Khurasan, the northeasternmost province of the Caliphate, had not escaped the turmoils of the civil war. Yazid III's accession posed a threat to the longtime governor, Nasr ibn Sayyar, as the numerous Yemenis in Khurasan sought to replace him with their champion, Juday al-Kirmani. Nasr tried to secure his own position by deposing al-Kirmani from his leadership of the Azd tribe, as well as by trying to win over Azd and Rabi'ah leaders, but his efforts only led to a general uprising by these tribes under al-Kirmani. It is indicative of the lingering intertribal antagonism of the late Umayyad world that the rebellion was launched in the name of revenge for the Muhallabids, an Azdi family that had been purged after rebelling in 720, an act which had since become a symbol of Yemeni resentment of the Umayyads and their northern Arab-dominated regime. Nasr imprisoned al-Kirmani in the provincial capital, Merv, but he managed to escape in summer 744. Despite Nasr's eventual re-confirmation as governor by Yazid, the rebellion spread among the Arabs of Khurasan, so that Nasr was forced to turn to the exiled rebel al-Harith ibn Surayj. Al-Kirmani had played a major role in the latter's defeat years ago, and Ibn Surayj's northern Arab (Tamimi) origin made him a natural enemy of the Yemenis. Ibn Surayj however had other designs; gathering a following of many of the Tamimis and the disaffected Arabs of the province, he launched an attack on Merv in March 746. After it failed, he made common cause with al-Kirmani.
