Source: Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization.
The Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization in Sharjah, the UAE, will be hosting an exhibition on early capitals of Islamic culture from 14 October 2014 to 17 January 2015.
Early Capitals of Islamic Culture: The Artistic legacy of Umayyad Damascus and Abbasid Baghdad (650 – 950) will feature objects from the dawn of Islam, charting the transition from pre-Islamic to Islamic cultures which took place under the Umayyad caliphs in Damascus, Syria, and the early Abbasid caliphs in the Iraqi cities of Baghdad and Samarra.
At its height, the Umayyad Caliphate, the second of four caliphates to rule the Islamic world after the death of the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ), was the largest empire in the world. While the Umayyad family came to power before that, the Umayyad regime was founded in 661 by Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, a governor of Syria. Syria was the Umayyads' power base, with Damascus as the capital.
The Umayyads fell to the Abbasids in 750. The Abbasid Caliphate ruled in various cities, but for the longest time in Baghdad. Samarra was its capital from 836 to 892.