Third Fitna

Third Fitna Timeline

Here is a timeline showing the key events of the Third Fitna.

Causes of the Third Fitna

We can divide the causes of the Third Fitna into two categories: long-term and short-term. The long-term causes of the fitna were brought about by the political, social and military issues faced by the Umayyad caliphate. The short-term cause of the Third Fitna was the accession of Caliph Al-Walid II, who was extremely unpopular within the Islamic community.

Long-Term Causes of the Third Fitna

Historian G.R.Hawting argues that,

The issues of the Umayyad caliphate at this time included:

• The emergence of the Yemeni and Mudari factions and the wider polarisation of different Islamic factions;
• The taxation system: Non-Arab Muslims in the east had to pay higher taxes than their Arab counterparts, which led to widespread discontent, especially because many of them had chosen to convert because of the lower tax rates for Muslims;
• The financial policy of Caliph Hisham, who demanded large payments to Syria from provincial governors, putting further pressure on the taxation system;
• Local opposition to the Marwinid policy of Islamisation in conquered lands;
• A long period of Islamic military defeats;
• Abrupt changes in governors that brought about sudden u-turns in regional policies, causing instability and widespread discontent within the Umayyad Caliphate.

Short-Term Causes of the Third Fitna

The immediate cause of the Third Fitna was the succession of al-Walid II, an extremely unpopular caliph who had a reputation for extravagance and idleness. There were three policies he took besides his unfavourable lifestyle that sowed discontent and caused rebellions to break out against him.

1. He executed and imprisoned many Umayyads from his uncle Caliph Hisham's family. Caliph Hisham had been the previous caliph, and although he had considered removing his nephew al-Walid from the succession and placing his own sons in charge instead, he decided not to in the end. However, al-Walid II wanted to assert his power over Hisham's family and led a purge against them, killing many. One example was his cousin Sulayman who was flogged and imprisoned. This brutality against his own family made many Umayyads turn against the new caliph.
2. He continued the policies of his uncle against the Qadariyya Muslims, a group of Muslims who believed in free will rather than predestination. Therefore, this group sought to overthrow the new caliph.
3. He handed Khalid (the deposed Yemeni governor of Iraq) over to Yusuf b. Umar to be tortured, with the effect that Khalid died under torture. This incensed the Kalbi and the Yemeni factions against al-Walid II, and they began plotting against him.

The Third Fitna History

The Third Fitna started rather like the Second Fitna - with a controversy within the Umayyad dynasty about who should be the next ruler. The Islamic caliphate was once more thrown into disarray as different contenders tried to gain leadership of the caliphate in a new civil war. The main figures of the beginning of the Third Fitna (excluding Marwan II) are the Umayyad caliphs shown in blue font in this family tree.

Fig. 1 - Family tree of the Umayyad family, showing many of the key actors of the Third Fitna in blue font ²

The Start of the Civil War

The fitna truly began when Yazid III, the son of al-Walid I, decided to ride into Damascus on a donkey (symbolic of messiah status) and pronounced himself caliph while al-Walid II was away in one of his private palaces. Al-Walid II fled, but Yazid III sent a force of Kalbs to pursue him, and they killed him within the month, in April 744. This plunged the Umayyad caliphate into chaos and civil war once more.

There followed a Qaysi rebellion against Yazid III, but this was put down immediately by Sulayman, whom Yazid had freed. However, Yazid reigned for only six months before he died in September 744. He designated his brother, Ibrahim, as his heir.

The Rise of Marwan II

The next key actor of the Third Fitna was Marwan II. He was the grandson of Marwan I and the governor of Mesopotamia, where he frequently led armed conflict against the Byzantines, even developing new military strategies.

He considered running for caliph when al-Walid II was killed, but his plans were thwarted by a local Kalb revolt which prevented him from fighting Yazid. Once Yazid was in power, Marwan II decided to go along with the regime change, but with Yazid's death and a weak ruler in charge, he decided to enter the civil war in the name of restoring al-Walid II's sons who were imprisoned in Damascus. He had the support of the Qaysis.

Fig. 2 - Coins minted by Marwan II ³

Marwan II's main opponent was Sulayman, who had the support of the Kalbs. However, Marwan resoundingly defeated Sulayman, who fled back to Damascus. Sulayman then killed al-Walid II's sons, thinking that would end the issue, but Marwan then decided to try to become caliph himself. Sulayman fled once more and Marwan became caliph in Damascus in December 744.

Marwan then made the controversial decision to move his court from Damascus to Harran. Although Harran was an administrative centre, it allowed the anti-Marwan Kalbs to launch a revolt against him in Syria and Iraq, which lasted from 745-746.

Marwan launched a terrible attack against Syria and razed the walls of its cities to the ground as punishment. In 747, he also put down a Kalb-Kharijite-Shia alliance in Iraq. It seemed that the Third Fitna was over, and Marwan II was the new caliph for good.

The End of the Umayyad Caliphate

The civil war ended when Abu Muslim, from the Khurasan region, launched a rebellion against Marwan II. He believed that someone descended from Muhammad should lead the caliphate. Abu Muslim soon conquered a lot of territory, helped by pro-Alid forces. The army declared Saffah, brother of the murdered imam Ibrahim, to be their caliph at the mosque of Kufah in 749.

In 750, Abu Muslim decisively defeated Marwan II at the Battle of the Zab. This marked the end of the Third Fitna and of the Umayyad Caliphate. Suffah thus became the first Abbasid caliph and his dynasty ruled the Islamic Caliphate from then until 1517 when the Ottomans took over.

Third Fitna: The Abbasid Revolution

The seeds of the Abbasid Revolution took root in 717, when Abu Hashim, the son of Muhammad al-Hanafiyya and grandson of Caliph Ali, died, naming Muhammad ibn Ali of the Abbasid tribe as his successor. In 719, the Hashimiyya movement began when the Abbasids tried to rally support for the idea of a member of the Prophet's family to lead the caliphate. This was a very popular idea, and by the 740s, the Islamic people of the Khurasan region had widely adopted this belief.

Things began to escalate in 746 when Abu Muslim became the leader of the Hashimiyya movement in Khurasan. The next year he launched a revolt against Umayyad rule, unfurling a black flag and soon dominating both Khurasan and Kufah. His army declared that Suffah, the son of Muhammad ibn Ali, should be the next caliph. Some think that this was part of the Third Fitna and others believe this was a separate Islamic rebellion that piggy-backed off the instability brought about by the civil war.

Fig. 3 - Abbasid warriors in north Africa ⁴

Marwan II mobilised his troops against Abu Muslim and the two forces met at the Battle of the Zab in January 750. Marwan II faced a crushing defeat and fled to Egypt, meaning that the way was clear for Saffah to lead the entire Islamic caliphate. Saffah's army then triumphed at Damascus in April 750. He then hunted down and killed all remaining Umayyads, except for one who escaped to Spain. In doing this, Saffah ended the Third Fitna and launched the era of the Abbasid Caliphate.

The Outcome of the Third Fitna

The Third Fitna definitively ended the Umayyad Caliphate. All remaining Umayyads were hunted down and executed, except for one survivor who managed to escape to Spain.

The Third Fitna ushered in the era of the Abbasid Caliphate, which reigned for many years until 1517 when the Ottomans took over the Arabian peninsula. However, although the Abbasids came into power with the help of pro-Alid factions, claiming to want a descendent of Muhammad as caliph, they ended up siding with the Sunnis against the Shias.

They also turned against many of their former allies, including Abu Muslim, who was accused of heresy and executed for treason by the caliph who succeeded Saffah in 755.

Third Fitna Significance

According to Professor Nazeer Ahmed,

The Third Fitna ushered in an Islamic Golden Age with the arrival of the Abbasid Caliphate. This was the start of a period of Islamic patronage of the arts and sciences, to which the empires of Europe at the time had little to compare. Therefore, the significance of the third fitna was that it brought the Abbasid dynasty to power, thereby transforming the Islamic world.