The First Dynasty of Islam: The Umayyad Caliphate ad 661-750

Yazid III
The new caliph, Yazid III, occupies a rather unusual place in the list
of Umayyad rulers on account of the righteous and disinterested
attitude he is said to have had towards the caliphate. In this respect
he is rather like ‘Umar II, whom he is reported as taking as a model,
although he is not accepted by tradition as a legitimate imam to the
same extent as ‘Umar II, only being counted as such by some of the
Mu‘tazilites. In his own time one of his supporters is said to have
placed him above ‘Umar II, for the latter, notwithstanding his many
merits, was appointed in the autocratic way characteristic of the
other Umayyads, while Yazid owed his caliphate, it was claimed, to
the choice of the community. This estimate of Yazid, however, did
not become generally accepted, and the man who is credited with
expressing it was executed when Marwan II came to power.
The claim that Yazid had been chosen by the community in a
legitimate way, unlike the other Umayyads, is based on his appeals
for a 
shura
. He justified his overthrow of al-Walid II by arguing that
he had been calling for a 
shura
 but al-Walid II had used force to
resist the appeals and he, therefore, had been forced to resort to arms
to defend himself. This call for a 
shura
 is a frequent item in the
propaganda of opponents of the Umayyads, associated, for example,
with Ibn al-Zubayr and al-Harith b. Surayj, as well as with Yazid III.
What it implied is not very clear, although the word denotes some
form of consultation or taking of advice. The classic example of a

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The Third Civil War 
95
shura
 in Islamic history is connected with the murder of the caliph
‘Umar in 644. On his deathbed he is said to have allocated the
choice of his successor to a 
shura
 and named six leading Muslims to
consult together and make a choice from among themselves
accordingly. It is questionable, though, what exactly later calls for
shura
 intended.
But above all Yazid’s religious attitude to power seems to come
from his connections with the Qadariyya or Ghaylaniyya, whose
attitude to the imamate he appears to have accepted. Since, in some
respects, the Qadariyya were forerunners of the later Mu‘tazilite
theological movement, this probably accounts for the fact that the
latter accepted him as an imam. On his accession in Damascus Yazid
is credited with an introductory 
khutba
 in which he promised to
avoid various abuses of power, implicitly attributing them to his
predecessors, and concluded by stating that, if he failed to live up to
his promises, his subjects would have the right to depose him if he
did not respond to their calls to change his ways. Furthermore, if
they wished to give allegiance to someone whom they thought better
fitted for office, Yazid offered to be the first to give him allegiance
and accept his commands. One should not obey a man in opposition
to God; to God alone is complete obedience due. The connection of
this speech with the programme of the Ghaylaniyya is indicated by a
report which says that they held that the imam could be of Quraysh
or any other family, Arab or non-Arab, that he was to owe his office
only to his piety and his acceptance of the Koran and 
Sunna,
 and that
the community has a duty to struggle against an unrighteous imam.
The list of abuses which Yazid promised to avoid may give some
idea of the complaints made against the Umayyads by their
opponents. He promised to cut back in building and irrigation
works, perhaps indicating public resentment at the growth of private
estates such as those of Hisham and Khalid al-Qasri; to spend the
revenues raised from a territory only in that territory, perhaps a
reaction to provincial resentment at the drain of resources to Syria;
not to keep the soldiers away for long periods in remote areas,
something which seems to have triggered the earlier revolt of Ibn al-
Ash‘ath; not to burden the payers of 
jizya
 so heavily that they were
forced to abandon their lands and be unable to pass it on to their
heirs; to give attention to the complaints of the weak against the
strong; and to pay the stipends (of those enrolled in the 
diwan
)
regularly and equally, giving those living near at hand (the Syrians)
no preference over those further away.

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96
The Third Civil War
Apart from this proclamation in keeping with the views of the
Ghaylaniyya, Yazid’s caliphate is notable for a marked shift in
favour of the Yemen, so important in bringing him to power. He
removed Yusuf b. ‘Umar al-Thaqafi from office as governor of Iraq
and replaced him with the Kalbi leader Mansur b. Jumhur. After
vainly trying to incite the Qaysis in the Syrian garrison in Iraq to
resist the new governor, Yusuf b. ‘Umar fled but was found in hiding
in the Jordan area and then thrown into prison in Damascus. Mansur
b. Jumhur appointed his own brother as governor of Khurasan, but
Nasr b. Sayyar refused to accept his deposition from that office and,
as things turned out, was saved by the course of events. Yazid was
either dissatisfied with Mansur b. Jumhur, or changed his mind
about the appointment, for after only two months he replaced him as
governor of Iraq by a son of ‘Umar II, ‘Abd Allah b. ‘Umar. We can
only speculate about the precise reasons for this, but it may be a
further instance of the influence of the pious opposition on the new
caliph. Then, four months later, after a reign of only six months,
Yazid himself died (September 744).
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