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," 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.

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.

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

3 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 included Kufans, Basrans, Syrians, and the elite of Khorāsān 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 reinforcements 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 conclude peace with the king of Tabaristān, 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.

a mill, and had eaten bread made with flour therefrom. The Marzabān, on learning the approach of the Musulmans, shut himself up in a stronghold which crowned a mountain top, and was accessible by one road only. Here he held out for seven months against Yezid; but the latter enticed the garrison from their retreat by a ruse, and made prisoners of them all. Their punishment enabled the ruthless conqueror to fulfil his pledge.

Yezid now returned to Merv, and sent a highly coloured report of his successes to his master the Caliph. His career, however, was not destined to be a long one, for in the following year, A.H. 99 (717), Sulayman died, and was succeeded by 'Omar ibn 'Abd ul-'Aziz. Yezid received at the hands of the new Caliph treatment very similar to that meted out to Kutayba by Sulayman. He was summoned to appear at Basra, and after a brief interview with the sovereign he was thrown into prison. The government of Khorāsān was at the same time transferred to Jarrah, son of ‘Abdullah. The ostensible reason alleged for Yezid's disgrace was his retention of the immense booty of which, in his report to the preceding Caliph, he had boasted as the fruit of the Jurjān campaign. 'Omar's real motive was more creditable to him. Yezid had been accused by Mohammedan converts from Khorāsān of harshness and caprice, and 'Omar stood alone among the Eastern Caliphs in pursuing a policy of moderation in propagating his creed.1 This wise monarch died in A.H. 101 (719), and was succeeded by Yezid ibn 'Abd el-Melik. On his accession Yezid ibn Muhallab effected his escape from prison, raised the

1 He directed that converts were to be exempt from all taxes, and placed on the same footing as the Arabs; while unbelievers were to be taxed to the utmost. No churches, synagogues, or fire-temples were to be destroyed, but the erection of new ones was forbidden. Cf. Muir, Caliphate, p. 380.

flag of revolt against the new Caliph, one of his bitterest enemies, and made himself master of Basra. The movement spread over most of the Eastern provinces, and was not crushed until the end of the following year, A.H. 102 (720), when Maslama, who held the viceroyalty of the two 'Irāks,1 defeated and slew Yezid in a fierce battle fought near Kufa on the banks of the Euphrates. In the same year Maslama appointed a new governor of Khorasan in the person of Sa'id ibn 'Abd ul-'Aziz. This step was followed by a general rising of the inhabitants of Khojend and Farghāna. The tributary Soghdians, being thus threatened on their eastern frontier, asked help from Merv, but the new governor, who was of a weak and vacillating disposition, delayed so long in sending reinforcements that the Soghdians made overtures to the Turks. When at length the Arabs arrived they were joined by the former; but disputes arose, which ended in the slaughter of the Soghdians to the number of 3000. Throughout the reign of Yezid II. the Moslem Far East was plunged in continual warfare, with no very marked results; for the army of 'Irāk was fully occupied with operations against the Khazar and Kipchak tribes occupying Armenia, which were, for the most part, attended by ill-success. In A.H. 102 (720) Yezid II. dismissed Maslama from his post, on the ground that his leniency had led to a serious falling off in the revenues from 'Irāk and Khorāsān. 'Omar ibn Hobayra replaced him. In the following year Sa'id, "the Effeminate," while fighting beneath the walls of Samarkand, received the news of his dismissal. He was superseded in the governorship by a namesake, Sa'id

,"2

1 His post was the same as Hajjaj's, and was equivalent to a viceroyalty of the Eastern conquests of the Caliphate.

2 Known by the sobriquet of Khuzayna, "the Village Girl," because of his effeminate ways.