Episode 18: Mu’awiya bin Abi Sufyan

It is one of the sharper ironies of Islamic history that the clan which had led the resistance to the young religion went on to found its first dynasty. Umayyad influence swelled under the third caliph, but Mu’awiya was the one to formalize it as the foundation of a dynasty. The first few years of his reign were dedicated to securing his grip on the umma, and he embedded his clan and loyalists in a way that transformed the caliphate.