Yazid and his sons established Shaybanid influence over the Caliphate's Transcaucasian provinces by repeatedly occupying the office of governor (ostikan) of Arminiya (a large province encompassing Armenia, modern Azerbaijan, Iberia and Arran).[2] His father Khalid served in the same office no less than four times: in 813/814, 828–832, briefly in 841 and again shortly after, dying in office ca. 844. Muhammad succeeded him in his post, continuing his work of suppressing the various local rebellions by Muslim and Christian princes.[3] After his dismissal, he returned to his ancestral lands in Diyar Bakr, and was re-appointed as ostikan in 857, following the bloody suppression of a major Armenian rebellion under Bugha al-Kabir.[4][5] He received the office again in 878, when according to Thomas Arcruni he tried to form an alliance with other local Muslim rulers such as the Kaysites to curtail the rising power of the Prince of Princes Ashot Bagratuni, but was defeated and forced to flee the country.