The new caliph has succeeded in gaining control of Damascus and Syria, but elsewhere his authority ranges from theoretical to nonexistent.

In Iraq, this turmoil spills over in the form of a struggle between Yazid III's governor Abdallah ibn Umar and Marwan's appointee, al-Nadr ibn Sa'id al-Harashi.

This conflict has allowed the Kharijites, a Muslim sect which had originated in Mesopotamia, to rise up.

This revolt was initially led by Sa'id ibn Bahdal, but he died soon of the plague, and has been succeeded by Al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Shaybani, who quickly assembles a sizable army, and manages to defeat the two rival governors, who had joined forces, in April/May 745.

In the aftermath of their defeat, al-Harashi returns to Marwan and Abdallah ibn Umar retreats to the fortress of Wasit, where he is soon besieged.

In August, however, ibn Umar gives himself up, and, in an unprecedented act for a member of the Umayyad dynasty and of the Prophet's own Quraysh tribe, does homage to Dahhak, who is neither and who has by now been declared caliph by his followers.

Marwan, after crushing the Syrian revolt in 745, forms an army of Syrian troops to send into Iraq, but they rebel on their way and accept Sulayman as their leader.

The rebel army takes Qinnasrin, but are soon after defeated by Marwan.

Although much of his army survives and withdraws to …

…Homs under the command of his brother Sa'id (where they are soon besieged by Marwan's forces), Sulayman flees from Homs to …

…Palmyra, then to …

…Kufa, where he enters the service of al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Shaybani, the leader of the Mesopotamian Kharijites who, taking advantage of Marwan's preoccupation with the prolonged siege of Homs, has claimed the caliphate.

Kufa, now occupied by Dahhak's forces, has become his seat, while ibn Umar has been named named governor of Wasit, eastern Iraq and western Persia.

Dahhak's generosity in rewarding his followers, as well as the attractiveness of Kharijite doctrine, quickly swells his rank further, until his army is said to have reached one hundred and twenty thousand men.

Marwan, taking Homs in early 746 after a bitter ten-month siege, razes the walls of the city, then …

…marches against Dahhak and defeats and kills him in battle at Kafartuta.

Al-Dahhak's successor al-Khaybari is initially successful in pushing back Marwan's center and even takes the caliph's camp and sits on his carpet.

However, he and those with him fall in fighting in the camp.

Shayban succeeds him.

The rebels then withdraw across the Tigris upon Sulayman's advice, escaping destruction for the time being.

Marwan and his lieutenant Yazid ibn Hubayra pursue Shayban and Sulayman to Mosul in 747 and besiege them there for six months until the reinforced caliphal army drives out the Kharijite remnants and consolidates Umayyad control of Iraq.

The surviving prominent rebels flee east: Shayban flees to Bahrain, where he is killed; Sulayman sails to India along with Mansur ibn Jumhur, where he will later die.