The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 127 "The Rise and Fall of the Umayyads"

About this episode

This episode explores the rise and fall of the Umayyad Caliphate, one of the greatest empires in history.

First, let me wish you a Happy New Year and I hope you had a good break if you took time off. This episode tells the story of one of the greatest empires in history – the Umayyad Caliphate. Its territories stretched from Samarkand to the Atlantic. Like the Roman Empire, it straddled three continents – Asia, Europe and Africa. But appearances can be deceptive, and to most contemporaries the Umayyad Caliphate seemed much more fragile than it does to us today with the benefit of 1,400 years of h...

People in this episode

Host: Nick Holmes

Topics covered

• Umayyad Caliphate
• historical empires
• territorial expansion
• fragility of empires
• comparative history

Keywords

• Umayyad Caliphate
• Roman Empire
• history
• Asia
• Europe
• Africa
• territories
• empire fragility

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Umayyad Caliphate

Places: Samarkand, Atlantic, Asia, Europe, Africa

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• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 126 "Eirene: The Monstrous Empress of Byzantium?" · December 20, 2025 · 25 min
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 125 "The Forgotten Heroes of Byzantium" · December 6, 2025 · 24 min
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