This paper focuses on some of the practical conditions of the Marwanid restoration of power in the aftermath of the second fitna and argues for the practice of an itinerant kingship initiated by ?Abd al-Malik in Syria. It then follows the evolution of this mode of government all through the Umayyad period, until the eventual demise of the dynasty. The methodology adopted aims to confront the limited textual evidences to archaeological and epigraphical data. The main argument proposed here is that Umayyad desert castles were primarily connected with an itinerant practice of power, even if most of the other functions proposed by the various theories regarding these sites might occasionally be true. Such a practice was first developed by ?Abd al-Malik, as part of his effort to reaffirm his control over Syria. But as it was impossible for him to move throughout the whole province, he delegated caliphal mobility to the Marwanid princes. This decision in turn led to an important ‘territorialization’ of Syrian space. In the course of the Marwanid period, as mobility was entrusted to the princes, the caliph was more and more able to settle in a privileged residence as best exemplified by Hish?m. He was very likely a prince in motion but he became a very static caliph, based in al-Ru??fa. This rapid evolution of the system had important consequences. Mobility becomes slowly the privilege of princes, and more and more of princes at war, like Maslama b. ?Abd al-Malik, in the last phase of the Umayyad Jihad State. The failure of itinerant kingship, a model of government promoted by ?Abd al-Malik in the context of the Marwanid restoration (maybe, in fact, more by necessity than by choice) was also the failure of the Umayyad dynasty, even if such a system was used anew by the first Abbasids. The delegated mobility was finally confiscated. Itinerant power passed from the caliphs to “prince-soldiers” and later (under the Abbasids) to soldiers, resulting in the confiscation of mobility and to the immobile caliphate. The Umayyad desert castles were slowly abandoned in Abbasid times; as their function was ephemeral, so was their occupation. But the legacy of itinerant kingship is perhaps the most visible heritage of the first dynasty of Islam. Like their huge project of building mosques in every major city, their policy of itinerant kingship contributed, to the making of a caliphal landscape.