Yazid III
Yazid III يزيد بن الوليد | |||||
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![]() Dirhamof Yazid III | |||||
12thCaliphof theUmayyad Caliphate | |||||
Reign | 17 April 744 – 4 October 744 | ||||
Predecessor | Walid ibn Yazid | ||||
Successor | Ibrahim ibn al-Walid | ||||
Born | 701 Damascus,Bilad al-Sham,Umayyad Caliphate | ||||
Died | 4 October 744 (aged 43) Damascus,Umayyad Caliphate | ||||
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House | Marwanid | ||||
Dynasty | Umayyad | ||||
Father | Al-Walid I | ||||
Mother | Shah-i-Afrid | ||||
Religion | Islam |
Yazid ibn al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik(Arabic:يزيد بن الوليد بن عبد الملك,romanized:Yazīd ibn al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik;701 – 3/4 October 744), commonly known asYazid III,was the twelfthUmayyadcaliph,ruling from 744 until his death months later.
Birth and background[edit]
Yazid was the member of the influentialUmayyad dynasty. His father, al-Walid was survived by several sons: al-Ya'qubi names sixteen,[1]while historianal-Tabari(d. 923) names nineteen.[2]Yazid III was the grandson of great Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik and his grand mother was Wallada bint al-Abbas ibn al-Jaz al-Absiyya.
Yazid was the son of a Persian princess who had been given as a concubine to Caliphal-Walid I.[3]His mother was Shah-i Afrid, a daughter ofPeroz.Al-Tabariquotes a couplet of Yazid's on his own ancestry:[4]
- I am the son ofChosroes,my ancestor wasMarwan,
- Caesarwas my grandsire and my grandsire wasKhagan.[5]
Tabari further records descriptions of Yazid as being tall and handsome.
Downfall of Al-Walid[edit]
During the reign of his cousinal-Walid II,Yazid spoke out against Walid's "immorality" which included discrimination on behalf of theBanu QaysArabs against Yemenis andnon-Arab Muslims,and Yazid received further support from the Qadariya and Murji'iya (believers in humanfree will).[6]Yazid slipped into Damascus and deposed Walid in a coup, following this up with a disbursement of funds from the treasury.[7]
According to Yazid's own account, Yazid sentAbd al-Aziz ibn al-Hajjaj ibn Abd al-Malikto meet Walid atal-Bakhra'.[8]'Abd al-Aziz offered to set up a tribal assembly (shura) to decide the future of the realm. Walid rejected this offer and attacked, by which action he lost his life.[9]Yazid had Walid's head hoisted "on a lance and paraded around Damascus"; Yazid then imprisoned Walid's sons 'Uthman and Hakam,[10]whom Walid had designated as his heirs.[11]
Accession[edit]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/Al-Walid_ibn_Abdul-Rahman_-_Inscribed_Pound_Weight_-_Walters_476_-_Top_edited.jpg/220px-Al-Walid_ibn_Abdul-Rahman_-_Inscribed_Pound_Weight_-_Walters_476_-_Top_edited.jpg)
On accession, Yazid explained that he had rebelled on behalf of the Book of Allah and the Sunna of His Prophet, and that this entailed ensuring that the strong not prey upon the weak. He promised "to engage in no building works, squander no money on wives or children, transfer no money from one province to another" without reason, "keep no troops on the field too long", and not to overtax theahl al-dhimma;instead, he would eschew discrimination and would make his payments on time. He promised abdication if he failed to meet these goals, and held in principle toal-amr shura– to an elected caliphate.[13]
Tabari records Yazid's nickname "the Diminisher" (Naqis), given because he reduced military annuities by 10%,[14]whereas his predecessor had promised a raise. According to Islamic popular tradition, recorded in an apocalyptic style, Yazid would go himself into the marketplace.[15]
The city ofHomsrefused allegiance to Yazid, and there were several other dissident movements against him.[16]Another cousin,Marwan ibn Muhammad ibn Marwan,governor of Armenia, had initially supported Walid and on Walid's death entered Iraq to avenge him.[17]Marwan eventually rallied around Yazid.
Reign[edit]
Yazid appointedMansur ibn Jumhurto replaceYusuf ibn 'Umaras governor of Iraq. On May 15, Yazid wrote a letter, preserved from oral sources inal-Mada'ini(reproduced in Tabari) and inal-Baladhuri.It supports the Umayyad dynasty up to but not including "the enemy of Allah" al-Walid II, at which point it lays out Yazid's version of the event at al-Bakhra'. At the end, Tabari's rendition has Yazid exhorting the Iraqis to follow Mansur ibn Jumhur.[18]
Yusuf ibn 'Umar was subsequently imprisoned and later killed by the son ofKhalid ibn 'Abdallah al-Qasri.Mansur attempted to dismiss the Khurasani governorNasr ibn Sayyar,but Nasr refused to accept this. Facing opposition fromJuday al-Kirmani,Nasr invitedal-Harith ibn Surayjto return from his thirteen-year stay inTurgeshterritory. Al-Harith arrived wearing a fine suit of armour the Khaqan had given him and gained the support of many people in Khurasan.
Death[edit]
Yazid ruled theUmayyad Caliphatefrom April 744 to 4 October 744. Yazid named his brotherIbrahimas his successor. Yazid fell ill of a brain tumour[19]and died on October 3 or 4, 744. Ibrahim duly succeeded him.
See also[edit]
- Umar ibn al-Walid,an Umayyad prince and a military leader
- Abd al-Aziz ibn al-Walid,an Umayyad prince and a military leader
- Al-Abbas ibn al-Walid,an Umayyad prince and a military general
- Bishr ibn al-Walid,an Umayyad prince and a military general
- Sulayman ibn Hisham,an Umayyad military general and cousin of Yazid III
References[edit]
- ^Biesterfeldt & Günther 2018,pp. 1001–1002.
- ^Hinds 1990,p. 219.
- ^Philip Khuri Hitti, History Of Syria (Gorgias Press LLC, 2004), 489
- ^Tabari, 243
- ^transl. Sir John Glubb, The Empire of the Arabs, 200
- ^von Ess, "Kadar", Encyclopedia of Islam 2nd Ed.
- ^Theophilus. Quoted Robert Hoyland, Seeing Islam as Others Saw It (Darwin Press, 1998), 660
- ^1234 ChronicleapudHoyland confirms this, 660; it was a fortress near Palmyra. 1234 and Muslim sources dispute over whether Walid was there all along or whether he had fled there.
- ^Patricia Crone,God's Caliph(Cambridge University Press, 1986), 127
- ^Theophilus and Muslim sourcesapudHoyland, 660-1
- ^God's Caliph 124-5
- ^"Inscribed Pound Weight".The Walters Art Museum.
- ^God's Caliph, 68, 107
- ^Philip Khuri Hitti, 478
- ^David Cook, Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic, 350: appendix I, III, 12 a
- ^1234 ChronicleapudHoyland, 661
- ^TheophilusapudHoyland, 661
- ^God's Caliph, 126f
- ^Dionysius of TelmahreapudHoyland, 661 n 193
Bibliography[edit]
- al-Tabari, Muhammad ibn Jarir(1989).The Waning of the Umayyad Caliphate.History. Vol. 26. Translated byHillenbrand, Carole.Albany: SUNY.
- Biesterfeldt, Hinrich; Günther, Sebastian (2018).The Works of Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-Yaʿqūbī (Volume 3): An English Translation.Leiden: Brill.ISBN978-90-04-35621-4.
- Glubb, John (1963).The Empire of the Arabs.London: Hodder and Stoughton.
- Hinds, Martin,ed. (1990).The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XXIII: The Zenith of the Marwānid House: The Last Years of ʿAbd al-Malik and the Caliphate of al-Walīd, A.D. 700–715/A.H. 81–95.SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press.ISBN978-0-88706-721-1.