and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Qāsim, the mentor of Imām Mālik; ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Abī Yazīd (1); and ʿAmr ibn Dīnār (2). Their biographies are given in our book al-Takmīl.

[Then the year 127 AH began]

The new year dawned with Ibrāhīm ibn al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik in possession of the caliphate, by virtue of the testament made in his favour by his brother Yazīd al-Nāqiṣ and the pledge of allegiance offered to him by the military commanders and by all the people of Syria—save the inhabitants of Ḥimṣ, who refused to acknowledge him.

We have already noted that Marwān ibn Muḥammad, nicknamed al-Ḥimār, was governor of Adharbayjān and Armenia, posts that had belonged to his father before him. He bore a grudge against Yazīd ibn al-Walīd for having slain al-Walīd ibn Yazīd, and he set out to avenge al-Walīd’s blood. When he reached Ḥarrān he repented of his earlier opposition and swore allegiance to Yazīd ibn al-Walīd, but only a short time passed before news of Yazīd’s death reached him.

He then advanced with the men of al-Jazīrah until he arrived at Qinṣarīn, whose inhabitants he besieged until they submitted to his authority. Next he moved on to Ḥimṣ, which was under the governorship of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn al-Ḥajjāj, representing the Commander of the Faithful Ibrāhīm ibn al-Walīd. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz laid siege to the city in an attempt to force its people to pledge allegiance to Ibrāhīm, but they persisted in their refusal. When word reached him that Marwān ibn Muḥammad was drawing near, he withdrew. Marwān entered the city, received the people’s allegiance, and marched with them toward Damascus, accompanied by the troops of al-Jazīrah and of Qinṣarīn.

Marwān advanced on Damascus with eighty thousand men, while Ibrāhīm ibn al-Walīd had dispatched Sulaymān (3) ibn Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik at the head of one hundred and twenty thousand. The two armies met at ʿAyn al-Jarr (4) in the Biqāʿ Valley. Marwān called upon them to refrain from combat and to surrender al-Walīd ibn Yazīd’s two sons—al-Ḥakam and ʿUthmān—for whom allegiance had previously been secured and whom Yazīd had imprisoned in Damascus; they refused.

A fierce battle ensued from mid-morning until late afternoon. Marwān sent a detachment that circled round to attack Sulaymān ibn Hishām’s army from the rear; they achieved their objective, approaching from behind with cries of takbīr, while Marwān’s main force charged from the front. Sulaymān’s troops were routed. The people of Ḥimṣ killed a great many of them, their camp was plundered, and the number of Damascenes slain that day reached nearly seventeen or eighteen thousand, with about the same number taken prisoner. Marwān then bound them to the pledge of allegiance for the two youths, al-Walīd’s sons al-Ḥakam