مروان بن محمد بن مروان

Marwan ibn Muhammad ibn Marwan, the last of the Umayyad caliphs, known by the kunya Abu Abd al-Malik. Al-Tabari relates his caliphate, his defeat at the Zab in 132 AH, and then his killing. ^{1 2 3}

Al-Mas'udi relates that he came from al-Jazira in 127 AH and entered Damascus; Ibrahim ibn al-Walid fled from it, and then Marwan defeated him. ⁴ He was given the oath of allegiance at Damascus on Monday, fourteen nights into Safar 127 AH; it is said that he called himself caliph at Harran. ⁵

His mother was an umm walad named Riya, and it is said Tarunat, who had belonged to Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr and then to his father. ⁵ Ibn al-Nadim attributes him to his tutor al-Ja'd ibn Dirham, so that he was called "Marwan al-Ja'di". ⁶

He was killed at Busir, one of the villages of al-Fayyum, at the beginning of 132 AH. His age is disputed, between fifty-eight and seventy-seven years. ⁵

Al-Mas'udi says that the people of Harran refused to remove the cursing of Abu Turab from the pulpits, and that Mosul prevented him from entering it when he was defeated. ⁷