When ‘Abdulmalik came to power in 685/65, he probably had no clear political purpose other than the restoration of the stability of Mu‘āwiya's reign through the implementation of the same cautious policies. Of course this was to the Syrians' advantage and obviously that was the reason for their support of Marwān and ‘Abdulmalik. While this approach assured the stability of Syria, the power base of the central government, it offered no solution to the chronic problems of the rest of the empire. ‘Abdulmalik must have realized that the second civil war had shown the inadequacy of such an approach, but he was also aware of the inherent risks involved in introducing any fundamental changes, particularly when such unstable conditions existed in the empire. Consequently, he proceeded to rule very carefully, proposed no basic changes and tried to cope with new situations in the empire with effective pragmatism. His approach to government was that of a practical ruler who saw no reason to depart from inherited policies until events absolutely demanded that he should. Undoubtedly he was an able ruler, but he seems to have lacked the imagination and foresight necessary to devise long-range policies on a systematic basis. He acted forcefully mainly in response to events in the empire rather than on his own initiative, and such actions provoked strong opposition which in turn called for still stronger measures.