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

Marwan II
Yazid had appointed, apparently at the prompting of the
Ghaylaniyya, his own brother Ibrahim as his successor. He,
however, seems to have received only limited acceptance and was
faced with a revolt from the north led by a grandson of the first
Marwan, Marwan b. Muhammad who was to become the last
Umayyad ruler in Syria as Marwan II. Aged now between 50 and 60,
Marwan had become powerful and experienced as governor of the
northern frontier region of Mesopotamia where he had led the
fighting against the Byzantines and Khazars. In the course of these
wars he is credited with devising new military tactics and formations
which departed from those employed by the earlier Arab armies. In
tradition Marwan is sometimes called Marwan al-Him
a
r (‘the Ass’)
or Marwan al-Ja’d
i
, both names for which a variety of sometimes
not very convincing explanations are given.
6
Already at the time of the murder of al-Walid II, Marwan seems
to have considered a putsch. At that time he began to move south
with his largely Qaysi army of the frontier, but had been forced to
hold his hand by a mutiny of Kalbis whom he had left behind on the
Caucasus frontier. He then seems to have accepted appointment as

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The Third Civil War 
97
governor of Mesopotamia by Yazid III, taking up residence in the
Qaysi centre of Harran and allowing the Kalbis who had caused him
trouble to leave his army and return to southern Syria. With the
death of Yazid, Marwan refused to accept Ibrahim as the next caliph
and again marched south into Syria, winning support from the
Qaysis of Qinnasrin and Hims. The leader of the Qinnasrin
contingent was Yazid, a son of the earlier governor of Iraq and
symbol of Qaysi suppression of the Muhallabids there, ‘Umar b.
Hubayra.
Opposition to Marwan’s plans came from Sulayman b. Hisham,
who had himself taken part in the wars on the Mesopotamian
frontier and had built up a large private army of 
mawali,
 known,
after its commander, as the Dhakwaniyya. Also supporting
Sulayman were the Kalb of southern Syria. The two forces met at a
point on the road from Damascus to Baalbek and Marwan was
victorious. Sulayman’s forces split up and he himself fled back to
Damascus.
At this stage Marwan does not appear to have been claiming the
caliphate himself, merely coming forth as the legitimist champion of
the rights of the two sons of al-Walid II. These were still imprisoned
in Damascus in the hands of Marwan’s opponents and, whether or
not it was the intended result, Marwan’s insistence that the captives
from Sulayman’s defeated army should give allegiance to these two
sons of al-Walid II led to Sulayman having them killed upon his
return to Damascus. The killing is attributed to Yazid b. Khalid al-
Qasri. Also killed at this time was Yusuf b. ‘Umar al-Thaqafi, while
Abu Muhammad al-Sufyani escaped and went into hiding.
Thereupon Sulayman abandoned Damascus and fled, together with
Ibrahim the designated successor of Yazid III, to the Kalbi centre of
Palmyra.
Marwan entered Damascus and had the 
bay‘a
 given to himself in
December 744.
7
 On the whole, apart from the battle with Sulayman
b. Hisham, his takeover of power had so far been relatively peaceful,
and the occupation of Damascus seems not to have had bloody
repercussions for leading supporters of the previous regime,
although some reprisals were taken against lesser figures, and anti-
Qadari policies were again pursued. The generally peaceful
intentions of Marwan were further displayed in his decision to allow
the