Marwan ibn Abd al-Malik

Marwān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān (d. 715/16 or 716/17), referred to as Marwān al-Akbar to distinguish him from his younger half-brother with the same name, was an Umayyad prince, son of Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, and one-time heir to the caliphate. Life Marwan was a son of the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan and his first wife Wallada bint al-Abbas ibn al-Jaz, a member of the Banu Abs tribe and fourth-generation descendant of Zuhayr ibn Jadhima. Marwan was a full brother of the caliphs al-Walid I and Sulayman. According to the 10th-century historian al-Tabari, Abd al-Malik instructed his immediate chosen successors al-Walid and Sulayman to invest the succession after them to their half-brother Yazid II (son of Atika bint Yazid) and then to Marwan al-Akbar. According to al-Baladhuri, however, it was to be passed to Marwan al-Asghar (another son of Atika). Marwan al-Akbar died on his return to Syria from the Hajj in Mecca in 715/16 or 716/17. He left no children. After his death, Caliph Sulayman maneuvered to remove Yazid II from the succession and install his own son Ayyub, but the latter predeceased Sulayman. References Bibliography