The Caliphate of Yazid ibn ʿAbd al-Malik

He was given the bayʿah on the basis of a covenant made by his brother Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, stipulating that he should assume authority after ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. When ʿUmar died in the month of Rajab of that year—namely 101 AH—the people offered Yazid the public pledge of allegiance. He was then twenty-nine years old.

In Ramadan of the same year he removed Abū Bakr ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm from the governorship of Madinah and appointed ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Qays in his place. Rivalry and ill-feeling arose between the new governor and Abū Bakr ibn Ḥazm, until the matter reached the point where ʿAbd al-Raḥmān reopened one of Abū Bakr’s judgments and subjected him to two ḥadd punishments for it.

That year also witnessed a battle between the Kharijites—the followers of Basṭām the Kharijite—and the troops of Kufah. The Kharijites were only a small band, while the Kufan force numbered about ten thousand cavalry. The Kharijites almost routed them, but the Kufans rallied one another and crushed the Kharijites utterly, killing them to the last man so that not a single rebel remained (1).

In the same year Yazid ibn al-Muhallab rebelled against Yazid ibn ʿAbd al-Malik and seized Basra after a lengthy siege and protracted fighting. Once in control he dealt justly with its inhabitants, distributed largesse, and imprisoned its governor ʿAdiyy ibn Arṭāh, for that governor had earlier imprisoned the Muhallab clan who were in Basra when Yazid ibn al-Muhallab escaped from the prison of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, as we have mentioned (2). When Yazid took the governor’s palace he came upon ʿAdiyy ibn Arṭāh and found him laughing.

Yazid ibn al-Muhallab said, “I am amazed at your laughter! You fled the fighting as women flee, and now you have been dragged before me like a slave!” ʿAdiyy replied, “I laugh because my survival means your survival, and because there is someone behind me who will not leave me—or you—alone.”

Yazid asked, “And who is that?”

He replied, “The armies of the Umayyads in Syria. They will never spare you. Save yourself before the sea throws its waves upon you and you ask for pardon but are not pardoned.”

Yazid answered him in kind, then had him imprisoned just as he had imprisoned Yazid’s own kinsmen. Yazid’s authority over Basra was thus secured. He dispatched deputies throughout the provinces, appointed a lieutenant in Ahwāz, and sent his brother Mudrik ibn al-Muhallab to govern Khurasan with a contingent of fighters.

When full news of these events reached the Commander of the Faithful (3) Yazid ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, he sent his nephew al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik at the head of four thousand men as an advance force for his uncle Maslamah ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, who was with the Syrian army, all bound for Basra to fight Yazid ibn