Maslama was the son of the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (reigned 685???705) and half-brother of the caliphs al-Walid I (r. 705???715), Sulayman (r. 715???717), Yazid II (r. 720???724) and Hisham (r. 724???743).[2][3] Maslama himself was excluded from the line of succession as his mother was a slave.[1][4]