Islam
For the Umayyad aristocracy, Islam was viewed as a religion for Arabs only; the economy of
the Umayyad empire was based on the assumption that a majority of nonMuslims (Dhimmis)
would pay taxes to the minority of Muslim Arabs. A nonArab who wanted to convert to Islam
was supposed to first become a client of an Arab tribe. Even after conversion, these new
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Muslims (mawali) did not achieve social and economic equality with the Arabs. The
descendants of Muhammad's uncle Abbas ibn Abd alMuttalib rallied discontented mawali,
poor Arabs, and some Shi'a against the Umayyads and overthrew them with the help of their
propagandist and general Abu Muslim, inaugurating the Abbasid dynasty in 750. Under the
Abbasids, Islamic civilization flourished in the "Islamic Golden Age", with its capital at the
cosmopolitan city of Baghdad.
Golden Age (7501258)
annaabi.ee 
