MERWAN THE SON OF HAREM, THE FOURTH CALIPH OF THE HOUSE OF OMMIYAH, AND THE TENTH AFTER MOHAMMED.
Hejirah 64, 65. 683, 684.
the rumour of Abdallah’s cruel designs against the house of Ommiyah, Merwan made haste into Syria, where his friends came about him, and, resolving to make a bold stand in self-defence, they proclaimed him caliph. Syria was now divided into two factions; Hassan and the Yemanians in Syria, siding with Merwan, and Dehac the son of Kais, with Abdallah. This Dehac was a man of great note; he had been at the first siege of Damascus, and in the fifty-fourth year Moawiyah made him his deputy over Cufah. Because the general’s father’s name was Kais, the party that followed him were called Kaisians. There were a great many parleys between the two factions, which it would be tedious to relate. At last the brought it to the decision of a battle in the plains or meadows of Damascus. The issue was, that the Kaisians were shamefully beaten, Dehac himself being killed, and a great slaughter made amongst the horse. When the Kaisians were routed, Merwan sounded a retreat, and would not suffer his men to pursue. With Dehac, no less than fourscore of the nobles of Syria were killed. When Dehac’s head was brought to Merwan, he expressed some concern, and said, “That I who am an old man, whose bones are wasted, and am next to nothing, should bring armies together to break one another in pieces!”
He then went into Damascus, and took up his lodgings at the house where Moawiyah used to reside. There he married Yezid’s widow, for it had been agreed Merwan should not transfer the government to his own posterity, but leave it to Yezid’s son Kaled, who was then a minor, and of whom the people had some expectation. Wherefore his friends thought it safer for him to marry Kaled’s mother, and take upon him the guardianship of the child, than run the risk of standing upon the sole foundation of his own interest.
When the news of the defeat of the Kaisians and the death of Dehac came to Emessa, which was under the command of Nooman the son of Bashir, he fled away with his wife and family. The Emessians, however, pursued him, and cut off his head, and brought it, together with his wife and family, to Emessa.
Merwan after this marched towards Egypt, and sent before him Amrou the son of Saïd, who, going into Egypt, turned out Abdallah’s lieutenant, and brought the Egyptians to own Merwan for their sovereign. As Merwan was upon his return to Damascus, news was brought him that Abdallah had sent his brother Musab against him with an army; wherefore he turned back and routed Musab before he entered Damascus.
This year the people of. Khorassan chose Salem the son of Ziyad, who was their former governor, for their protector, till the Mussulmans should be agreed in the choice of an Imam. In that post he continued about two months. The people of the country never had any governor that they loved so well; they respected him to that degree, that in those few years that he governed them, there were more than twenty thousand children named Salem, purely out of love to his name.