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particular the descendants of al-Walid I, the eldest son of ‘Abd al-
Malik, were probably also incensed by al-Walid II’s attempt to
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secure the succession in his own line when he appointed his own two
sons as successors even though they were both minors.
Secondly, there seems to have been a religiously based opposition
in the form of the Qadariyya or Ghaylaniyya, to some extent
overlapping designations. The term Qadari has come to be used most
commonly of those Muslims who supported the idea of human free
will and responsibility for action in contrast to the more widespread
view within Islam which stresses God’s omnipotence and
knowledge and therefore His predestination of events. It has been
suggested that this essentially theological question had political
overtones in that support for divine predestination might lead to
quietistic acceptance of the political status quo, thus favouring the
Umayyads, while support for human free will could imply the right
of subjects to oppose rulers regarded as illegitimate. Consideration
of the political activism associated with predestinarian doctrines in
Reformation Europe does not inspire much confidence in this
argument. This is why, it has been suggested, the caliph Hisham had
taken measures against the Qadariyya and exiled their leaders to the
Red Sea island of Dahlak. It also has to be said that beyond the use
of the name Qadariyya we have little specific information about the
controversy over free will and predestination in the time of Hisham,
and in any case the sources are rather inconsistent in their use of the
name, sometimes referring instead to the Ghaylaniyya. This name is
associated with a certain Ghaylan al-Dimashqi, the Ghaylaniyya
being his disciples. Ghaylan had served in the administration under
‘Umar II but had later fallen foul of Hisham and was executed. He is
sometimes called a Qadari but we know little or nothing about his
beliefs and what information we have about the Ghaylaniyya points
to views about the imamate rather than the free will
versus
predestination issue as such. It has also been suggested that the
Ghaylaniyya supported those who wished to give the
mawali
equality with Arab Muslims and that Ghaylan’s execution may have
been connected with the contemporary rising in Transoxania of al-
Harith b. Surayj, whose ideas and propaganda have something in
common with those of the Ghaylaniyya. Individuals named in the
sources as Ghaylanis or Qadaris seem to be
mawali
rather than
Arabs. In any case al-Walid II is reported to have continued the
policies of Hisham against the Qadariyya or Ghaylaniyya and
consequently this group played an important part in the movement
to overthrow the caliph.
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93
Finally the movement against al-Walid had a predominantly
‘southern’ (Kalbi and Yemeni) complexion, although there were
Kalbis who continued to support the caliph while some ‘northerners’
(Qaysis and Mudaris) joined the opposition. In part the Yemeni
opposition seems to stem from the background of al-Walid II. As the
son of Yazid II, who had destroyed Ibn al-Muhallab, and with family
connections with al-Hajjaj, al-Walid would have naturally aroused
the suspicions of the Yemenis, and these suspicions would have
seemed to be justified when he confirmed as governor of Iraq the
Qaysi Yusuf b. ‘Umar al-Thaqafi, who had supplanted the Yemeni
candidate Khalid al-Qasri. Furthermore, apparently faced with an
urgent need for cash, the caliph now delivered Khalid al-Qasri, who
had been living in Damascus since his removal from office as
governor of Iraq, to Yusuf b. ‘Umar so that the latter could begin
again the torture by means of which he was attempting to extract
from Khalid the profits of his time as governor. This time Khalid
died under the torture. The plot against al-Walid appears to have
begun even before Khalid was handed over to Yusuf b. ‘Umar, but
this event intensified the Kalbi and Yemeni hostility to the caliph
and, naturally, the sons and family of Khalid were also prominent in
the opposition. Among the leading Kalbis named as supporters of
the plot one of the most prominent is Mansur b. Jumhur al-Kalbi.
The opposition candidate was a son of al-Walid I, Yazid, who was
to become Yazid III. Probably in April 744, after he had ridden into
Damascus on an ass, possibly thereby hinting at a messianic status,
his supporters were able to seize the town from the officials of al-
Walid II, the caliph himself being resident elsewhere. Kalbi
supporters from the surrounding districts, including a large number
from the settlement of al-Mizza, known for its adherence to
Qadarism or Ghaylanism, then flocked into the town. Yazid was now
proclaimed as caliph and he received the
bay‘a
. Al-Walid II, after
some hesitation, fled from his desert residence and took refuge at the
fortified palace at al-Bakhra’ a few miles south of Palmyra, where
he was joined by some Kalbis from Palmyra and Qaysis from Hims.
Yazid sent a force against him there under the command of his
cousin ‘Abd al-‘Aziz b. al-Hajjaj b. ‘Abd al-Malik. Lacking funds,
al-Walid could not hold his relatively small force together and the
Kalbis from Palmyra did not want to fight their relatives from the
south. In the succeeding fight his men deserted in large numbers and
he himself took refuge in an inside room of the fort. There the
attackers found and killed him, allegedly while he was reading the
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Koran like his ancestor ‘Uthman when his house was attacked and
he was killed, although this detail does not fit in with the anti-
Islamic attitude which is ascribed to al-Walid II elsewhere. The head
of the murdered caliph was sent to Yazid in Damascus for display
while a piece of his skin was sent as a token of revenge to the family
of Khalid al-Qasri. All this was in the same month in which Yazid
had seized Damascus.
A rising of the Arabs of Hims, who had been supporters of the
murdered caliph, was suppressed when a force marching on
Damascus with the aim of installing as caliph a descendant of the
Sufyanids, Abu Muhammad al-Sufyani, was defeated by Sulayman
b. Hisham. Abu Muhammad was then imprisoned in Damascus along
with the two sons of al-Walid II who had been designated heirs
apparent by their father.
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