Episode 38: The third fitna

Yazid III’s successful coup against Walid II blew up the tribal feud. Syrian unity had long undergirded Umayyad power in Syria and from there, the entire caliphate; it had now been torn asunder in bloody warfare. Even when the clan finally had someone strong enough to make a play at stabilizing the situation, the caliphate was far too weak, a mere shadow of its former self, its armies comprised entirely of men animated by tribal loyalties.

Glossary

• Yazid ibn Walid ibn Abdulmalik: Yazid III was one of the most short-lived Umayyads to have reigned. I’d say that made him ineffectual, but his coup really opened Pandora’s box, and the third fitna was almost a direct result of his unbridled ambition.
• Ibrahim ibn Walid ibn Abdulmalik: Yazid III’s brother, reigned for even less than he had. He became caliph, ran away from Marwan II then submitted to him, all in less than a year.
• Abdulaziz ibn il Hajaj ibn Abdulmalik: one of Yazid III’s co-conspirators, he played a big part in the coup and the losing fight against Marwan II.
• Mansur ibn Jumhur il Kalbi: the Qahtani partisan continued to champion Yazid III. He was first made governor of Iraq, but replaced before he could take up the post as the Iraqis resented being ruled by a Syrian and the caliph couldn’t afford any resistance. He was given Khurasan instead, but its governor since Hisham’s days, Nasr ibn Sayyar, successfully rebuffed him and kept the province to himself. Ultimately he ran away to Sindh and used his family name to rule there for a while.
• Yazid ibn Khalid il Qasri: the son of Khalid who avenged his father by killing Yusuf, the man who had tortured him to death. Another implacable ally of Yazid III who was ultimately defeated by Marwan II.
• Suleiman ibn Hisham ibn Abdulmalik: Hisham’s son naturally championed Yazid III’s coup against the hated Walid II, and so he resisted when Marwan initially rode in to supposedly reinstall Walid’s children as caliphs. After submitting to Marwan II, he was tempted into rebellion once again by his Syrian loyalists, who promised to help him crush Marwan and retake his father’s legacy.
• Marwan ibn Mohammad ibn Marwan: Marwan II was the most soldierly Umayyad there ever was. His lifetime of military service and strong Adnani ties enabled him to beat everyone into submission, but that type of victory left his forces quite depleted. Many argue that he was never a true caliph as he never ruled the entire caliphate, and the same claim is levied against his two predecessors, Ibrahim and Yazid III. It’s an open question, did Marwan II ever end the fitna?
• Al Dahhak: the kharijite who ruled Iraq. The fact that he was pledged to as caliph there shows just how unruly the province was, and how little Umayyad authority counted for after the ruinous tenure of Yusuf il Thaqafi. Kharijite thought was popular in pretty much all the remote provinces: the Arabian desert, the Maghreb, and Iraq; but it succeeded to this extent only in the abused province of Iraq.