To examine the political structure, social relations, and cultural life of the Umayyad period (661–750) as a whole; to evaluate—within their historical contexts—the transformation of the Caliphate into a dynastic rule, concepts of political legitimacy, relations between tribes and *mawali* (non-Arab Muslims), center-periphery dynamics, economic life, religious communities, and cultural developments. To enable students to compare classical historical narratives with documentary and material evidence, to explain the continuities and changes within Umayyad society, and to conduct independent, source-based research.

The establishment of Umayyad rule and the transformation of the caliphate into a dynastic regime; the Sufyanids and Marwanids; political legitimacy, the oath of allegiance (*bay'a*), and modes of representing power; internal conflicts and opposition movements; ruling families, tribal alliances, regional elites, and center-periphery relations; Arab and non-Arab communities, *mawali* (clients), enslaved people, and social hierarchies; agriculture, trade, taxation practices, and monetary reform; urban societies, daily life, and social relations; interactions with Jewish, Christian, and other communities; the various dimensions of Islamization and Arabization; intellectual circles, religious and political thought, Arabic poetry, art, and architecture; and the crises during the final phase of Umayyad rule alongside the social conditions that led to the Abbasid Revolution. The political, social, and cultural history of the period is examined through an analysis of classical Arabic sources, as well as coins, inscriptions, papyri, and architectural monuments.