kand. The Turks of Bokhārā were at that time governed by a princess named Khātūn, who acted as regent during the minority of her son Tughshāda. On the approach of the Arabs with an overwhelming force, Khātūn fled to Samarkand. According to Tabari,1 so great was her haste that one of her shoes was left behind. It fell into the hands of the Arabs, and was valued by them at 200,000 direms,2

Diplomacy gained for Bokhārā what arms could never have accomplished. Khātūn saved the evacuation of her capital by entering into a treaty by which she bound herself to pay a yearly tribute. 'Ubaydullah withdrew to Merv laden with booty, and on his return to Irāk was appointed by the Caliph Mo'awiya, governor of Basra, In A.H. 56 (676) Sa'id ibn 'Othman, who had superseded him in Khorāsān, determined to complete the conquest of Bokhārā, in spite of the treaty concluded by his predecessor. The Queen-Regent Khātūn was powerless to resist the invasion, for she had reason to doubt the loyalty of her troops, and her resources had been wellnigh exhausted in her struggle with 'Ubaydullah. She therefore came to terms with Sa'id by the surrender of the last shreds of her sovereignty in Bokhārā. But Samarkand, the wealthiest of its strongholds, was still unmastered. Sa'id ibn 'Othman embarked on a campaign for its reduction, carrying with him eighty Bokhārān

1 Tabari, II. p. 169. The Persian Tabari does not mention this queen, but relates the same incident of the king of the Turks; Ba'lami, the Persian translator, also adds that the shoe was sold by Ubaydullah to the merchants of Basra. Cf. Zotenberg's Chroniques de Tabari, tome iv. p. 19.

2 The direm, derived from the Greek drachma, contained 25 grains of silver, and was worth about 5d. of our money. On this basis the value of the shoe would be £4166 sterling!

Vambéry, History of Bokhārā, p. 20. The author says he has this fact from "Arabic authors," but we have been unable to find any mention of it in either the Arabic or Persian versions of Tabari.

nobles as hostages for their queen's good behaviour. After several successful engagements with the Turks he stormed Samarkand1 and carried off 30,000 prisoners, with much booty.2 When Sa'id passed through Bokhārā on his return to Khorāsān the queen demanded back the eighty hostages, but he replied that he did not yet feel sure of her good faith, and that he would not part with the Bokhārāns until he had crossed the Amu Daryā. At this stage of his march the queen sent messengers to repeat her demand, but she was informed by Saïd that the hostages should be sent back from Merv. Thus he continued to elude compliance, and finally dragged his wretched captives to Medina. Here they were stripped of the attire proper to their rank and reduced to a condition of slavery. Preferring death to an ignominious existence, the desperadoes broke into Sa'id's palace, and, closing fast the doors, slew him and afterwards themselves. This tragedy occurred in A.H. 61 (680), under the Caliphate of Yezid ibn Merwan, who had succeeded his father Mo'awiya in the previous year.

One of the Caliph's first acts had been to appoint Salm ibn Ziyad as his lieutenant in Khorāsān. The latter found the northern part of his charge a prey to revolt, for the restless Khātūn had taken advantage of dissension among the Caliph's followers to throw off his hated yoke.

Salm took council with a trusted general

1 According to Tabari (II. p. 179), Sa'id was met by a great Soghdian force on reaching Samarkand. The rival hosts stood facing each other till nightfall, but on the following day Sa'id made a furious onslaught and put the defenders to flight, taking fifteen young nobles as hostages.

2 Narshakhi, ed. Schefer, p. 39.

3 Bellew and Vambéry both call him "Muslim," a reading which has been adopted in the Russian translation of Narshakhi, published in Tashkent in 1897. The latter, indeed, contains a note to the effect that the name is written "Salm" in Arabic sources. It is also the spelling in the Persian Tabari. Salm was twenty-four years of age on his appointment. His father was 'Ubaydullah, the famous governor of Basra.

2

named Muhallab,1 and, establishing a base at Merv, crossed the Oxus with a force 6000 strong and moved rapidly on to Bokhārā. The queen, in her despair, turned to the Tarkhūn Malik of Soghd, to whom she promised her hand in marriage as the price of his alliance against the invaders. The Tarkhūn, seduced by the dazzling bait, advanced to her assistance at the head of 120,000 men. He put a reconnoitring party of the Arabs to flight, destroying more than half their number, but was beset by the entire force, and after a fierce struggle was utterly routed. So vast was the booty taken by Salm's followers in the pursuit that each manat-arms received 2400 direms.3

This victory brought the queen of Bokhārā to her senses. She sued for peace, which was granted, and Salm returned in triumph. Salm seems to have won for himself universal respect during his two years' residence in Merv as governor of Khorāsān, and the fact that during this period 2000 children had received his name is quoted as a proof of his popularity.

The Caliph Yezid had died during the previous year (683). He was succeeded by Mo'awiya II., who was less imbued with fanaticism than his lieutenants, and found the Caliphate too heavy a burden.

Resigning it after a

1 This warrior held command of the Arab troops in Central Asia under several viceroys in succession, and thus gained the confidence of his troops and an intimate knowledge of Khorasan and the adjoining tracts. The stability in the office of generalissimo went far to neutralise any disadvantages occurring from the frequent changes in that of viceroy.

2 Tabari (II. p. 394) tells us that Salm took his wife Umm Mohammed with him, and that she was the first Arab woman to cross the Oxus. She bore him a son, who was surnamed the "Soghdian."

3 £55 reckoned in our currency.

Narshakhi's account of these events brings the lack of discipline among the Arabs into a strong light, and serves to account for the vicissitudes of their rule in Central Asia.

This curious custom still survives in Merv. "One day," writes O'Donovan, "the town-crier, accompanied by half a dozen other Turcomans,

few months' reign, he left Islām a prey to anarchy. Two claimants appeared for the thorny crown-'Abdullah ibn Zobayr, and Merwan I. of the race of Umayya. The first gained the allegiance of Yemen, including the Holy Places, Egypt and part of Syria; the second was proclaimed lord of Damascus, and speedily drove his rival from Syria and Egypt. Merwān's son and successor, 'Abd el-Melik, concluded a peace with the Byzantine emperor on the basis of the payment of a tribute of 50,000 pieces of gold, and turned the whole of his forces against the pretender, who still held to Mekka and Medina. Him he defeated twice, and slew Mohammad. All Islām was now under his chieftainship, with the exception of Khorāsān, which was governed by 'Abdullah ibn Khāzim as representative of Ibn Zobayr. Finding it impossible to secure the former's allegiance, 'Abd elMelik incited one of his generals named Bukayr to compass his master's death, on a promise to confer on him the governorship of the province. The bait was swallowed by Bukayr, who formed a conspiracy against 'Abdullah ibn Khāzim, and deprived him of authority (692). He became head of Khorāsān; but his triumph was shortlived. The Caliph naturally doubted the loyalty of one who had shown himself unfaithful to his trust, and superseded him by Umayya ibn 'Abdullah ibn Khalid (696). Four years later (700), Muhallab, who had left Merv and established himself in Kesh (the modern Shahrisebz), sent his son Habib with a huge army

entered my hut, each to present me a new-born child. I could not catch the exact words; all I could understand was that one of the infants was O'Donovan Beg, another O'Donovan Khan, a third O'Donovan Bahadur. I forget what the others were. It turned out that the Tekkes' newly born children are, as a rule, called after any distinguished strangers who may be on the oasis at the time of their births, or have resided there a short time previously, or after some event intimately connected with the tribe" (The Story of Merv, p. 329).

against Bokhārā, whose king he utterly defeated. While Muhallab was in Kesh, his followers entreated him to penetrate farther into the country, but Muhallab replied that his only aim was to bring all his Musulmans safe back to Merv. After two years' stay at Kesh he came to terms with the inhabitants of the surrounding country, and, satisfied with the large tribute they rendered to him, returned to his headquarters at Merv.

Muhallab died A.H. 82 (701), and was succeeded by his son Yezid in the government of Merv. In A.H. 84 (703)1 the latter was deprived of his post by the famous Hajjāj,2 who had the disposal of all such appointments. Yezid thereupon quitted Khorāsān, and his brother Mufaddhal, who had formerly been his lieutenant, was appointed governor. He held the post for about nine months, undertaking during that brief period successful expeditions against Khiva and Badghis. The immense. spoils of war he distributed among his soldiers, keeping, we are told, nothing for himself. In A.H. 86 (705) 'Abd el-Melik died, and in the same year, on the arrival of Yezid in 'Irāk, Hajjāj appointed Kutayba ibn Muslim el-Bahili governor of Khorāsān in place of Mufaddhal. The glorious career of Kutayba in Central Asia began at this epoch with his entry into Merv.

1 Cf. Aug. Müller, Der Islam, p. 411, who gives the date as A.H. 85. 2 An entertaining account of this cruel and witty governor will be found in d'Herbelot, under the article Heggiage-ben-Josef-al-Thakefi.