In that same year Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās dispatched Abū Hāshim Bakr ibn Māhān to the land of Khurāsān. At Marw he met with a number of the people of Khurāsān; he read to them the letter in which Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad, the Imām, addressed him and them, together with his testament. They welcomed it and sent back with him whatever funds they had at hand.

On the last day of Dhū al-Qaʿdah—though some say on the last day of Dhū al-Ḥijjah, others that ten days of Dhū al-Ḥijjah had passed, and still others that it was after the Day of Sacrifice—the Commander of the Faithful Yazīd ibn al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān died. (1)

(1) He was Yazīd ibn al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ ibn Umayyah ibn ʿAbd Shams ibn ʿAbd Manāf ibn Quṣayy, Abū Khālid al-Umawī, the Commander of the Faithful. His first oath of allegiance was taken in the village of al-Mizzah near Damascus; he then entered Damascus and secured it, after which he sent forces against his cousin al-Walīd ibn Yazīd, killed him, and seized the caliphate at the end of Jumādā al-Ākhirah of this same year. He was nicknamed al-Nāqiṣ (“the Diminisher”) because he revoked the ten-percent increase that al-Walīd ibn Yazīd had added to the stipends of the people.

It was also said that Marwān al-Ḥimār was the one who gave him this name, for he used to say, “al-Nāqiṣ, son of al-Walīd.” His mother was Shāhfarrand (2) daughter of Fayrūz ibn Yazdajird ibn Kisrā Kisrawayh.

Ibn Jarīr (3) reported that her name was Shāh Āfrīd, daughter of Fayrūz ibn Yazdajird ibn (Shīruyah ibn) (4) Shahrīyār ibn Kisrā. Yazīd himself recited:

I am Kisrā’s own descendant, yet my father is Marwān;
Caesar is my grandsire, and Khāqān my grandsire as well.

He said this because his grandfather Fayrūz—on his maternal grandmother’s side—was a son of Caesar, and the mother of Shīruyah was a daughter of Khāqān, king of the Turks. Qutaybah ibn Muslim had taken that woman and her sister captive and sent them to al-Ḥajjāj; al-Ḥajjāj forwarded this one to al-Walīd and kept the other. The woman he sent to al-Walīd bore him this Yazīd al-Nāqiṣ, while the other remained with al-Ḥajjāj in Iraq.

Yazīd was born in 90 AH, though another opinion places his birth in 96 AH. Al-Awzāʿī transmitted from him the ruling concerning salam (the prepaid sale). Earlier in our account of this year we have explained how he assumed power and noted that he was just, devout, fond of good, averse to evil, and intent on the truth.

On the day of ʿĪd al-Fiṭr of that same year he went out to the prayer ground between two ranks of cavalry, drawn swords to right and left, and he returned from the muṣallā to the Green Palace in the same formation.

He was a righteous man, and the proverb ran of him: “al-Ashajj.”