by a Byzantine counter-attack shortly after which targeted Malatya. The city was saved, although Hisham himself had to take the field with whatever forces he could assemble; nevertheless, this attack, the first after many years of Byzantine passivity, signalled the shifting balance of power in the region. In the same year, Sulayman received and carried out his father's orders to execute all Byzantine prisoners, after a false report reached the Caliph that the Byzantines had executed their own Muslim prisoners. In 742, taking advantage of the Byzantine civil war between the usurper Artabasdos and Constantine V (), Sulayman led another raid which reached as far as Paphlagonia undisturbed and took many prisoners. Civil wars In 743, Hisham died, and Sulayman's cousin al-Walid II took power. Walid, jealous of Sulayman's popularity, had him flogged and imprisoned, an act which aroused considerable opposition and cost Walid much of the initial good will that he had enjoyed at his accession. In spring 744, a coup in Damascus deposed Walid, who was absent from the capital. He was killed soon after and replaced with Yazid III. The Arabs of Homs were still loyal to Walid and marched on Damascus with the intention of installing Abu Muhammad al-Sufyani, a descendant of the Sufyanid branch of the Umayyad clan, as caliph, but Sulayman was released from prison and defeated them. However, the turmoil did not subside: when Yazid died in September 744, the powerful and ambitious governor of northern Mesopotamia (the Jazira), Marwan ibn Muhammad, supported by the Qaysis of the Jazira and northern Syria, revolted against his successor Ibrahim ibn al-Walid. Initially, Marwan did not claim the caliphate for himself, but proclaimed his intent to restore the throne to Walid II's two imprisoned sons. Sulayman met Marwan's advance south of Baalbek with his personal army, the . This force was 5,000 or more strong, was maintained from his own funds and estates, and recruited mostly from the (non-Arab Muslims). Marwan defeated Sulayman who retreated to Damascus and ordered the execution of Walid II's sons. Then he, together with Ibrahim, fled to Palmyra. Soon however they came before Marwan and surrendered themselves. Marwan's accession to the Caliphate remained contested both in Syria and in southern Mesopotamia (Iraq). After crushing a Syrian revolt in 745, Marwan formed an army of Syrian troops to send into Iraq, but they rebelled on their way and accepted Sulayman as their