Editing Al-Walid II (section)

== Death ==
[[Yazid III|Yazid]] slipped into Damascus and deposed al-Walid in a coup, following this up with a disbursement of funds from the treasury.<ref>Theophilus. Quoted Robert Hoyland, Seeing Islam as Others Saw It (Darwin Press, 1998), 660</ref> The caliph was besieged in a castle outside the city. He fought well, but on April 16, 744, at Al-Aghdaf, in modern [[Jordan]], he was defeated and killed by the forces of [[Sulayman ibn Hisham]]. He was succeeded by his cousin [[Yazid III]].

According to Yazid's own account, Yazid sent Abd al-Aziz ibn al-Hajjaj to meet Walid at al-Bakhra.<ref>1234 Chronicle ''apud'' Hoyland confirms this, 660; it was a fortress near Palmyra. 1234 and Muslim sources dispute over whether Walid was there all along or whether he had fled there.</ref> 'Abd al-Aziz offered to set up a tribal assembly (''[[shura]]'') to decide the future of the realm. Walid rejected this offer and attacked, by which action he lost his life.<ref>Patricia Crone, God's Caliph (Cambridge University Press, 1986), 127</ref>