Yazid III

Who was Yazid III?

Yazid ibn al-Walid ibn 'Abd al-Malik or Yazid III was an Umayyad caliph. He reigned for six months, from April 15 to October 3 or 4, 744, and died in that office.

Yazid was the son of a Persian princess who had been gifted as a concubine to Caliph al-Walid I. Al-Tabari quotes a couplet of Yazid's on his own ancestry:

Tabari further records descriptions of Yazid as being tall and handsome.

During the reign of his cousin al-Walid II, Yazid spoke out against Walid's "immorality" which included discrimination on behalf of the Banu Qays Arabs against Yemenis and non-Arab Muslims, and Yazid received further support from the Qadariya and Murji'iya. Yazid slipped into Damascus and deposed Walid in a coup, following this up with a disbursement of funds from the treasury.

According to Yazid's own account, Yazid sent Abd al-Aziz ibn al-Hajjaj to meet Walid at al-Bakhra'. 'Abd al-Aziz offered to set up a tribal assembly to decide the future of the realm. Walid rejected this offer and attacked, by which action he lost his life. Yazid had Walid's head hoisted "on a lance and paraded around Damascus"; Yazid then imprisoned Walid's sons 'Uthman and Hakam, whom Walid had designated as his heirs.