Under the early Umayyad caliphs, prominent positions were held by Christians, some of whom belonged to families that had served the Byzantines. Muslims were required to pay the zakat tax, which was earmarked explicitly for various welfare programmes for the benefit of Muslims or Muslim converts. Christians, who still constituted a majority of the caliphate's population, and Jews were allowed to practice their own religion but had to pay the jizya ( poll tax) from which Muslims were exempt. The Umayyad Caliphate ruled over a vast multiethnic and multicultural population. Survivors of the dynasty established themselves in Córdoba which, in the form of an emirate and then a caliphate, became a world centre of science, medicine, philosophy and invention during the Islamic Golden Age. The dynasty was toppled by the Abbasids in 750. At its greatest extent, the Umayyad Caliphate covered 11,100,000 km 2 (4,300,000 sq mi), making it one of the largest empires in history in terms of area. The Umayyads continued the Muslim conquests, conquering Ifriqiya, Transoxiana, Sind, the Maghreb and Hispania ( al-Andalus). Syria remained the Umayyads' main power base thereafter, with Damascus as their capital. After Mu'awiya's death in 680, conflicts over the succession resulted in the Second Fitna, and power eventually fell to Marwan I, from another branch of the clan. The family established dynastic, hereditary rule with Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, long-time governor of Greater Syria, who became caliph after the end of the First Fitna in 661. 644–656), the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a member of the clan. The caliphate was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, also known as the Umayyads ( Arabic: ٱلْأُمَوِيُّون, al-ʾUmawīyūn, or بَنُو أُمَيَّة, Banū ʾUmayya, "Sons of Umayya"). The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
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