his palace, where he joined the members of his family. They attempted to remonstrate, and pointed out the folly of exasperating men on whose goodwill everything depended. The Arab troops, too, entered into negotiations with 'Abd er-Rahman, who was regarded as the most reasonable of Kutayba's brothers, and he proffered his services as a peacemaker. But Kutayba had by this time entirely lost his head, and turned a deaf ear to all advice. The Arabs, lashed to madness by his obstinacy, beset his palace with shouts of vengeance. Some set fire to his stables, and in the confusion that ensued another band broke into the council-hall and attacked their fallen chief. He received a wound from an arrow, and was straightway hacked to pieces with swords, A.H. 96 (714).

Thus fell, at the age of forty-six, a man whose personality stands out in bold relief in the earlier annals of the most militant of creeds.

It would be unjust to omit mention of Kutayba's zeal in the propaganda of Islām. Narshakhi has much to tell us of his pious exertions in the town of Bokhārā. On each of his four expeditions thither he compelled the inhabitants to accept the faith of Mohammed, but as soon as his back was turned they reverted to idolworship. In A.H. 94 Kutayba built, on the site of a firetemple, a large mosque, where prayers were read every Friday; a reward of two direms was given to every attendant in order to assure the permanent conversion of the people. Kutayba quartered an Arab in every house, who played the dual part of spy and missionary. His character was an epitome of the qualities which made Islām a terror to mankind, and ultimately conspired to reduce it to impotence.

CHAPTER IX

KUTAYBA'S SUCCESSORS

ON the death of Kutayba, Waki', who had been a ringleader in the revolt, took upon himself the direction of affairs in Khorāsān. After a lapse of nine months, however, a new governor arrived, in the person of Yezid ibn Muhallab, and Waki' was placed under arrest, while his partisans were subjected to punishment. According to the Persian translation of Tabari, Yezid this year "began a series of expeditions beyond the frontiers of Khorāsān, to countries where Kutayba had not penetrated," 1 but they are not mentioned in the Arabic original, nor are such undertakings consistent with the rest of Yezid's For his attention was turned to the subjection of the countries to the west of Khorasan,2 rather than to the extension of Mohammedan authority towards the Chinese frontier.

career.

1

Thus we find him in A.H. 98 conducting his troops against Jurjān and Tabaristan. The former country was regarded as the key of Western Asia. It was strongly fortified; and its walls, extending as far as the Sea of Azof, were an effectual barrier to the aggressions of the Turkish hordes.3 But these attacks appear to have told

1 See Zotenberg's translation of the Persian Tabari, vol. iv. p. 221.

* After remaining, as Tabari tells us, four months in Khorāsān to settle the administration of the province.

* Zotenberg, vol. iv. p. 225 et seq.

severely on the inhabitants, who finally secured the
withdrawal of their persistent foes by the payment of
tribute. They had adopted similar tactics on an Arab
invasion which took place under the Caliphate of
'Othman when the enemy again withdrew, on receiving
a bribe of 2,000,000 direms. Jurjān thereafter enjoyed
a long immunity from attack, although Kutayba had
more than once solicited permission from Hajjāj to
establish a direct route between 'Irāk and Khorāsān by
crushing its independence. Yezid's anxiety to achieve
a conquest which had been the unrealised ambition of
his great rival can be easily understood. On his
departure from Jurjān he left his son Mokhallad in
charge of Khorāsān. The force at his command in-
cluded Kūfans, Basrans, Syrians, and the élite of
Khorasan and Ray, and numbered 100,000, exclusive
of volunteers and slaves. The first object of his attack
was the town of Dihistan, which was peopled by Turks.1
Having reduced it by a close blockade, he proceeded to
Jurjān, where the inhabitants, as was their wont, bought
peace at the price of 300,000 direms. Yezid then
passed in a south-westerly direction into Tabaristan.
Its king took refuge in a mountain inaccessible to the
Mohammedan troops, and organised resistance to the
invader from this safe retreat. He obtained reinforce-
ments from Gilan and Daylam, and called on the
Marzaban of Jurjān to break the treaty entered into
with Yezid, and massacre the Arabs in Jurjān. Thus
was Yezid surrounded by active foes, and his retreat
cut off. The only course open to him was to con-
clude peace with the king of Tabaristan, and gather
his forces for the punishment of the faithless people
of Jurjān. This he did, swearing that he would not
stay his sword until he had shed blood enough to turn
1 Tabari, Annales, Series II. p. 1318.