Imam Abū Jaʿfar Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī ⦗1⦘ says:

The account of Yazīd ibn al-Walīd—nicknamed “al-Nāqiṣ” (the Diminished)—killing al-Walīd ibn Yazīd

We have already related something of al-Walīd ibn Yazīd: his debauchery, frivolity, open vice, what has been said about his neglect of the obligatory prayers and his disdain for matters of religion before he became caliph. Once the caliphate passed to him, he only increased in wickedness, idle amusement, and the pursuit of pleasure—constantly out hunting, drinking intoxicants, and consorting with profligates. The caliphate added nothing to what he had been before save further persistence and delusion. This weighed heavily on the governors, the commonfolk, and the army, and they came to detest him intensely. Among the gravest things he did to seal his own doom was alienating his two cousins Hishām and al-Walīd, the sons of ʿAbd al-Malik, together with estranging the Yemeni faction, the greatest contingent of the Khurāsān army.

The matter began when he killed Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Qasrī and handed him over to his enemy Yūsuf ibn ʿUmar—then governor of Iraq—who continued to torture him until he died. Because of that, the Yemenis turned against al-Walīd, disowned him, and were aggrieved at Khālid’s death, as we shall mention in Khālid’s own biography.

Ibn Jarīr also related with his chain of transmission ⦗2⦘ that al-Walīd ibn Yazīd flogged his cousin Sulaymān ibn Hishām one hundred strokes, shaved his head and beard, banished him to ʿOmān and imprisoned him there, where he remained until al-Walīd was killed. Al-Walīd also took a slave-girl who belonged to the household of his uncle al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik. ʿUmar ibn al-Walīd spoke to him about her, but he replied, “I will not return her.” ʿUmar retorted, “Then many women will be wailing around your camp.” Al-Walīd likewise imprisoned al-Afqam Yazīd ibn Hishām, and he secured the oath of allegiance for his two sons, al-Ḥakam and then ʿUthmān, though both were still minors. That, too, sat ill with the people; they offered him sincere counsel, but he would not accept it, and they forbade him, yet he refused to desist.

Al-Madāʾinī, in his version, says: All this became onerous for the people. The Banū Hāshim and the descendants of al-Walīd accused him of disbelief and zandaqa (heresy), of having relations with his father’s concubines, [of sodomy and other abominations]. They also said that he had made a hundred iron collars ⦗3⦘, on each of which was inscribed the name of a man from Banū Hāshim, intending to kill them with those collars. They branded him a zindīq, and the most outspoken among them was Yazīd ibn al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik. The people were more inclined to Yazīd’s words because he displayed devotion and humility, declaring, “It is impossible for us to remain content with al-Walīd,” until he stirred the populace to plot his murder.

They say that a number of men from Qḍaʿah, the Yemenis, many notable commanders, the house of al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, and the house of Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik volunteered to rise against him. The one who carried the whole burden of the enterprise and called the people to it was Yazīd ibn al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik—one of the nobles of the Umayyads—who was reputed for righteousness, piety, and scrupulousness. Consequently the people swore allegiance to him.