According to an account recorded in the history of 9th-century historian al-Tabari, Uthman's appointment came about as a result of a ploy by the Mecca-based, anti-Umayyad claimant to the caliphate, Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. The latter had sent a letter disparaging al-Walid ibn Utba as unfit and suggesting he be replaced by a governor more inclined to mutual cooperation. Yazid responded by installing Uthman.[2] According to historian Julius Wellhausen, Uthman was "a young man, inexperienced and conceited".[3]