of select Ṭāʾif raisins was brought to him, and he ate it.

When he fell ill at Dābiq (1) he said to Rajāʾ ibn Ḥaywah al-Kindī, “Who will assume this charge?”

Rajāʾ replied, “Your son is away.”

“And the other one?”

“He is still a child.”

“Whom, then, do you recommend?”

“ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz.”

“I fear my brothers,” Sulaymān said.

Rajāʾ answered, “Appoint ʿUmar, and after him Yazīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik. Write a document, seal it, and summon them to pledge allegiance to the one named therein.”

“You have advised well,” he said.

He therefore drew up the covenant, assembled the guards, and commanded, “Whoever refuses to give the pledge—kill him.” It was done as he ordered, and the matter was settled.

Sulaymān was shrouded on the tenth of Ṣafar in the year 99 AH, and ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz led the funeral prayer over him.

It is reported that he lived forty years, and that his caliphate lasted two years, nine months, and twenty days—may Allah pardon him.

Within the house of Marwān there was open nasb (2) except for ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz—may Allah be pleased with him.

His brother, the prince ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Malik (3), governed the Egyptian domains after ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Marwān until he was removed by Qurrah ibn Sharīk (4) in the year 90 AH. He also commanded the campaigns against the Byzantines, founded the city of al-Maṣṣīṣah (5), and owned a residence in Damascus.

It is said that when the jurist Busr ibn Saʿīd (6) died he did not even leave a shroud, whereas this ʿAbd Allāh died in 100 AH and left behind eighty mudd of gold.