f the empire was at hand.

12. _Reign of Yazid III._--Yazid III., on his accession, made a fine
speech, in which he promised to do all that could be expected from a
good and wise ruler, even offering to make place immediately for the man
whom his subjects should find better qualified for the Caliphate than
himself. He cancelled, however, the increase of the pay granted by Walid
and thus earned the nickname of the _Naqis_ (diminisher). As he owed his
position to the aid of the Kalbites, he chose his officers from among
them. The governorship of Irak was confided to a Kalbite, Mansur b.
Jomhur, a hot-headed and unscrupulous man. Yusuf b. Omar was unable to
offer resistance, and was ultimately taken and confined in the Khadra.
Mansur had hardly been three months in office when Yazid replaced him by
Abdallah, son of Omar II. The distant provinces, with the exception of
Sind and Sijistan, renounced the authority of the new caliph. In Africa
Abdarrahman b. Habib, a descendant of the famous 'Oqba b. Nafi', was
almost independent. In Spain every amir tried to free himself from a
suzerainty which appeared to him only nominal. Nasr b. Sayyar, the
governor of Khorasan, had not yet decided whether he ought to take the
oath of allegiance when Yazid died, after a reign of only five months
and a half, on the 12th of Dhu'l-Hijja A.H. 126 (25th September A.D.
744).

13. Yazid III. left his brother Ibrahim as his successor. He was
acknowledged as caliph only in a part of Syria, and reigned no longer
than two months, when he was obliged to abdicate and to submit to the
authority of Merwan II.

14. Merwan II., the son of Mahommed b. Merwan and cousin of Maslama, was
a man of energy, and might have revived the strength of the Omayyad
dynasty, but for the general disorder which pervaded the whole empire.
In 732 Hisham had entrusted to him the government of Armenia and
Azerbaijan, which he held with great success till the death of Walid II.
He had great military capacity and introduced important reforms. On the
murder of Walid he prepared to dispute the supreme power with the new
caliph, and invaded Mesopotamia. Yazid III., in alarm, offered him as
the price of peace the government of this province together with Armenia
and Azerbaijan. Merwan resolved to accept those conditions, and sent a
deputation to Damascus, which, however, had just reached Manbij
(Hierapolis) when Yazid died. Leaving his son Abdalmalik with 40,000 men
in Rakka, Merwa