nts vary between 33 and 39. The
latter finds confirmation in the statement that he was born in A.H. 25,
though another account places his birth in 22. As his son Moawiya who
succeeded him was certainly adult (the accounts vary between 17 and 23),
the latter date seems to be preferable.

3. Moawiya II. had reigned a very short time--how long is again wholly
uncertain--when he fell sick and died. Then commenced a period of the
greatest confusion. The mother of Yazid, Maisun, belonged to the most
powerful tribe in Syria, the Kalb, and it seems that this and the
cognate tribes of Qoda'a (Yemenites) had enjoyed certain prerogatives,
which had aroused the jealousy of the Qais and the cognate tribes of
Modar. Immediately after the death of Yazid, Zofar b. Harith, who had
already fought with Ibn Zobair against Yazid, had induced northern Syria
and Mesopotamia to declare for Ibn Zobair. In Homs (Emesa) the governor
No'man b. Bashir had pledged himself to the same cause. The prefect of
Damascus, Dahhak b. Qais, seemed to be wavering in his loyalty. Khalid,
the brother of Moawiya II., was still a youth and appears to have had no
strength of character. There was, however, a much more dangerous
candidate, viz. Merwan b. Hakam, of another branch of the Omayyads, who
had been Othman's right-hand man. He had pledged himself after some
hesitation to Yazid, but now his turn had come. The amir of the Kalb,
Ibn Bahdal, persuaded probably by Obaidallah b. Ziyad, conceived that
only a man of distinction could win the contest, and proclaimed Merwan
caliph, on condition that his successor should be Khalid b. Yazid, and
after him 'Amr b. Sa'id al-Ashdaq, who belonged to the third branch of
the Omayyads. Meanwhile Dahhak had declared himself openly for Ibn
Zobair. A furious battle (A.D. 684) ensued at Merj Rahit, near Damascus,
in which Dahhak and Zofar, though they had the majority of troops, were
utterly defeated. This battle became the subject of a great many poems
and had pernicious consequences, especially as regards the antagonism
between the Qais-Modar and Kalb-Yemenite tribes.

4. _Reign of Merwan I._--Merwan strengthened his position according to
the old oriental fashion by marrying the widow of Yazid, and soon felt
himself strong enough to substitute his own son Abdalmalik for Khalid b.
Yazid as successor-designate. Khalid contented himself with protesting;
he was neither a politician nor a soldier, but a student of alchemy and
astron