Marwan I
There were recurrences of the plague in Syria–Palestine about every decade between 688/89 and 744/45. "The Umaiyad "[sic]" dynasty was literally plagued by this disease", in the words of Dols. The deaths of the Umayyad caliphs Mu'awiya II (), Marwan I (), Abd al-Malik (), Sulayman () and the Umayyad governors in Iraq al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba () and Ziyad ibn Abihi () may all possibly have been caused by the plague epidemics in Syria and Iraq. The caliphs routinely withdrew from the cities to their desert palaces when the plague emerged during the summer months. Notable among them was Caliph Hisham (), who preferred his palace at Rusafa over Damascus because he viewed the latter to be unhealthy.