MOAWIYAH II, THE SON OF YEZID, THE THIRD CALIPH OF THE HOUSE OF OMMIYAH, AND THE EIGHTH AFTER MOHAMMED.
Hejirah 64, 65. 683, 684.
soon as Yezid was dead, his son Moawiyah was proclaimed caliph at Damascus. He was near one and twenty years of age, but of a weak constitution; very religious, but of the sect of the Alcadarii. Moawiyah’s favourite master was Omar Al Meksous; and he consulted him whether he ought, or not, to accept the caliphate. His master told him, that if he thought himself able to administer justice duly to the Mussulmans, and to acquit himself of all the duties of that dignity, he ought to accept it; but otherwise he ought not to charge himself with it.
This caliph had scarcely reigned six weeks, when he found himself too weak to sustain the weight of the government, and resolved to lay it down. To this end he called a council of the greatest men of the court, and told them that when he first entertained the thought of abdicating himself, he designed to follow the example of Abubeker, and nominate a successor, as that first caliph had done; but that he had not found, as Abubeker had done, men like Omar upon whom to fix his choice. Then he told them that he had also a design of imitating Omar, and naming six persons, upon one of which the choice should fall by lot, but that he had not found so many among them capable of it, and therefore could not determine upon that course.
“I am therefore resolved,” added he, “to leave the choice entirely to you.” Upon this the principal statesmen told him that they had nothing to do but to choose that person amongst them that he should please, and that all the rest would obey him. Moawiyah answered them in these terms: “As I have not hitherto enjoyed the advantages of the caliphate, it is not reasonable that I should charge myself with its most odious duty, therefore I hope that you will not take it amiss if I discharge my conscience towards you, and leave you to judge for yourselves who is most capable among you to fill my place.”
Accordingly, as soon as Moawiyah had made his abdication in so good form, they proceeded to the election of a caliph, and their choice fell upon Merwan, the son of Hakem, who was the fourth of the caliphs of Syria; Abdallah, the son of Zobeir, having been declared caliph in Arabia, Irak, Khorassan, Egypt, and a great part of Syria.
Moawiyah had no sooner renounced the caliphate but he shut himself up in a chamber, from whence he never stirred till he died, not long after his abdication, of the plague according to some, according to others by poison. The family of Ommiyah was, it is said, so greatly irritated at his proceeding, that they vented their resentment upon the person of Omar Al Meksous, whom they buried alive, because they supposed that it was by his advice that Moawiyah deposed himself. This caliph was nick-named Abuleilah, that is to say, “The father of the night,” because of his natural weakness and want of health, which hindered him from often appearing abroad in the day time. The inscription of his seal was “The world is a cheat.”