There were recurrences of the plague in Syria–Palestine about every decade between 688/89 and 744/45.^[35] "The Umaiyad [sic] dynasty was literally plagued by this disease", in the words of Dols.^[36] The deaths of the Umayyad caliphs Mu'awiya II (r. 683–684), Marwan I (r. 684–685), Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705), Sulayman (r. 715–717) and the Umayyad governors in Iraq al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba (r. 661–671) and Ziyad ibn Abihi (r. 685–673) may all possibly have been caused by the plague epidemics in Syria and Iraq.^[37][21] The caliphs routinely withdrew from the cities to their desert palaces when the plague emerged during the summer months.^[36] Notable among them was Caliph Hisham (r. 724–743), who preferred his palace at Rusafa over Damascus because he viewed the latter to be unhealthy.^[38]