He is known for his participation in the expeditions against the Byzantine Empire as well as his prominent role in the civil wars that occurred during the last years of the Umayyad Caliphate.
[1] Sulayman is first attested as leading the northern summer expedition ("of the right") against Byzantine-held Anatolia in 732,[3][4] and again in 735, 736 (this time into Armenia) and in 737, but on neither campaign does he seem to have accomplished anything of note.
Exacerbated by lack of supplies, this disease caused much loss of life both among men and beasts, while the army also suffered many casualties from the Byzantines' attacks.
The city was saved, although Hisham himself had to take the field with whatever forces he could assemble; nevertheless, this attack, the first after many years of Byzantine passivity, signalled the shifting balance of power in the region.
[11] In 742, taking advantage of the Byzantine civil war between the usurper Artabasdos and Constantine V (r. 741–775), Sulayman led another raid which reached as far as Paphlagonia undisturbed and took many prisoners.
The Arabs of Homs were still loyal to Walid and marched on Damascus with the intention of installing Abu Muhammad al-Sufyani, a descendant of the Sufyanid branch of the Umayyad clan, as caliph, but Sulayman was released from prison and defeated them.
Initially, Marwan did not claim the caliphate for himself, but proclaimed his intent to restore the throne to Walid II's two imprisoned sons.
[18] There he entered the service of al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Shaybani, the leader of the Mesopotamian Kharijites who, taking advantage of Marwan's preoccupation with the prolonged siege of Homs, had claimed the caliphate.