In Syria of a.d. 744 the Marwānid evolution came full circle. Once again the Syrians were lined up under their respective caliphal candidates in a conflict for the possession of the state. But whereas the second civil war had been fought for the maintenance of the Sufyānid order, the third civil war by contrast was enacted for its final destruction.

In the first place, the agents had drastically changed. The leaders of the third civil war were generals. Yazīd III's Yamaniyya had served in North Africa, Iraq, Armenia, Khurāsān, and Sind at various times before the revolt, while Marwān II's Qaysiyya were frontier troops, and it was only such soldiers who responded to the factional slogans. But the victims of the civil war were ashrāf. With a few exceptions the Sufyānid aristocracy supplied no sons to the generals of 744, and the few that one does find among them are indistinguishable from their fellow soldiers in terms of careers and interests. The sons of the ashrāf of Jābiya appeared as the opponents of Yazīd. In contrast to the Yamaniyya they were purely local figures. They had no careers in the far-flung provinces of the empire, but they were greatly respected at home where they commanded the loyalty of the city or district populace, coming forth as its leaders in a legitimist revolt on behalf of the sons of Walīd. But militarily they were no match for the generals, and it was no longer they who elected the caliph.