Hishām was succeeded by his nephew Walīd II. Our sources give the impression that Walīd's succession had been pre-arranged twenty years earlier by his father Yazīd II, Hishām's predecessor. Although this is possible, a closer study of the situation indicates that it was not that simple. There is no doubt that Hishām himself was not completely satisfied with this arrangement. Within his close circle, opposition to Walīd's succession was voiced by as prominent a scholar as al-Zuhrī. It is also reported that Hishām tried to change the succession in favour of one of his sons, Maslama, who, oddly enough, was not as active or prominent as his brothers during their father's long reign. If this is true, it would seem that Hishām was, in effect, trying to promote a compromise candidate. Subsequent events clearly show that members of the Marwānid family were deeply divided on the question of Walīd's succession. Naturally, disagreements must have arisen before within the family, but this time the disagreement was most serious and it heralded the disintegration of one of the pillars of the regime, the unity of the Marwānid family itself.

It may easily be surmised that those members of the family who favoured Walīd's succession were in fact urging the continued implementation of the expansionist policies vigorously reimposed during the reign of his father, Yazīd II.