle of Karbala in October 680. Yazid's army suppressed anti-government rebels in Medina in August 683 and subsequently besieged Mecca, where Ibn al-Zubayr had established himself in opposition to Yazid. After Yazid died in November the siege was abandoned, and Umayyad authority would soon collapse throughout the caliphate following the death of his son except in parts of Syria where Marwan I was proclaimed caliph; most provinces recognized Ibn al-Zubayr as caliph. A series of pro-Alid movements demanding to avenge Husayn's death emerged in Kufa, beginning with Ibn Surad's Penitents movement, which was crushed by the Umayyads at the Battle of Ayn al-Warda in January 685. Kufa was then taken over by Mukhtar, who rallied Husayn's supporters and the disenfranchised mawali to his cause. Though his forces routed a large Umayyad army at the Battle of Khazir in August 686, Mukhtar and his supporters were slain by the Zubayrids in April 687 following a series of battles. Under the leadership of Marwan, the Umayyads would consolidate their power over Syria and retake Egypt from the Zubayrids, and under his successor Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, the Umayyads would reconquer Iraq after defeating the Zubayrids at the Battle of Maskin in 691 and would reassert their control over the Caliphate after killing Ibn al-Zubayr in the second siege of Mecca in 692, while their general Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf would suppress the Kharijites in the years afterwards.

Marwan ibn al-Hakam ibn Abi al-As ibn Umayya (Arabic: مروان بن الحكم بن أبي العاص بن أمية, romanized: Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ ibn Umayya; 623 or 626 – April/May 685), commonly known as Marwan I, was the fourth Umayyad caliph, ruling for less than a year in 684–685. He founded the Marwanid ruling house of the Umayyad dynasty, which replaced the Sufyanid house after its collapse in the Second Fitna and remained in power until 750.

During the reign of his cousin, the third Rashidun caliph Uthman (r. 644–656), Marwan took part in a military campaign against the Byzantine Exarchate of Africa (in central North Africa), where he acquired significant war spoils. He also served as Uthman's governor in Fars (southwestern Iran) before becoming the caliph's katib (secretary or scribe). He was wounded fighting the rebel siege of Uthman's house, in which the caliph was slain. In the ensuing civil war between the fourth Rashidun caliph Ali (r. 656–661) and the largely Qurayshite partisans of Aisha, Marwan sided with the latter at the Battle of the Camel. Marwan later served as governor of Medina under his distant kinsman Caliph Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680), founder of the Umayyad Caliphate. During the reign of Mu'awiya's son and successor Yazid I (r. 680–683), Marwan organized the defense of the Umayyad realm in the Hejaz (western Arabia) against the local opposition which included prominent companions as well as Muhammad’s own clan, the Bani Hashim, who revolted under the banner of Muhammad’s grandson, Husayn ibn Ali. After Yazid died in November 683, the Mecca-based rebel and sahabi Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr declared himself caliph and expelled Marwan, who took refuge in Syria, the center of Umayyad rule. With the death of the last Sufyanid caliph Mu'awiya II in 684, Marwan, encouraged by the ex-governor of Iraq Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad, volunteered his candidacy for the caliphate during a summit of pro-Umayyad tribes in Jabiya. The tribal nobility, led by Ibn Bahdal of the Banu Kalb, elected Marwan and together they defeated the pro-Zubayrid Qays tribes at the Battle of Marj Rahit in August of that year.

Al-Marwani (Arabic: ُٱلْمَرْوَنِي, romanized: al-Marwānī) or Banu Marwan (Arabic: بَنِوُ مَرْوَانَ, lit. 'Sons of Marwan'), also referred to as the Marwanids (Arabic: ٱلْمَرْوَنِيُون, romanized: al-Marwāniyūn), is a prominent Arab clan belonging to the Banu Umayya branch of the Quraysh tribe. They are the descendants of Marwan ibn al-Hakam, fourth Umayyad caliph and paternal first cousin of the Rashidun caliph Uthman ibn Affan. Their roots lie in the holy city of Mecca in the Hejaz, the ancestral homeland of the Quraysh tribe, while their historical establishment was in Damascus, Syria. They are considered first cousins of the Banu Hashim, the clan of the Prophet Muhammad, since Umayya ibn Abd Shams ibn Abd Manaf was the paternal nephew of Hashim ibn Abd Manaf. They are also cousins of the Banu Shayba clan of Quraysh, the hereditary custodians of the Kaaba, through Marwan's maternal grandmother al-Sa'ba bint Abi Talha Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Uzza al-Abdariyya, the paternal aunt of Uthman ibn Talha ibn Abd Allah al-Abdari upon whom the Prophet Muhammad entrusted the guardianship of the keys of the Kaaba after the Conquest of Mecca.

The clan arrived in Damascus in the second half of the 7th century CE when Marwan I, the family's progenitor, moved from the Hejaz to Syria. His accession at the tribal conclave of Marj Rahit (684) marked the transfer of the caliphate within the Banu Umayya clan from the family of Abu Sufyan to his family. The family constitutes one of the two principal cadet branches of the Umayyad dynasty, the other being the Sufyanids, descended from Muʿawiya I ibn Abi Sufyan. At their height, the Marwanis represented the dominant branch of the Umayyad family, producing most of its ruling members and remaining the most numerous line of Umayyad descendants in later generations. The family supplied caliphs, princes, governors and commanders in the 7th–11th centuries and continued as a recognizable lineage in the central Islamic lands and in al-Andalus after 750.

Kairouan (UK: /ˌkaɪər(ʊ)ˈwɑːn/, US: /kɛərˈ-/), also spelled El Qayrawān or Kairwan (Arabic: ٱلْقَيْرَوَان, romanized: al-Qayrawān [æl qɑjrɑˈwæːn] , Tunisian Arabic: Qeirwān [qɪrˈwɛːn] ), is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city was founded by the Umayyads around 670, in the period of Caliph Mu'awiya (reigned 661–680); this is when it became an important centre for Sunni Islamic scholarship and Quranic learning, attracting Muslims from various parts of the world. The Mosque of Uqba is situated in the city.