The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2564 page)

 
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(Arab.,
al-dawlah al-Umawiyyah
). The first hereditary dynasty of caliphs (
khal
fa
) in Sunni Islam. The founder of the dynasty was
Mu‘
wiyya
, the son of
Abu Sufy
n
, of the Umayyah (hence the name) clan of the Quraysh of
Mecca
. Under the Umayyads, the Muslim Empire increased at a rapid rate, stretching by 732 from the Atlantic and the borders between Spain and France in the West, to the borders of China and India in the East—in that year Charles Martel halted the Arab advance at Poitiers and Tours. In Spain, the foundations were laid for a great flourishing of trade, crafts, architecture, and learning—the final expulsion of the Muslims did not take place until the 17th cent. But elsewhere the Umayyads ruled more severely and autocratically. The last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II, ‘the wild ass of Mesopotamia’, was beheaded in Egypt in 750 (AH 132). The ‘Abb
sids succeeded, although an Umayyad dynasty continued in Spain, known as the Western Caliphate.

 
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Umbanda
.

A Brazilian cult which, because of its syncretizing tendencies, has also become a general term for all forms of a new eclectic and
syncretist religious
complex in urban Brazil. The spiritual world is composed of many spirit powers drawn from sources such as the following:

(i) 
caboclos
, spirits of great Amerindian leaders or of spiritualized natural forces;
(ii) 
pretos velhos
, spirits of the old or wise among Negro slaves,
(iii) 
crianças
, spirits of children who died young;
(iv) 
orixas
, spirits of African ancestors or deities, especially Yoruba;
(v) spirits of Jesus, the Virgin
Mary
, or the saints of Portuguese folk Catholicism, often equated with the previous group; and
(vi) other spirits and occult powers as understood in the sophisticated French spiritualism articulated by Alan Kardec (1804–69), which attracts the higher social classes

.

 
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’Umma
(Arab., pl.
umam
)
.

People, community, a powerful and sometimes visionary concept in Islam. The word has various uses in the
Qur’
n,
but it is used especially in contrast to the social divisions of humanity. While the Qur’
n required Mu
ammad to establish an Arab ‘umma out of the disunited tribes, it also envisaged the creation of a single ‘umma transcending the continuing divisions in the world. The first implementation of this in practice can be seen in the Constitution of
Mad
na
.