Page:Muhammad Diyab al-Itlidi - Historical Tales and Anecdotes of the Time of the Early Khalîfahs - Alice Frere - 1873.djvu/265

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that the people of Syria unanimously resolved to depose him the following year. They accordingly chose Yezîd, the son of el-Walîd I. (see pp. 192–194), el-Walîd's cousin-german, for their leader, and inaugurated him Khalîfah. He marched against el-Walîd, dispersed his troops, besieged him in his palace, and finally slew him, after he had reigned a year and three months. Yezîd himself died of the plague at Damascus, after he had reigned six months, and was succeeded by his brother Ibrahîm. In the beginning of the year 127 ( 744), however, Marwân-ibn-Muhammad-ibn-Marwân-ibn-el-Hâkim, who was the governor of Mesopotamia and surrounding provinces, and who had rebelled against Yezîd under pretext of avenging the murder of el-Walîd II., marched against Ibrahîm, intending to besiege Damascus, and depose the Khalîfah. At Kinnafrin and Hems he was joined by many of the Khalîfah's subjects, who took the oath of allegiance to him; but Sulaimân-ibn-Hishâm, Ibrahîm's general, marched against him with an army of a hundred and twenty thousand men. Sulaimân's army was, however, routed with great slaughter, and he himself was forced to fly to Damascus. Marwân released his many prisoners upon condition of their taking an oath of fidelity to el-Hâkim and ʾOthmân, el-Walîd's sons, who, since the murder of their father, had remained in prison at Damascus. But Sulaimân, being well assured of Marwân's intention to place one of them upon the throne, no sooner arrived at Damascus than in concert with Ibrahîm he ordered their execution, and then made his escape from the city. El-Hâkim and ʾOthmân, however, foreseeing what would happen, took care before their deaths to transfer their right to Marwân, and declared, in presence of a fellow-prisoner, that in case they should be slain, Marwân ought to be regarded by all Muslims as the lawful Khalîfah and Imâm. So after Sulaimân's flight, the citizens of Damascus opened their gates to Marwân, and,