Muawiya II

Mu ʿ āwiya II, [ muʕa Wija ː ] ( معاوية بن يزيد Mu ʿ ibn āwiya Yazīd ), ( † 684) was the third Caliph of the Umayyad ( 683-684 ).

When the troops of the Umayyad after the death of Yazid I ( 680-683 ) lifted the siege of the rebellious Mecca, the unrest stretched further. So could not prevent Muawiya ibn Yazid II (the son of Yazid I. ) the waste of large parts of the empire to the newly proclaimed Caliph Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr ( 684-691 ). Even in Syria was threatened by the revolt of the Banu Qais the rule of the Umayyads. Prior to the initiation of countermeasures Muawiya II died, however, in April 684 during a plague epidemic. He will have been much older than 20 years.

This aggravated the crisis in the Umayyadenherrschaft considerably since Muawiya II had left no direct heirs and his brothers were very young and therefore were not suitable for the acquisition of the Caliph Office. Soon the leaders of the Umayyad clan agreed but on Marwan I. ( 684-685 ) as the new caliph. With this, the Umayyad line of Marwaniden came to power.