Marwan ibn Abd al-Malik explained

Marwan ibn Abd al-Malik
مروان بن عبد الملك
Succession:Heir presumptive of the Umayyad Caliphate
Reign:705–715
Reign-Type:Tenure
Issue:Al-Walid I (brother)
Sulayman (brother)
Issue-Type:Relatives
Dynasty:Umayyad
Father:Abd al-Malik
Mother:Wallada bint al-Abbas ibn al-Jaz al-Absiyya
Birth Date:Medina, Umayyad Caliphate
Death Date:716 or 717
Death Place:al-Sham, Umayyad Caliphate
Full Name:Marwan ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan
Burial Place:al-Sham
Religion:Islam

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.

Bibliography

. Bosworth . C. E. . C. E. Bosworth . Medieval Arabic Culture and Administration . 1982 . Variorum Reprints . 0-86078-113-5 .