As we have shown in the last chapter the Qays system had its weaknesses which were quickly seized upon by an increasingly strong opposition. This opposition had only to wait for a new and more sympathetic Amīr al-Mu'minīn for their hopes to be realized. With the accession of Sulaymān their time came. Sulaymān and ‘Umar II reigned for only a short time – a mere five years – but in terms of intensity of political activity and change these five years are as important as the thirty years of ‘Abdulmalik and Walīd I. Particularly fascinating in this period is the swift acceleration of change, going far beyond the thinking of the Yaman in their years of opposition. The development of Sulaymān's cautious moderation into ‘Umar II's decided radicalism was swift, and strikingly similar to that of the great European revolutions of the last two centuries. But there was one crucial difference: this “revolution” was always so firmly directed from the top that the radical forces it unleashed were easily brought under control when the top changed its politics. It was a revolution which never got past the initial stage.