# The Caliphate: Its Rise, Decline, and Fall/Chapter 56

CHAPTER LVI
AL-WELĪD II., AND YEZĪD III.
125–126 A.H. 743–744 A.D.
125 A.H. 743 A.D.The two brief following reigns contributed nothing but disaster to the Umeiyad cause and to the Empire at large.
Accession of Welīd II.Tidings of his uncle's death were received by Al-Welīd with indecent delight. Notorious profligacy and incapacity notwithstanding, he succeeded without opposition to the throne. He made haste to send and seize the property of the late Caliph's relatives and favourites, and to treat them with every indignity, especially those of the tribe of Makhzūm, to whom Hishām was related through his mother. Hishām's son Suleimān was beaten, shaven, exiled, and cast into prison: his officials were replaced by Ḳeisites. The well-filled treasury was quickly emptied by the new Caliph's largesses to his courtiers and increased pay to the soldiery. Such free hand, and a generous provision for the blind and infirm, gained for him a certain degree of popularity. But his intemperate and dissolute life caused great scandal throughout the nation.Dissolute and profane. Besides such conventional profanities as wine, music, and hounds, his debauched habits alienated from him the regard of all the better classes. He was accused of tampering with the virtue of his predecessor's ḥarīm, and even darker vices were bruited abroad. To make matters worse, he appointed two sons of tender age his successors, and any who refused the oath of allegiance were imprisoned. The discontent rose to such a pitch, that even the Umeiyads plotted against him and encouraged Yezīd, another grandson of ʿAbd al-Melik, to seek his downfall.
Khālid Al-Ḳasri, the former governor of Al-Kūfa, having ​escaped the tyranny of Yūsuf, was now living at Damascus. Loyal to the throne, he refused to join the conspirators: and fearing that the Caliph might be waylaid on an intended pilgrimage to Mecca, dissuaded him from attempting the journey. The Caliph, angry because Khālid did not tell him more of the suspected intrigues abroad, and also declined to do homage to his sons, had him beaten and cast into prison; and he further revived against him the demand for arrears of revenue which Hishām had allowed to drop.Khāli tortured to death by Yūsuf. Yūsuf, still bent on the ruin of Khālid, now saw his opportunity, and visiting Damascus with large gifts for the Court, "bought" his victim from Al-Welīd at the price of these arrears, amounting to fifty million of pieces. The unfortunate Khālid was then carried back to Al-Kūfa, where he expired under the barbarous treatment of Yūsuf, and was buried with indignity (Nov. 743, i. 126 A.H.). Yaḥya the son of Zeid ibn ʿAlī had been put to death somewhat earlier.
Yezīd, son of Welīd I., rebels against Welīd II., vi. 126 A.H. April, 744 A.D.The treatment of Khālid kindled the indignation of the Yemeni stock from which he sprang. Kelb, amongst whom Khālid had made many friends in Damascus, were especially enraged; but ʿAbs also, though of Ḳeis, went against the Caliph. Verses taunting these with cowardice in suffering their kinsman to be thus trampled under foot, were freely circulated, and roused intense excitement against the Caliph. Al-Welīd had named his two sons by a slave-girl his successors; but his cousin Yezīd, son of Al-Welīd I., had by this time gained a large following. Al-ʿAbbās his brother, and also Merwān, commanding in Armenia, both endeavoured to dissuade him from his traitorous design, which they foresaw must hasten the downfall of their dynasty. But he persisted; and now supported by the Yemeni malcontents, who flocked around and saluted him as Caliph, he raised the standard of rebellion, and marched upon Damascus. The court and chief officers were mostly away in the country to avoid the pestilential air of the Capital, and so Yezīd easily possessed himself of the treasury. Then with its contents, having bribed the soldiery, ​he despatched a body of troops against Al-Welīd. The wretched Caliph, enjoying for the moment a retreat in the south of Syria, with but a small following for his defence, took refuge in a neighbouring fortress.Welīd II. slain. Al-ʿAbbās was on his way to support the Caliph, when he was taken by the rebels and forced to join his brother's standard. Al-Welīd at first sought to parley with his enemies, who would not listen, but covered him with reproaches for his ungodly life. He then issued forth and fought bravely, but was forced by overpowering numbers back into the fort. There he took the Ḳorʾān into his hands and began to read its pages, saying—"It is this day, as it was in the day of ʿOthmān," and so was slain. His head was carried to Yezīd, and by him paraded in the streets of Damascus. He had reigned but little more than a year.
Yezīd III., vi. 126 A.H. April, 744 A.D.Yezīd III. now ascended his ill-gotten throne. He began with many good resolutions. From the first he had serious difficulties to contend with. Owing his victory to the Yemenis especially Kelb, the Moḍar tribes were naturally his enemies, and moreover, the murdered Caliph came of their stock on the mother's side. No Ḳeisi was found about his person: his officials were of Kelb, to whom he owed his position. Though not profane, like his predecessor, he was obnoxious to the orthodox, because he denied the doctrine of predestination. The people at large, accustomed to the sacredness of the Caliph's person, were shocked at the murder and sufferings of Al-Welīd; while the army murmured at the withdrawal of the increase lately granted, which the failing treasury rendered it impossible to continue, and called him the Nāḳiṣ (Minisher). The inhabitants of Ḥimṣ, stirred by the wailing of the late Caliph's household domiciled there, plundered the house of Yezīd's brother Al-ʿAbbās, and outraged the sanctity of his ḥarīm.Fighting at the capital and in Palestine. Gaining over the troops, they then set out to attack Damascus under a great-grandson of Muʿāwiya I., thus of the Sufyānid as opposed to the Merwānid branch of Umeiyads. Yezīd on this despatched two strong columns under his brother Masrūr, and Suleimān son of Hishām, who having escaped from confinement had joined the new Caliph. These met the insurgents a few miles from the Capital, and after a severe engagement, put them to flight; upon which the oath of allegiance to Yezīd was taken both at Ḥimṣ and ​Damascus. Soon after a still more serious rising took place in Palestine, which required an army of 80,000 to put down, as well as promise of office and largess to the rebel leaders. Such were the weakness and confusion into which the body politic now had fallen.
Troubles at Kūfa.In Al-ʿIrāḳ things were not much better. Al-Kūfa was glad to be rid of the tyrant Yūsuf, who fled for his life to Syria. Arrested there in women's disguise, he was cast with contumely into prison. His successor, Manṣūr ibn Jumhūr the Kelbī, was hated as a reckless, godless man, sharing the Caliph's heretical opinions. Yezīd was therefore obliged to remove him and send in his place ʿAbdallah ibn ʿOmar, son of the pious Caliph, saying that the Kūfans would surely reverence him for his father’s sake.
Khorāsān: ʿAbbāsid canvass.While authority was thus relaxed at home, the outlying provinces had it much their own way. Khorāsān especially was in a state of unrest, and strange apprehensions were abroad of coming change. Moḥammad, the ʿAbbāsid pretender, had died the year before, aged seventy-three; and now his son Ibrāhīm, who succeeded as "Imām," sent a deputation, with tidings of his father's death, to his adherents, who formed a strong and increasing body at Merv. These kissed the testament in which Ibrāhīm was named successor, and forwarded to him large offerings, which they had gathered for his house. But as yet the canvass was concealed from public view.
Naṣr holds on there.Naṣr still held the viceroyalty there. Al-Welīd had confirmed him in his post, but, instigated by Yūsuf, had summoned him to Court with orders to bring a rich assortment of gold and silver vessels, falcons, palfreys, games, and every kind of musical instrument, and with a following of maidens also. Naṣr obeyed, but, foreseeing storms, journeyed slowly; and so, before he reached Al-ʿIrāḳ, getting tidings of Yezīd's rebellion, he returned to Merv. The new governor of Al-Kūfa sought to supersede him by a creature of his own; but Naṣr would not give way, and so succeeded in holding on. To lighten his treasury, a dangerous temptation for the rebels all around him, he distributed the vast store of precious things and slave-girls, gathered for Al-Welīd, among his own family and retainers, as well as in payment ​of the troops. The old feud of Moḍar and the Yemen was, however, continually breaking out afresh.Naṣr in the East. The Yemenis were at this time headed by the chieftain of the Azd, called (from his birthplace) Al-Kirmāni, and riots and fighting prevailed between the two clans. Naṣr, who belonged to the Moḍari faction, was hard pressed by the other. Things were composed for a time; but Naṣr had dark days before him.
Ḥārith returns to his confreres.It was at this juncture that Al-Ḥārith, who, having gone over as a pervert to the Khāḳān, had been fighting under the Turkoman banner against his fellows, returned. At the instance of Naṣr, who, surrounded by enemies, feared his hostility and that of the Turks, he was pardoned by the Caliph and allowed, after having for twelve years fought on the enemy's side, to come back and resume his position among his brethren: a singular instance of condonation of an apostate's crime. We shall hear more of him hereafter.
Merwān attacks Yezīd III.Yezīd was at last to be threatened by an enemy far more formidable than any that had hitherto appeared. This was Merwān, grandson (but illegitimate) of Merwān I., and conqueror of the Caucasus, the same who had vainly sought to dissuade him from his treason against Al-Welīd. Merwān's son, on returning from the summer campaign in Asia Minor found Mesopotamia in confusion, took possession of Ḥarrān and wrote to his father urging him to hasten and avenge the blood of Al-Welīd. Merwān, now between fifty and sixty years of age, set out for Armenia, and from Ḥarrān despatched an army against Damascus.Compromise between them. The Caliph in alarm meanwhile sent to offer terms;—he would continue Merwān as Viceroy of all the provinces which his father and he had held, including Mesopotamia, Armenia, Mosul, and Azerbījān. Merwān accepted the offer, and did allegiance to Yezīd.
Towards the close of the year Yezīd fell sick, and in anticipation of decease was persuaded by his heretic friends to appoint his brother Ibrāhīm, also an adherent of the ​free-will doctrine, as successor.Death of Yezīd III., xii 126 A.H. Sept., 744 A.D. Shortly after he died at Damascus, aged forty-six, having reigned but six months. His mother was the granddaughter. of Yezdejird, brought as a captive maid from Khorāsān.
* ↑ See above, p. 387. According to some traditions, he had his legs broken, and the rack drawn over his chest, under which he died. His mother was a captive Greek who never embraced Islām. Khālid had built a church or convent for her, which made him unpopular with strict believers.
* ↑ See table at p. 385. His father ʿAlī died seven years before.
* ↑ I remember no other instance of a Muslim joining the ranks of a Pagan enemy. On returning, Al-Ḥārith expressed his penitence, saying that during these twelve years he never had a moment's peace till he was received back into the bosom of Islām.
* ↑ Her great-grandmother was a daughter of the Kaiser, married to the Chosroes, and also descended from a daughter of one of the Khāḳāns, so that she had thus the blood of all three potentates in her veins. Yezīd used, therefore, to sing:— "I am the son of Chosroes; my father was Merwān: The Kaiser was my ancestor, and so was the Khāḳān." Cf. p. 352 n.