The Umayyad Palace

A large palatial complex from the Umayyad period, located on the Citadel Hill of Amman, Jordan. The Levant or As-Sham was considered the center of Umayyad power, their bureaucracy was based on the existing ones in Byzantine Syria. The Umayyad rulers discouraged the conversion of non-Arabs to Islam, since the Jizya tax paid by non-Muslims were used by the Umayyads to fuel their conquests of expansion. They mostly excluded non-Arabs in positions of power, this and their treatment of non-Arab Muslims as second class citizens led to the Abbasid revolution based in the East.