He encamped at Ḥuṣayn Banī Numayr, whereupon the leading notables of Syria—from Damascus, Ḥimṣ, and other districts—swore allegiance to him.

Marwān then said to them, “Choose the governors we shall place over you.” Each region named the man it wanted, and he confirmed him in office: Zāmil ibn ʿAmr al-Ḥibrānī for Damascus, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shajarah al-Kindī for Ḥimṣ, al-Walīd ibn Muʿāwiyah ibn Marwān for the Jordan, and Thābit ibn Naʿīm al-Judhamī for Palestine.

Once the whole of Syria had come under the authority of Marwān ibn Muḥammad, he returned to Ḥarrān. At that time Ibrāhīm ibn al-Walīd—the deposed caliph—and his cousin Sulaymān ibn Hishām asked him for safe-conduct, and he granted it. Sulaymān then arrived with the people of Tadmur (Palmyra) and pledged allegiance to him.

When Marwān had settled in Ḥarrān he remained there for three months, but the allegiance of the Syrians began to fray: the people of Ḥimṣ and others broke with him. He therefore sent an army against Ḥimṣ that reached the city on the night before ʿĪd al-Fiṭr of that year. Marwān himself arrived two days after the feast and invested the town with a large force. With him that day were the deposed Ibrāhīm ibn al-Walīd and Sulaymān ibn Hishām, both specially honoured, for he would sit with no one else at the meals of noon or night.

When the siege tightened, the townspeople cried out, “We are obedient to you!” He replied, “Open the city gate.” They opened it, yet some fighting still broke out; about 500—or perhaps 600—were killed. He ordered their bodies to be crucified round the city and commanded that part of its wall be demolished.

As for Damascus: the people of al-Ghūṭah besieged their governor Zāmil ibn ʿAmr and set Yazīd ibn Khālid al-Qasrī over themselves, while the deputy governor held fast in the city. From Ḥimṣ the Commander of the Faithful Marwān dispatched a force of about 10,000 men. When they neared Damascus, the deputy governor and his supporters sallied out and, together with the army, routed the men of al-Ghūṭah. They burned al-Mizzah and other nearby villages. Yazīd ibn Khālid al-Qasrī and Abū ʿIlāqah al-Kalbī sought refuge with a man from the Lakhm tribe who lived in al-Mizzah, but Zāmil ibn ʿAmr betrayed them, killed them, and sent their heads to the Commander of the Faithful Marwān in Ḥimṣ.

Thābit ibn Naʿīm next rebelled against the caliph with the people of Palestine. They marched to Ṭabariyyah (Tiberias) and besieged it. The caliph sent an army that drove them off and plundered their camp. Thābit fled back toward Palestine, but the commander Abū al-Ward pursued and defeated him a second time, whereupon his followers scattered. Abū al-Ward captured three of his sons, sent them—wounded—to the caliph, and the caliph ordered that they be treated.

The Commander of the Faithful then wrote to his deputy in Palestine, al-Rumāḥis ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Kinānī, instructing him to hunt down Thābit ibn Naʿīm wherever he might be. By skilful means he captured him two months later, sent him to the caliph, and the caliph ordered that his hands and feet—as well as those of the group who were with him—be cut off and that they be conveyed to Damascus. There they were displayed at the gate of its mosque, for the Damascenes had been spreading a rumour that Thābit ibn Naʿīm had gone to Egypt, seized it, and killed Marwān’s deputy there; he sent them back maimed so that the falsehood of their report might be exposed.

The caliph Marwān then stayed for a time at Dayr Ayyūb (peace be upon him) until he secured the oath of allegiance for his son ʿAbd Allāh and then for ʿUbayd Allāh, marrying each of them to a daughter of Hishām—namely Umm Hishām and ʿĀʾishah. It was a large and impressive assembly and a broadly acknowledged pledge, though in reality it was not entirely firm.