The Practice of Islamic Diplomacy in the Umayyah Dynasty

Muawiyyah's struggle in establishing a dynasty was marked by events that were not only stressful in a political atmosphere but also drained much blood from the Muslims. The effort made by Muawiyyah to uphold his power is a high-level political nuance as it is today. To gain support and the masses, he was able to propaganda against his opposition opponents, Ali Bin Abi Talib, both through war and trickery diplomacy. This paper aims to find out: What is the Muawiyyah growth and development environment?,  What is Muawiyyah's leadership as governor of Syria? , What did Muawiyyah do in the effort to reach the Caliphate?, What was the Muawiyyah policy while governing the Umayyad Daula?

This paper is a literature writing using a historical approach, which has steps; Selection of topics, Heuristics or collection of data sources. There are two data sources, namely primary and secondary sources. The data sources obtained in this paper come from personal collections and loans, both from colleagues and libraries of the State University of Malang and the library of the State Islamic University of Malang, Criticism which has two categories, namely external and internal criticism, interpretation and,  Historiography.

The results of this paper indicate that the environment of Muawiyyah growth and development, he was raised in a strict family environment of education. Therefore forming a strong personality in Muawiyyah. Before converting to Islam Muawiyyah and his family were among those who most strongly opposed the teachings of Islam and most recently converted to Islam. Even Abu Sufyan, as Muawiyyah's father, only converted to Islam when the liberation of Mecca occurred, but after Islam they were valuable assets in the subsequent development of Islam. 

Muawiyyah's leadership as governor of Syria had succeeded in bringing the country to prosperity and being able to process the Syrian people into a great force that supported his career as a ruler. Efforts made in the effort to achieve the Caliphate include; The siffin war, Diplomacy of Daumatul Janndal, which was a follow-up to the Siffin war, undertook an opposition movement which pressed against the Caliphate of Hasan. 

The policies carried out by Muawiyyah during the reign of Umayyad Daula included; The birth of the Umayyad and Muawiyyah Daula as the first caliph, at this time Muawiyyah was confronted with several events that caused instability in his territory, Muawiyyah Policy in the political field, be it domestic politics or foreign policy, Muawiyyah Policy in the socio-cultural field, which caused heterogeneity in the state both in the form of physical development and cultural development, Muawiyyah Policy in the economic field, which in a short period of time was able to fill the state treasury with abundant state revenue.

From the results of this paper, it was concluded that Muawiyyah to achieve his ambition as a caliph had experienced various events that gave rise to two perceptions namely negative and positive perceptions. Negative perceptions related to his efforts are colored by things that are contrary to Islamic teachings such as in his movement against the government of Ali Bin Abi Talib. 

The positive side is seen in the formation of a united state under its leadership, even it is able to improve the welfare of its people. Based on the results of this paper, it can be suggested that in the next article, the results of this paper can be used as material for consideration in the writings of classical Islamic history, especially about Daula Bani Umayyah. And for historians can categorize the leadership of Muawiyyah Bin Abu Sufyan into certain stereotypes. 

Bani Umayyah group from the beginning wanted the seat of the caliph can be held by them but because most of them and figures embraced the religion of Islam. After the liberation of the city of Mecca, they were prevented from quickly achieving the caliphate of the caliph. When Usman Many appointed his relatives from the Umayyads as officials and confidants. Whereas Muawiyyah bin Abi Sofyan since Umar bin Khattab was appointed Governor of the entire Sham region for 20 years since the time of Uthman this was a great opportunity for the Banu Umayyah group to win the Khalifah seat in subsequent periods.

When Ali became the Caliph, he fired regional officials appointed by Ustman and took back the lands that Ustman gave to his relatives. Thus Ali's wisdom caused dissatisfaction with the Umayyads who felt disadvantaged. Therefore, because of this, the group tried to take Ali's khalifah chair from Ali, this method was unsuccessful and finally took the path of Tahkim until Ali's power was split, while their power was brought by Muawiyah bin Abi Sofyan's leadership until Ali was killed.

After the Caliph 'Ali ibn Abi Talib died, the governor of Sham when he became a powerful ruler of Islam. His reign was a forerunner to the sovereignty of the Umayyads. Mu'awiyah bin Abi Sufyan bin Harb was the founder of the Bani Umayah who was the first Caliph. He moved the capital of Islamic power from Kufa to Damascus. The strategic efforts pursued by Mu'awiyah in order to be able to seize power and at the same time establish the Umayyad Dynasty are:

1. Formation of Military Power in Syria
During more than 20 years as governor in Syria, he saw Syria as a fertile and strong economic area, he controlled all the economic resources in the region making Mu'awiyah able to consolidate all potential and strength to be able to strengthen its position in holding power, both when he became the governor and when he began to establish the dynasty of the Umayyads.