of the Umayyad caliphs. His mother was a Kurdish bondwoman named Lubabah. She had belonged to Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ashʿath al-Nakhaʿī, but on the day that Ibrāhīm was killed Muḥammad ibn Marwān seized her, and through her he fathered this Marwān.
It is also said that she had first been the property of Muṣʿab ibn al-Zubayr. Marwān’s residence, they add, stood in the Saddlers’ Market; so states Ibn ʿAsākir (1).
He received the oath of allegiance as caliph after the murder of al-Walīd ibn Yazīd and the death of Yazīd ibn al-Walīd. He then entered Damascus, deposed Ibrāhīm ibn al-Walīd, and his authority was firmly established in mid-Ṣafar of the year 127 AH.
Abū Maʿshar said: The pledge of allegiance was given to him in Rabīʿ al-Awwal 127 AH. He was called “Marwān al-Jaʿdī,” in reference to the doctrine of Jaʿd ibn Dirham, and took the sobriquet “al-Ḥimār” (the Donkey). He was the last to rule from among the Umayyads.
From the time Ibrāhīm ibn al-Walīd handed power over to him until al-Saffāḥ was acclaimed, his caliphate lasted five years, ten months, and ten days—others say five years and one month. After al-Saffāḥ’s accession he survived a further nine months.
He was light-skinned with a ruddy hue, blue-eyed, of a large beard, broad-headed, of medium stature, and he did not use dye.
In 114 AH Hishām appointed him governor of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and al-Jazīrah. Over many years he conquered numerous territories and fortresses, scarcely ever absent from campaigning in the path of Allah. He fought various groups of unbelievers—Turks, Khazars, Alans, and others—defeating and subduing them. Courageous, valiant, bold, and decisive in judgment, he would not have been overcome had his troops not abandoned him by Allah’s decree—exalted is He—in His wisdom to strip the caliphate from him despite his bravery and severity; but whomever Allah forsakes is truly forsaken, and whomever Allah humiliates, none can honor.
Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār reports from his uncle Muṣʿab ibn ʿAbd Allāh: The Umayyads held that the caliphate would leave them whenever it was assumed by one whose mother was a bondwoman; when this Marwān took office it was indeed taken from them in 132 AH.
The ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir (2) said: We were informed by Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī al-Ḥasan; who was informed by Sahl ibn Bishr; who was informed by al-Khalīl ibn Hibat-Allāh ibn al-Khalīl; who was informed by ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Kilābī; narrated to us Abū al-Jahm Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn; who was informed by al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Walīd ibn Ṣubḥ; narrated to us ʿAbbās ibn Najīḥ (3) Abū al-Ḥārith; who told me al-Haytham ibn Ḥumayd; who told me Rāshid ibn Dāwūd; from Abū Asmāʾ; from Thawbān—may Allah be pleased with him—who said:
“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: ‘The caliphate will remain among the Banū Umayyah, passing from one to another as boys toss a ball; but when it slips from their hands, life will hold no goodness.’”
Ibn ʿAsākir recorded this ḥadīth without comment, yet it is extremely objectionable (munkar).
Hārūn al-Rashīd once asked Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh, “Which of the caliphs is better—