anti-Umayyad rebels: The Third Fitna (Arabic: الفتنة الثاﻟﺜـة, romanized: al-Fitna al-thālitha),[note 1] was a series of civil wars and uprisings against the Umayyad Caliphate.

The war exacerbated internal tensions, especially the Qays–Yaman rivalry, and the temporary collapse of Umayyad authority opened the way for Kharijite and other anti-Umayyad revolts.

Al-Walid II's accession was initially well received due to Hisham's unpopularity and his decision to increase army pay, but the mood quickly changed.

Al-Walid II was reported to have been more interested in earthly pleasures than in religion, a reputation that may be confirmed by the decoration of the so-called "desert castles" (including Qusayr Amra and Khirbat al-Mafjar) that have been attributed to him.

[3] His accession was resented by some members of the Umayyad family itself, and this hostility deepened when he designated his two underage sons as his heirs and flogged and imprisoned his cousin, Sulayman ibn Hisham.

Like his father, al-Walid II was seen as pro-Qays, especially after his appointment of Yusuf ibn Umar al-Thaqafi as governor of Iraq, who tortured his Yamani predecessor, Khalid al-Qasri, to death.

[7] A pro-Qaysi uprising in Hims followed, under the Sufyanid Abu Muhammad al-Sufyani, but its march on Damascus was decisively defeated by Sulayman who had been released from prison.

[9] At the same time, his reign saw the renewed ascendancy of the Yaman, with Yusuf ibn Umar dismissed and imprisoned after trying, without success, to raise the Qaysis of Iraq into revolt.

[11] Following Yazid III's death in 744, Marwan marched into Syria, claiming that he came to restore the throne to al-Walid II's two imprisoned sons.

With him, Sulayman had the Kalbis of southern Syria and the Dhakwāniyya, his 5,000 men strong personal army, maintained from his own funds and estates and recruited mostly from the mawālī (non-Arab Muslims).

[18] With Syria apparently back in his grip, Marwan II ordered the members of the Umayyad family to gather around him and named his two sons as his heirs.

[19][15] Opposition to Marwan and his Qaysis was also evident in Egypt, where the governor Hafs ibn al-Walid ibn Yusuf al-Hadrami, a member of the traditionally dominant local Arab settler community, tried to use the turmoil of the civil war to restore its pre-eminence in Egyptian affairs: the Syrians were forcibly expelled from the capital Fustat, and Hafs set about recruiting a force of 30,000 men, named Hafsiya after him, from among the native non-Arab converts (maqamisa and mawālī).

There volunteers opposed to the Umayyad regime continued to flock to his banner, and he managed to extend his control over large parts of Persia, including most of Jibal, Ahwaz, Fars and Kerman.

[28] These uprisings were finally suppressed in 747 by Marwan's general Abd al-Malik ibn Atiyya, but he was recalled too soon to lead the Hajj, forcing him to make pacts with some of the rebels in exchange for peace.

Yazid III's accession posed a threat to the longtime governor, Nasr ibn Sayyar, as the numerous Yaman in Khurasan sought to replace him with their champion, Juday al-Kirmani.

Al-Kirmani had played a major role in the latter's defeat years ago, and Ibn Surayj's northern Arab (Tamimi) origin made him a natural enemy of the Yamani.

Ibn Surayj however had other designs; gathering a following of many of the Tamimis and the disaffected Arabs of the province, he launched an attack on Merv in March 746.

[32][33][34] With Marwan II still trying to consolidate his own position in Syria and Mesopotamia, and western Persia controlled by the Kharijites under Ibn Mu'awiya, Nasr was bereft of any hopes of reinforcement.

The allied armies of Ibn Surayj and al-Kirmani drove him out of Merv towards the end of the year, and he retreated to the Qaysi stronghold of Nishapur.

Al-Kirmani then destroyed the Tamimi quarters in Merv, a shocking act, as dwellings were traditionally considered exempt from warfare in Arab culture.

During summer 747, Nasr's and al-Kirmani's armies confronted each other before the walls of Merv, occupying two fortified camps and skirmishing with each other for several months.

[40] Abu Muslim soon took advantage of the barely mended Mudari–Yamani hostility, by persuading al-Kirmani's son and successor Ali that Nasr had been involved in his father's murder.

Nasr was forced to abandon Nishapur too after his son Tamim was defeated at Tus, and retreat to the region of Qumis, on the western borderlands of Khurasan.

[43][44] Following the capture of Nishapur, Abu Muslim consolidated his position in Khurasan by murdering Ali ibn Juday al-Kirmani and his brother Uthman.

[45][46] As imam Ibrahim had been imprisoned and executed by Marwan II, he was succeeded by his brother, Abu'l-Abbas (r. 749–754), whom the army leaders proclaimed as caliph on 28 November.

Pursued by the Abbasids, Marwan was forced to flee to Syria and then Egypt, where he was finally captured and executed in August 750, putting an end to the Umayyad Caliphate.