ABSTRACT
Although they may have disagreed with each other on religious and political alternatives to Umayyad rule, the oppositional forces just mentioned were united in their condemnation of the Umayyads as illegitimate and oppressive “usurpers.” The fact that the rule of the Umayyads soon acquired all the trappings of an absolutist monarchical rule similar to that of Byzantine or Sasanid emperors caused further discontent among many of their Muslim subjects. In the hostile historical sources from the ‘Abbásid epoch, the Umayyad rulers were consistently referred to not as caliphs but as “kings” (mulúk; sing. málik)—a title that was supposed to stress their lack of religious legitimacy.
