What does Caliphate mean? Enumerate its salient features. (2000) How does Islam regard humanity? What is the concept of “Khalafat” in Islam? (2001) Difference between Rashidun Caliphate and Umayyad dynasty.

 

1. Firstly the difference was constitutional. The Orthodox Caliphate was an elective republican state. The Umayyad Caliphate, on the contrary, became a hereditary monarch.

2. Secondly, the Orthodox Caliphate was a religio-political Commonwealth. But Umayyad Caliphate was a secular state, such as could exist in the ancient times. Many of the Umayyad caliphs were not particularly loyal to the Political implication and private lives.

3. Thirdly, though Arabian in origin and personnel, Orthodox Caliphate was not Arabistic in policy and purpose. The Umayyad Caliphate, on the contrary, was as Wellhausen says an Arab Kingdom, that is, a government of the Arabs by the Arabs and for the Arabs. The Arabs formed its ruling class and monopolised its political power and economic privileges. The non-Arabs, even though they be Muslims were excluded from a Share in its government and its political, economic and social benefits. In other words while the Arabs were its first-class citizens, the non-Arab Muslims were its second-class citizens, while the Dihimmis or the non-Muslims were mere subjects.


4. Fourthly, during the Orthodox Caliphate, the rivalry and antagonism among the Arab tribes was practically extinct, while the later Umayyad period was dominated by the growing rivalry and antagonism of the Arab tribes of the type of the pre-Islamic Jahiliya period, which ultimately became an important cause of the downfall of the Umayyad dynasty.

5. Lastly, the Umayyad Caliphate brought about many new development in Islamic polity, society, economic life and culture. In this respect, it was a period of laying the foundation of Islamic civilisation and culture of the Middle Ages. It was on such foundations that leader and the people of the Abbaside Caliphate later built the great edifice of Medieval Islam. This was the historical significance of the Umayyad period in the history of Islam and the world.
In short, Umayyad Caliphate was the beginning of the Medieval Islam and of the Islamic form of feudalism. 

Arabism = Arab Identity.
Islamism = Culture of Islam.
Tribalism = Strong loyalty with one tribe.
Feudalism = people of lords work for money or protection.


Sources :
SIr Nofil Safwan for drafting and compiling the question