Abu Muhammad al-Sufyani

Ziyād ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiya (Arabic: زياد بن عبد الله بن يزيد بن معاوية), commonly known as Abū Muḥammad al-Sufyānī (Arabic: أبو محمد السفياني) was an Umayyad prince and a pretender to the Umayyad Caliphate, which had been overthrown by the Iraq-based Abbasid Caliphate in early 750.

Abu Muhammad was a great-grandson of the first Umayyad caliph, Mu'awiya I, and thus belonged to the Sufyanid (Sufyani) line of the Umayyad family, which ruled the caliphate between 661 and 684, after which they were succeeded by the Marwanid line. The last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II (r. 744–750), imprisoned Abu Muhammad until releasing him at the end of his reign, when the Abbasids routed his army at the Battle of the Zab in 750.

To counter the ascendant Abbasids, Abu Muhammad and his tribal supporters from the Banu Kalb and the wider Yaman of Homs and Palmyra joined forces with their traditional rivals, the Qays under Abu al-Ward. Abu Muhammad claimed the mantle of the caliphate and took on the messianic role of the 'Sufyani', who would deliver a golden age for the Syrians. His tribal coalition was defeated by the Abbasids and he fled to the Hejaz, where he was killed during the early reign of Abbasid caliph al-Mansur (r. 754–775).