Yazid II

Yazid, whose mother Maysun was Christian, lightens the taxation of some Christian groups and abolishes the tax concessions granted to the Samaritans as a reward for aid they had rendered in the days of the early Arab conquests.

He energetically tries to continue the policies of Mu'awiyah and keeps many of the men who had been in his father's service.

He reforms the financial system, strengthens the administrative structure of the empire, and improves the military defenses of Syria.

Concerning himself with agricultural matters, he improves the irrigation system of the Damascus oasis.

Yazid had been succeeded by his son, Muawiya II, but he dies in early 684 later without ever having enjoyed any real authority outside the Sufyan family's traditional stronghold of Syria.

His death provokes a crisis, since his other brothers are too young to succeed.

As a result, Umayyad authority collapses across the Caliphate and Ibn al-Zubayr is accepted by most of the Muslims as their new leader: the Umayyad governor of Iraq, Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad, is evicted from the province, coins in Ibn al-Zubayr's name are minted in Persia, and the Banu Qays of northern Syria and the Jazira go over to his cause.

Even some members of the Umayyad family consider going to Mecca and declaring their allegiance to him; in contrast, the local tribes of central and southern Syria, led by the Banu Kalb under Ibn Bahdal and Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyan, uphold the Umayyad cause.

At their initiative, a shura of the loyal tribes is held at Jabiya, where Marwan ibn al-Hakam, a cousin of Mu'awiya I who had served under the Caliph Uthman ibn Affan (r. 644–656) but had played no role in Mu'awiya's Umayyad regime, is elected as the Umayyads' caliphal candidate.

Marwan's election provokes the reaction of the Qays, who rally around the governor of Damascus, al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri.

After vacillating between the two candidates, al-Dahhak is persuaded to recognize Ibn al-Zubayr, and begins assembling his forces on the field of Marj al-Suffar near Damascus.

In response, the Umayyad coalition marches on Damascus, which is surrendered to the Umayyads by a member of the Ghassanid tribe.

The two armies first clash in mid-July 684 at the plain of Marj al-Suffar, and the Qays are pushed towards Marj Rahit.

Twenty days of skirmishing between the two camps follow, until the final battle takes place on August 18.

The numbers of the two opponents are uncertain: al-Tabari puts Marwan's forces at six thousand, another tradition at thirteen thousand and thirty thousand for Marwan and al-Dahhak respectively, while Ibn Khayyat inflates the numbers to thirty thousand and sixty thousand respectively.

The traditions agree, however, that the Umayyad forces are considerably outnumbered.

Marwan's commanders are Abbas ibn Ziyad, Amr ibn Sa'id al-As and Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad (another tradition has Ubayd Allah commanding the cavalry and Malik ibn Hubayra al-Skauni the infantry), while only one of al-Dahhak's commanders, Ziyad ibn Amr ibn Mu'awiya al-Uqayli, is known.

A plethora of anecdotes, individual accounts and poems on the battle survives, but the details of the battle itself are not clear, except that the day resulted in a crushing Umayyad victory: the main leaders of the Qays, including al-Dahhak, fell in the field.

N. Elisséeff explains the Umayyad success by the possible defection of Qays-aligned tribes during the preceding weeks, eager to uphold the Syrian hegemony over the Caliphate.

In addition, Elisséeff points out that the Umayyads still controlled the state treasury in Damascus, allowing them to bribe tribes to join them.

The remnants of the Qays army flee to Qarqisiya under Zufar ibn Harith al-Kilabi, and Marwan is officially proclaimed as Caliph at Damascus.

The victory at Marj Rahit secures the Umayyads' position in Syria, and allows them to go into the offensive against Ibn al-Zubayr's supporters.

Egypt is recovered later in the year.

Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan has pursued an extensive and successful policy of Arabization of the administration of the Umayyad empire, making Arabic the official state language.

The financial administration of the empire has been reorganized, with Arabs replacing Persian and Greek officials; and a new Arabic coinage has replaced the former imitations of Eastern Roman and Sassanian coins.

Communications have also improved with the introduction of a regular post service from Damascus to the provincial capitals, and architecture flourishes.

Shortly before 'Abd al-Malik's death, the question of succession becomes acute.

His brother, 'Abd al-'Aziz, governor of Egypt, had been designated by their father to succeed 'Abd al-Malik.

Against the advice of his courtiers, 'Abd al-Malik has begun to take steps to exclude his brother from succession in favor of his own children.

He has tried to pressure 'Abd al-'Aziz to renounce his claims but without success.

Luckily for 'Abd al-Malik, 'Abd al-'Aziz dies in May 705, leaving 'Abd al-Malik free to name three of his own children to succeed him, al-Walid, Sulayman, and Yazid.

'Abd al-Malik dies in Damascus shortly thereafter and is succeeded without difficulty by his eldest son, al-Walid.

Under 'Abd al-Malik and his sons, the Umayyad caliphate will reach its peak.

Yazid ibn al-Muhallab, the former governor of Iraq, leads a rebellion against Caliph Umar in 719-720.

Defeated by the Caliph's forces under Al-Abbas ibn al-Walid and Maslamaibn Abd al-Malik, Al-Muhallab is killed at Basra, the center of his revolt.

Basra remains a focus of the political strife that has arisen between the competing religious factions in Islam, a political friction intensified by a volatile social situation.

Whereas the Arab army constitutes an aristocracy in Basra, the local and various migrant peoples who have settled there (Indians, Persians, Africans, Malays) are merely mawali, or clients attached to Arab tribes.

A Syrian Jew in Babylonia promises in 720 to recapture Palestine for the Jews, and urges that the Talmud be abolished.

Caliph Yazid II 'Umar's successor, arrests this “Messiah” and hands him over to the Jews in Pumbedita for punishment.

Gaon Natronai ben Nehemia urges the Jewish community to readmit their straying brethren into the fold and, though initially reluctant, eventually so do.

Umayyad decline had begun with the disastrous defeat of the Syrian army by Constantinople’s forces in 717.

The Muslims’ failure to capture Constantinople and the feeling in Islam that the end of the world is imminent, leads to a religious revival.

Upon the ascension of the pious and respected Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz to the caliphate in 717 as Umar II, the new caliph, in an usual departure from prevailing Umayyad nationalist policies, had attempted to respond to the growing frustrations and anger of the non-Arab Muslims, or mawali, connected by patronage with Arabs, by promulgating reforms meant to provide equality to all Muslims, without respect of nationality, in regard to taxation.

On the heels of what had been a period of respite for non-Muslims during the Umayyad dynasty, Umar has done his best to force Jews and Christians to convert to Islam.

The caliph's fiscal reforms have led to financial crisis.

At the same time, the recrudescence of feuds between southern (Kalb) and northern (Qays) Arab tribes has seriously reduced military power.

Though Umar does not place as much an emphasis on expanding the Empire's borders as his predecessors had, he is not passive: his armies successfully repel an attack from the people of Azerbaijan, and he has put down a number of Kharijite uprisings.

His reforms in favor of the people have greatly angered the nobility of the Umayyads, and they eventually bribe a servant into poisoning his food.

Umar learns of this on his death bed and pardons the culprit, collecting the punitive payments he is entitled to under Islamic Law but depositing them in the public treasury.

He dies in 720 in Aleppo and is succeeded by his cousin Yazid II, who abandons Umar’s reforms.

Mazandaran in northern Iran, bordering the Caspian Sea on the north, is overrun in about 720 by the Arab general Yazid ibn Muhallab; it is the last part of Iran to be converted to Islam.

The reign of Caliph Yazid II has been heavily fraught with internal and external conflicts.

Numerous civil wars have begun to break out in different parts of the empire such as Spain, Africa and in the east.

He is also known for destroying large amounts of Christian icons in Muslim-controlled areas with Christians as majorities.

This heavy handed response by the Umayyad ruler has not helped matters, and anti-Umayyad groups begin to gain power among the disaffected.

Yazid dies in 724 of tuberculosis and is succeeded by his brother Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik.