and the younger ʿAbd Allāh—[and ʿUmar](1)—together with Abū Bakr, ʿUtbah, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, al-Rabīʿ, and Muḥammad, each by a different concubine(2). [To these may be added Yazīd, Ḥarb, ʿUmar, and ʿUthmān, bringing the total to fifteen sons. He also had five daughters: ʿĀtikah, Ramlah, Umm ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Umm Yazīd, and Umm Muḥammad. All of them died without leaving descendants, so no line issued from Yazīd; Allah, exalted is He, knows best](3).

The reign of Muʿāwiyah ibn Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah(4)—Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, though he is also called Abū Yazīd and Abū Laylā(5)—the Umayyad Qurashī.

His mother was Umm Hāshim bint Abī Hāshim ibn ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah.

The community pledged allegiance to him after his father’s death—he had been named heir apparent—on the fourteenth of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, 64 AH. He was a righteous, devout man, but his tenure was brief. Some say it lasted forty days; others, twenty; others, two months; others, a month and a half; others, three months and twenty days; and still others, four months. Allah knows best.

Throughout his rule he was ill and did not appear before the people; al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Qays led them in prayer and managed affairs.

Muʿāwiyah ibn Yazīd then died at the age of twenty-one—and some say twenty-three—years and eighteen days; others report nineteen, twenty, or twenty-three; some say he lived only eighteen years; others, fifteen. Allah knows best. His funeral prayer was led by his brother Khālid; some say ʿUthmān ibn ʿAnbasah; others, al-Walīd ibn ʿUtbah—and this is the sound view, for he had designated him. Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam attended the burial. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Qays continued to lead the people in prayer afterward until authority in Syria settled upon Marwān. He was buried in the Bāb al-Ṣaghīr cemetery in Damascus.

When death approached him he was asked, “Will you not make a bequest?” He replied, “I will not take upon myself its bitterness for my Hereafter while leaving its sweetness to the Banū Umayyah.”