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Te Arab conquests in Central AsiaH.A. R. Gibb
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Recommended CitationGibb, H. A. R. Te Arab conquests in Central Asia. London: Te Royal Asiatic Society, 1923. viii, 102 p.
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Ei
OLL
8 8
6
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C O N QU E ST S I N C E N T R L S I
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JAMES G. FORLONG
FUND
VOL.
IT.
T H E
ARAB CONQUESTS
IN
C E N T R A L A S I A
Y
H. A R.
GIBB, M A
EDIN. AND LOND.)
Lecturer in Arabic, School of Oriental Stud~esLondon
THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY
74
GROSV NOR
STREET ONDON
.I.
1923
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CONTENTS
lut
PREFACE vii
I
THE OXUSBASIN
E arl y Ilistory Politica l Divisions The
rabic Sources . .
V .
TH E T U R I ~ I S H
OUNTERSTROI
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PREFACE
TH
first draf t of this work was presented to t h e
University of London in December 1921 under tile t i t le
of T h e Arab Coilquest of Transoxania , as a tllesis fo r
t h e deg ree of M aster of A rts, and was al~pr ov edby t h e
Sen a te in January
1922,
for publication as such. D ur ing
the year my attention was taken up in other directions
and, except for the publicatioll of two studies on t h e
subject in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental Stu die s,
nothing further was done until by the generosity of tlie
Trustees of the Forlong Bequest Fund an opportunity
of p ub lication was offered. I n its present forin t h e worlt
h a s bee n largely rewritten and revised. I t ma kes no
c la im to presen t a complete lGstorical account of t h e
A r a b s in Central Asia,
but
is
intended solely as
a
critical
s t u d y of th e au thorities in greater detail than has hi th ert o
be en mad e. Much is therefore om itted bccaosc i t b a s
already been dealt with in the standard histories. I n
o rd er to keep down the cost of publication, the extensiv e
references which originally accompanicd tlie text have
been
cut
down t o a few notes at the end of each ch ap te r.
N o references ar e given when, as in the great m aj o ri ty
of
cases, the authority for thc statements made can
easily be found in the appropriate place either in Tabari
or
Balzdhuri.
regret that several worlcs which are indispensable
f o r a thorough stu dy of th e subject have, for ling uis tic
reas ons, been inaccessible t o me. Such are va n Vloten 's
Opkomst der Abbnsiden, and almost the whole
r a n g e of Russian research work. Through the kindn ess
of Sir Denison Ross, however, I have been able to avail
myself
of
a draf t
MS.
t ranslation of the most i m p o r t a t
and
valuable of them all, Professor
W
Bar thold ' s
YI
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viii
PREF CE
Tuvkestalz
as well as of his as yet unpublislled London
lectures on Th e Nomads of Central Asia. My sincere
thanks are
due
to
Sir Denison Ross also for
his
continued
interest and inaterial assistance ever since he first intro-
duced me t o th e subject to Sir Thomas Arnold for much
encouragement and helpful counsel to Professor
Barthold, who has read the MS. through and made a
number of valuable suggestions to the Trustees of
the
Forlong Bequest Fund for their ltindness in undertalting
the publication
;
and in no small nieasure to my wife,
who has given much time and labour to preparing the
MS
for publication.
London,
April, 1923
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I INTRODUCTION
I
THE
OXUS
B SIN
Early History
T he Oxus is a bo un da ry of tradition r ath er t h a n of
history. Lying m idway between th e old fro ntie r of
Aryan civilisation form ed by the Jax artes and t h e Pa m ir
i and the natural strategic Irontier offered by the north-
eastern escarpment of the plateau of k i n , it ha s never
i
proved a barrier to imperial armies froin either side.
I t was not on the Oxus but on the Jaxartes that
I
Alexander's strategic insight ,fixed the position of
Alexander Eschate, and when the outposts of Persian
dominion were thrust back by the constant pressure of
the Central Asian hordes, their retr ea tw as s taye d no t o n
the Oxus but on the MurghBb.
Thus when t h e t id e of
conquest turned and th e Arabs won back h e r anc ient
heritage for Persia, they, like Alexander, were compelled
to carry their arms ever further to the East and al l un-
knowing re-establish th e frontiers of th e Ac haem enid
Em pire. I t was from the legends of S s nian im es,
enshrined in th e pagee of th e historian s and the nat ional
epic of Firdawsi, th a t th e Oxus came to be regardc d a s
the boundary between h i in a nd T i i r h .
Through all the centuries of invasion, however, the
peoples
of
Sogdiana and the Oxus basin remained I ra n ia ~ l
a t bottom, preserving an Iranian speech a n d Ira ni an
institutio ns. B ut the political conditions of th e co un try
a t th e period of the Arab conquests were so co ~ n p le x h a t
it is necessary t o trace briefly th e course of th e ir
devclopmen t.
Th e second ce ntury B.C was a period of uphe av al
n
Central Asia th e powerful Hiung-Nu peoples we re
dispossessing weaker trib es of their pasture l an ds a n d
forcing them to m i g a t e westwards, Between 150 a n d
B
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ARAB
CONQUESTS
IN CENTRALASIA
126 B.C.
a succession
of nomadic tribes, the last and
lnost powerful of which were a branch of the Yueh-Chi,
were driven down into Sogdiana. It is now generally
held that these tribes were of Aryan origin, though the
question is not perhaps settled with absolute certainty.
Before long, however, a second group, the Ic ang, pos-
sessed themselves of Sogdiana, driving the Yueh Chi on
into Bactria and the Afghan mouniains 1).
In these
districts they found, alongside the Iranian peasantry, a
settledpopulationof Tulthari (in Chinese, Ta-Hia), already
noted in the Chinese annals for their commercial enter-
prise 2), and tvhile at iirst the nomad tribes introduced
complete confusion, it would seem that they rapidly
absorbed, or were absorbed by, the native elements, and
thus assimilated the Hellenistic civilisation of Bactria.
From this fusion arose, about
6
A.D. the powerful
Icushan Empire which spread into India on the one side
and probably maintained some form of suzerainty over
the Ic ang ltindgoms of Sogdiana on the other. Under
the new empire, Buddhism was acclimatised in Turltestan,
and Sogdiana developed into a great entrep t for Chinese
trade with the West. Towards the close of the ihircl
centu~yhe Icushan Empire, wealcelled by attaclts from
the new national dynasties in India and Persia, reverted
to its primitive form
of
small independent principalities,
which, however, retained sufficient cohesion to prevent
a Persian reconquest, I t is practically certain that
SBsBnian authority never extended beyond Balk11 and
rarely as far. In the fourth and fifth centuries references
are made to a fresh horde of nomads in the north-easi,
the Juan-Juan (Chionitae, Avars) 3), but it does not
appear that any new settlements were made in the
Oxus countries.
In the middle of the fifth century, another people,
the Ephthalites (Arabic Haytal, Chinese Ye-Tha), per-
haps a branch of the Hiung-nu, not only completely
overran the former Kushan territories, but by successive
defeats of the Persian arinics forced the SZsBnid Icings
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Trm Oxus
BASIN
to pay tribute.
Th e Ephthalites appear to have been a
nomadic people organised as a military c aste of t h e
familiar Turkish type, smd the existing institutions and
principalities, in large pa rt a t least, con tinued side b y side
with them
4).
Their rule was too transitory t o produce
any lasting eTIects, or t o inflict any serious in jury o n t h e
commerce ant1 prosperity of Sogdiaila.
The rise of th e Central Asian em pire of the Turlrs
proper Tu-ICueh) da tes from their ove rthrow of t he Juan-
Juan in IlIongolia in
552,
under their great K han , Mok an.
His brother Istam i the Silzibul of th e B yz an tin e
historians), tlie semi-independent jabghu of the ten tribe s
of Western Turlts, after co ~~ so lid at in gis power in the
Ili and Chu valleys, formed an alliauce with KhusrG
AnGshiruCin, and in a joint attack between 563 and 68
the two powers colnpletely overthrew the Ephthalite
kingdom and divided their territorics.
For
a brief
moment the Oxus was the actual boundary between
friin and TBrBn under pressure from the silk tr ad er s
of
Sogdiana, howwcr, the alliance
was
brolten and the
wealter successors of AntishirwBn could scarcely do more
than maintain their outpost garrisons on the MurghZb.
From this time the Ephthalites, lilte tlle Kushans, were
gradually assimilating to the Iran ian populatioll 5 ) ,
though th e change w s less rapid n the Cisoxine land s of
Lower TukllQristBn,BBdghis, and H e ri t , where Ep hth alite
principalities were re-constituted, probably with Turlrish
support, and continued to give Persia much trouble on
lier north-eastern frontiers
6).
11
the other hand the
Turlts of th e five western tribes Nu-she-pi), who b ecame
independent
d t c r
the break up of the Great Khanate
about 582, maintained their suzerainty over Sogcliana
and the middle Oxus basin by freqnenl expeditions, in
one case a t least as far as Ball
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ARABCON~UESTSN CENTRAL SIA
interference in tlle administration cf the subject princi-
palities was a t first limited to tlie appointment of military
governors ancl the collectio~lof tribute. Thus, in t l ~ e
semi-legendary account give11 by An-NaysBbfiri of tlie
Turkish conquest of BulchLra the Bulch?ir I
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TII OXUS
B SIN
g o o d
cause for doubting whether a Turlcisli army ever
c a m e in response to their appeals for support until the
ris
of the Tiirgesh power in
716
Geographically the cultivated lands to the west and
so~z th-west f the middle Jaxartes are diviclecl by the
I-I is sa r mountains into two well-defined areas. The
n o r t h e r n area includes the rich valley of the Zarafshdl
a n d the lesser streams which descend the northern slope
o f t h e watershed, the southern comprises the broad
bas in
forined by the Oxus ancl its tributaries between
t h
mountains of the Pamir and the steppelands. Tlle
former; which as a whole is called Sogdiana in clis-
t i nc t ion from the smaller principality of Sughd, was at
t h i s
period divided between a number of small states,
each inclependenl of the others but forming together a
l o o s e confederacy in a manner strikingly reminiscent of
t h e
I-Iellenic city-states. The strongest bond
of
union
w a s
formed by their mutual interest in the Chinese sillc
t r a d e , the chief stations of which were a t Samarqand,
P a y k a n d , and I
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ARABCONQUESTSN CENTRAL SIA
the later lists the rulers of Sl~ shnd FarghLna as well as
the I-Chwiirizm ShZlx are shown as belonging lo the clan
also, though with less probability
9) .
Whether the
family were of IC'ang origin, or, as the Chinese records
state, belonged to the Yueh-Chi, they appear in the
Arabic histories with Persian territorial titles (KlludZh,
S h ~ h , a n dhe general term diliq2n). Some of the princes
also possessed Turlcish titles, probably conferred on them
as vassals of the Khan. The ruler of Samarqand, as
king of Sughd, is called the Ikhshidh or IkhshEdh, which
is easily recognised as the Persian khshayathiya This
title was borne also, as is well known, by the king of
FarghZna.
t
is certain at least from both Chinese and
Arabic accounts that these rulers were not Turks. The
Turkish names by which they are sometimes called 'ere
given out of deference or compliment t o their Turkish
suzerains, just as Arabic names begin to appear amoilgst
them immediately after
,
the Arab conquests. Par-
ticdarly misleading is the name Tarkhan which appears
inore than once in tlie list of princes of Samarqand and
has been erroneously talcen as
the
title Tarkhgn; though
it is in reality only the Arabic transcription of a personal
name spelt in the Chinese records Tu-hoen. During
the six or seven hundred years of their rule all these
princes had become fully identified with their Iranian
subjects 10). Tile kingship moreover was not a
real monarchy but rather the primacy in an oligarchical
system. Their authority was far from absolute, and tlie
lancled aristocracy (dihqgns) and rich merchants pos-
sessed, s will be seen later, not only a large measure of
independence but also on occasion the power to depose
the ruling prince and elect his successor. As the
succession appears to have been largely hereditary it is
probable that, according to Iranian custom, eligibility
was confined to a single royal house. In some cases,
it would seem, the succession was regulated during t he
lifetime of the reigning prince by sonle such inethod a s
association in the principate, probably colnbined wit11
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t h e a p p o i n t ~ n e n t of t h e reinaini~lg pri~ices to other
fiefs 111.
\ ,
T h e od ed erac y of these states, however, \\,as ill
n o sense all alliance arid probably anlounted to little
I l lore th an a
nodzls
vivendi Besides the inore iulI>orta.1lt
p rinces th er e existed an enormous nuinber of petty
autocrats, some possibly Turlcish, others probal)ly
descended from former conquerors, wliose authority
m a y sorn eti~ nes h a v e scarcely extended beyo~ld the
li m it s of their own villages. In
lands subject to tlie TurBs
and patrol led by nomadic t r ibes an effective centraliscd
go ve rn m en t was h a rd ly possible. Mutual antagonis~lls
a n d w ars cannot h a v e bee11 uncoiilinon though we have
n o w no record of th em , except that during the early Arab
pe rio d there was ho stil i ty between
Bulths rs and W ar d ~ ~ a ,
b u t th e la tte r cann ot be reckoned among the Shao-wu
principalities since, according to Narsliakhi, it was
found ed by a S s nidprince about 300 a.n. Until thc
profitable Chinese tracle was threatened by the Arabs
w e find no tru st w orth y record of combined resistailce
offered by the country to its piecemeal reduction, and
o n l y lon g after th e co nq uest s of Qutayba is tliere any
h i n t of a concerted rising. At the same time, the
s tr en g th of the c it ie s an d warlike nature of their
in ha bi ta n ts may be ga ug ed from the way in which thcy
not only preserved themselves from destruction at the
h a n d s of their succ essive nomad invaders, bu t even
gained their respect, while this, in some respects perhaps
t h e m o st highly civilised of all the lands subdued by the
A r a b s 12), roved also the most difficult to conquer,
a n d mos t in t ractab le t o ho ld .
T h e sam e lack of unity is apparent in the districts
s o u t h of the Iron
G a t e ,
though nominally subject to a
sillgle auth ority . I t is important to bear in mind that
t h e ZarafshXn and O x u s valleys were completely inde-
p e n d en t of olle ano ther-th at the differencebetween tthem
w a s no t merely one
of
governm ent, but also of Ianguage,
lld ev en , to some e x t e n t , of blood, owing to the greater
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A n l j n C o ~ g u s s r s N CENTRALASIA
Illixtllre of races in t h e so uth ern basin. Whell,
occusiollally, as in th e Miis egend , reference is made
ll
t llc Arabic l~istories o colnmon action b y S u g ll d a n J
y ~ u k ~ l ~ i s t ~ l l ,t is due t o complete misun ders tanding
of t ilc of the country prior to th e con que st , an d i t is
\vortlly of i l lat no such reference is t o be fou nd in
ally rlarrative otllerwise reliable. O n his o u tw a rd
jollrllcy ill
630,
Yua11 Chwang found t h e c o u nt ry divided
into t\vcnty-sc\len petty st a te s un de r se p a ra te rulers,
with tile cllicf military authority vested in the Turkisl1
Sltiid, tile eldest son of th e Ja bg hu of t h e W est er n Turlcs,
wllo lind ids scat near th e m od ern Q un du z. D ur in g
the
1)cl.iotl of ani~ rchyvliich befell t he W estern T u rk s in t h e
lo\ln\\*i~igears, the whole dis tr ic t was fo rm ed i nto a n
indcl~endcntkingdon1 under a sol1 of th e fo rm er S h ~ d ,
wllo lo~intlcd he dynasty of Jabglms of X u l t h ~ r i s t 3 n .
blir~or Turkisl~ chiefs and inte nd an ts pr ob ab ly seized
similar authority in their
own d is t r i c t s , and though
tlur Jal)gliu was rccognised as suzerain o a ll t h e la n d s
lrorn the Irou Gate to Ziibulistzn and Kapisa and from
IIerZt to I
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THEOXUSBASIN 9
of the famous Buddhist shrine of Naw bahii r, a s th e
capital of th e Turlcs
;
it was in fact: th e cen tre
of
what
we might allnost ten n the an lp hic ty on y of Low er
TukhZrist Ln, comnbining str ate gic a n d colnm ercial
importance with religious ven eration. L on g aftel. t h e
Nawbahgr had been destroyed b y Ib n Amir this s a ~ t i -
ment continued to exist in the co un try
16).
A chance narrative in Tabari
(11.
1224 f . ,
which,
though ol BBtiilite origin, can scarcely h av e been in ve nt ed ,
indicates the situation in Lower Tulchitristjn in
710
In the presence of Qutayba, the ShSd and as-Sabal
(King of Ich uttal) do homage to th e J ab gh u, th e form er
excusing himself on the ground t h a t tho ug h he h a s joined
Qutayba against the Jabghu, ye t h e is th e Jab gh u s
vassal.
The Ep hthalite prince of Badg his thcn docs
homage to the Shad, who must consequently be regarded
as the chief prince in Lower T u k h ~ r i s t ~ n . is indent i-
ficatioll with the Jabgbu himself in another passage
(Tab. 11.
1206
9) is obviously impossible. Th ou gh
certainty on the point is hardly to be expected, the
description best suits the king of Chaghjnizn (Chaghan
Khudah), who consistently ado pted a n a tt it u d e of co-
operation with th e Arabs. I t wordd seem too th a t the
lcing of Chaghanizn com manded th e arm ies
of
Lower
Tukhkristgn in 65 and again in 737 . Moreover, an
embassy to China on bchalf of TulchhBristZn in 719 was
actually despatched y the king of ChaghBniHn, which
implies that he held a status in the k ingdom conso~lant
with th e high title of Shad. T he co n cl ~~ si o rlrawn by
Marquart and Chavannes th a t th e lcing of ChaghaniZn
and the Jabghu were identical is disproved by the
Chinese records (16).
Such con ditio~ ls f political disu nion were natu ral ly
all in favour of the. Arabs. It might have seemed also
that the general insecurity, together with the burden
ol maintaining armies and courts and th e ever-recurring
ravages of invasion, would move th e rnass of th e pop ula-
tion to welcome the prospect of
a
strong
nd
united
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go ve rnm en t, more especially as so large a proporti011 of
t h e Muslin1 arm ies were com posed of tlie ir Pe rsia n lcin.
For the Arabic records in general are misleading on two
inlportant points. By t lieir use of the word T u r k
,
fo r all the non-Persian peoples ol the E as t, th ey g ive the
impression (due perhaps t o tlie circumstanc es of th e time
in wliicli the chief histories were composed) that the
oppon ents of the Arab s inT ranso xan ia w ere th e historical
I
Turlts.
The t ruth is that unt i l 72 the Arab invaders
were resisted only bv the local princes with armies
composecl alm ost enti rely of ~ranli'ans,except perhaps
on one or two special occasions when Turlcish forces may
hav e intervened. Th e other error is in interp reting the
conquests s primarily wars for th e F ait h. Rebellion,
fo r instance, is expressed in terms of a po stas y. I t is now
well established that this conception is exaggerated
religious questions did not, in fact, enter until much
later ,and even then chiefly as expressions of political
relationslips. To the Iranian peasantry, themselves
stead fastly attach ed t o the national cults, th e ad ve nt of
an oth er faith in this meeting-place of all the cultures
a n d religions of Asia a t first carried little significance.
Two factors in particular combined to provoke a resis-
tance so s tubborn tha t i t took the Arabs a century
me rely to reduce the coun try to sullen submission. The
first of these was t h e proud na tional s pi rit of the
Ira nia ns which was eventually to break down the
sup rem acy of th e Arab s an d give birth to th e first
Pe rsi an dyn astie s in IslBm. Th e few wise go verno rs of
IChurBsb found in this their strongest support , but,
outraged again a nd again b y an arrogant a n d rapacious
administration, the subject peoples became embittered
an d sought all means of escape from its tyr an ny . The
secoild was the in te re st of t h e comm ercial relatio ns on
which the wealth and prosperity of the country de-
pen ded . This again m ight have disposed th e cit ies to
accept a rule which proinised not oil ly stabil i ty, but
a
wide extension of o pp ortu nity . The A rab governors,
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TH OXUSBASIN I
as we shall see, were 11ot indeed blind to tlds, but the
exactiolls of the treasury , a n d still more t h e greed o f local
officials, combined wi th t h e uilse ttlem el~ t of c o l ~ s t a n t
invasion t o create a n a tti tu de of distrust, which deepened
la te r into despair. I t mus t not be fo rgo t ta l t l ~ a t he
com me rcial ties of th e Sogdians werc much stronger w ith
t h e E ast than wit11 the W est, and th at this too prom pted
them to cultivate relations with the Turks and Chinese
ra th er t h a n with t h e Arabs when th e necessity of lna kin g
a choice was forced upon tllein.
he
rabic Sources
The early Arabic sources are remarlcably rich in
material for
the
reconstruction
of
the conquests in
K llu ri ss n and Transoxania. For the earlier period t h e
na rr ati ve s of Ya qfibi an d Baladhuri a re nearly as full
as those of Ta ba ri, bu t th e special value of the l a t t e r lies
n
his metho d of com pi la tiol ~wllicl~ enders the t ra di tio us
amenable to crit ical s tudy and thus provides a control
for a ll th e o t h e~ s . Mo~eove r,while the other historians,
rega rdin g the con quests of Qu tayba as definitely coinp let -
ing the redu ction of Transox ania, provide only m eag re
notices for the la te r period, Tabari m ore than cornp en-
sa te s for their silence by the uloimous wealth
of
deta i l
embodied in t h e accoun ts he quotcs from A l-Madg iili
and o the rs
of
the last thirty years
of
Uinayyad rule.
As a general ru le , these thr ee historians rely on dif fer en t
authorities, t l ~ o u g h ll use the earlier histories of Al-
MadB ini a nd A b B Ubayda to some extent . Th e mono-
graph of Narshakhi (d.
969 A.D.)
based on both Arabic
and local sources, with sonle resemblance to Baliidhuri,
i s mlIortunately preserved only in a Persian version of
tw o centuries l a te r which has obviously been edi ted , t o
what extent is unlcno\vn, but which probably represents
the original as unsatisfactorily
as
Bal arni s Pe rsia n
version of Ta ba ri. Ev en so it preserves to u s som e
acco unt of t h e peoples against whom the A r a b
in
vaders were matched, and thus does a l i t t le to remedy
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12
R B C o ~ ~ u ~ s r s
N
CENTR L ASIA
the tlelects of the other historians in this respect.
I t
may well be doubted, however, wlietlier some of its
narratives' merit the reliance placed upon them by van
Vloteri
17).
Thc inucli later historian Ibrl al-Athir intro-
duces very littlc new material, but confines himself for
thc most pa rt to abridgiug and re-editing the narratives
in Tabari, witli a tendency to follow the Inore exaggeralctl
accounts. The geographer Ibn IChfirdXdhbih gives a
list of titles ancl names, which is, however, too confused
to supply any reliable evidence.
Reference
has already been made to certain aspects of
tlie conquests in which the Arab historians are misleading.
Their information on t he Turlcs and the principalities of
Sogdiana can now, fortunately, be supplemented ancl par
S
of their narratives controlled from Chinese sources,
chiefly th rougl~ Chavannes' valuable Documents snr
les Tou-ICiue (Turcs) Occidentaux. But there are two
other facts u~hich lso detnand attention : one, that tile
Arabic authorities, as ive possess them, and even witli all
allowance made for their limitations, are by no means
exhaustive ; i . ~ .eliance 11 on~issions n the narratives
is an unsafe principle o criticisnl the other, t ha t by
critical study i t is possiblc to distinguish a t certain poinls
scveral lines of tendentious tradition or legend, directed
to the interests of national feeling or of some pa~ticular
tribe or faction, and centred in some cases round
specific persons. 'I'hcse may most conveniently bc
sum~narised s follotvs
1
A Qaysite tradition, centred on the family of
Ibn KltZzim
2
An Azd-Rabi'a tradition, centred on Muhallab
and hostile to Hajjaj. This became the most
popular traclition among the Arabs, and is
followcd by Baladhuri, but opposed by Ya'qitbi
3
Bshilite tradition, centred on the tribal hero,
Qutayba b. hluslirn. I n general
it
found littlc
favour but is occasioilally quoted solnewhat
sarcastically by Tabari.
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that progress
of the
Arab
arms
in
Central
Asia
whose
vicissitudes re o u t l i i l e d in the following pages.
Full Titles in
Bi b l i o g l . ap 1 i y )
Isranlce, Bcitragc 41 if. 01.
Cordicr, Chine I. 226.
I f
Marqnnrt s
idcntificnlion (Erznshahr. 201f.) is coucct.
Cordicr I . 229
:
Brhnshohr 60 if.
Yu an Cllwnng I , 103. Prof. Bnrtllold suggcsts tha t the connection between
th e Eplrtllalitcs and lhc I-Iuns may have bcen political only, not rncial.
Chavannes, Doctlments 166
:
crfinahal~r 9.
Tnb.
I.
2886. 13 and 2880. 3 : Ya'qobl, Histovy, 11. 103
:
YFiqi~t (ed,
WUslcnfcld) I. 402 :
BtlFidhuri 403 Eriinshahr 06 f . , 77 1.. and 160.
BBddlis was still nomad nnstnrc-around in t l ~ e X I V t h cntllrv : Ibn.
Ballfiln, 111, 01
f
Yu en Cinva~lg . 106
;
11. 200; Cl~ov.
oc
101 : nran shah r 260
if
Tomnscl~ck,Soghdiann, 110.
Sco Alsrouart. Chronalocio. 11 Sllimtori in Ifeleti Szcmlc I11 f1002) foot -
. . .
.
notc to pp. t22-3.
Cf. Narsllakhl 20. 4. On the Irnnisation of nolnndic elements, Blochet,
Introduction a I'Ilistoirc dcr &Iongols, (Lcydcn, 1010) p. 211 n o t e ;
Pcisl
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11
THE EARLY
RAIDS
T h e Conquest
o f
Lower TztkkBristBqz
Arab legend relates that the Muslim forces,
pursuin
Yazdigird from thc field of Nihxwand in 211642, 1lad
already come in contact with the Turks of Tulth%r-
i s t ~ n efore the death
of
'Omar. But ille final
destruction of the S%%nidpower and iirst iml>osition of
Arab rule on KhurBs%nonly followed ten years later, by
tlie troops of 'Abdullah ibn 'Arnir, 'OthmCn's goverlior
in Basra. The Ephthalites of HerM and Badghis sub-
mitted without
a
blow, and the first serious check to
their advance was met in the Murghlb valley, when al-
Ahnaf
b.
Qays with
an
army of 4,000 Arabs and 1,000
Persians found himself opposed by the organised forces
of Lower Tukharistan and was compelled to retire on
Merv-Rfidh. A second expedition under al-Aqra' b
Hlbis, however, defeated a weaker force in
Jiizjw
and
subsequently occupied Jfizjgn, F2ry%b, Txlaq%~i, nd
Balkh. Small divisions made plundering raids into the
neighbouring territories,
e.g.
to SiminjBn (a town within
tlle frontiers of TukhaistBn proper, governed by a
Turkish prince, the Ru'b IChSn), and to ICllw%~izin,ot
always with success
;
on the other hand, a successful
raid was made on MByamurgli in Sogdiana in 331654,
which is mentioned by Abi~Ubayda alone of the Arabic
authorities
1).
A general insurrection which broke
out sliortly afterwards, headed by a certain Qarin,
apparently a member of the noble Persian family bearing
that name, seems to have been instrumental in causing
the Arabs to evacuate KhurlsZn for a time 2), though
several raids are recorded of 'Ali's governors between
6
and 38 A H
These earliest conquests, in fact, were
little more than plundering raids on large
scale
the
effect of that movement of expansion whose momentum
was carryillg forward the Arabs irresistibly. According
I 6
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t o t h e Cliiuese records, which, however, require to be
used wit11 cantion at this point, the retreat o the Arabs
in
655
was iollo\ved up by the army of Tulth?iristgn who
re in st a te d PerGz, the son of Yazdigird, as ti tu la r lting of
Pers ia
3).
W hen i~eacewas restored to IslZ n~ y th e recognition
of ~u 'B \v f i , an 41/661, Ibn 'Am ir w a s again entrusted
wit11 t h e conquest of IChurBsBn. T he sam e rough and
re ad y metliods were adopted as before th er e appears
to h a v e been no definite plan of invasion, an d even th e
or de r of governors is tnlcertaiil. N ot only ar e trad itio ns
re la t ing to
A H
32
and
42
confused by the different
au tli or iti es , but a vast anlount of th e whole is affected
b y tr ib a l legends. H int s of fierce resistance are given
from tim e to time. Qays b , al-Haytham, th e governor 's
first legate, was faced with a fresh revolt ill Bgdghis,
IIe rB t, and Balltll. H e recaptured th e la tt er and in re-
taliation destroyecl the famous shrine of Nawbahxr, but
left
t h e Eplilhalites to be dea lt with by his successor,
'Abdullah ibn 1ChB~in1. It is clear that there was no
orde red progress of the Arab arm s until Iihu rZs n \was
b ro u g h t under th e adm inistration of ZiyZd b . Abihi.
A ft e r a n experimental division of the province un de r
tri ba l leade rs, a policy obviously dangerous an d quicltly
abanclo ned, ZiyZcl, realising t he danger of allowing
Persia11 ilationalism a iree liand in the East, baclted up
b y t h e resources of TulthSristZn, centralised th e adm inis-
tr at io n a t Merv, and organised a preventive campaign.
I n 47 /06 7 11is lieutenant, al-Haltam b . 'Am r al-GhifZri,
op en ed a series of campaigns directed to t h e conquest
of Lo w er TulthZrist n and Gharjistgn , in th e course of
wliich lle crossed the Oxus and carried his arms into
Cl~agl~ZniZu,nd drove PEr6z back to China in dis
co m fitu re. On his death, three years later, th e conquered
prov inc es rose in revolt, bu t th e new governor, R ab i'
b . i d H i t l i tlie first conqueror of S ij is tzn,
af te r reducing Balltll, pursued the E phthalite arm y in to
Qu histZn and dispersed it with great slaughter. Ag ain
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TIIE EARLY
RAIDS 7
an expedition was sent across the Oxus into Chagllz,l i~n
(clearly ind ica ting the connect ion between C h a g l t g ~ l i ~ ~ ~
a n d Lo w er TukhgristZn), w hi le another directed down tile
le f t ba n k of th e river
secured
Zamm and Amul, the two
chief f e r r y points for S og d ia n a. Mention is also made of
a co nques t of IShwiirizm. All these expeditioils seem
t o p o i n t t o a methodical plan of conquest, arranged
betweell ZiyLcl and his go ve rn or s tlie Arab po\ver was
thus firnlly established, for the moinent at least, in tlle
Cisoxanian lands, and the way preparcd for Uie invasion
of So gd ian a. A furth er im p or ta n t step was the colonisa-
t ion d ICharLs3n by fifty thousand families froin Basra
and Kfifa 4), ettled according to Arab practice in five
garrison town s, for t h e d o u b le purpose of securi~ig he
co nq ue st s already made, a n d providing the forces for their
fu rt he r extension.
The
irst
I?zvasioiz
of BztlrhZrZ
nqt
Sz6gh d
Although at this junctioil ZiyLd himself died, liis
policy was carried on
by
his sons, in particular by
'Uba ydullB h. Scarcely a n y governor, not even Ha jjaj,
ha s su ffered so much a t t h e hands of the traditionists as
t h e Mu rderer of H u sa y n , though his ability and
devot ion to the U rna yg ads are beyond que s t i o~ ~.t is not
su rp ris in g therefore t h a t his earlier military successes
sh o u ld b e so briefly r e l a t e d , in spite of their importance.
Y e t
as
he was no 111ore than 5 years of age wlien
app ointe d b y Mu'Bwiya
t o
th e province of IchurBiin on
probation, and only two years later wasselected to
fill
his f at he r's position in Iraq, his administration m ust have
b e en mar ltedly successful. Th e policy of Ziy5d had now
firm ly secured Khurhsiin an d made it feasible to use i t as
a
b a s e for t h e exten sioil of t h e conquests into the rich
la n d s across th e river. O n his arrival a t Merv, therefore,
in t h e a utm nn of 531673 the new governor began Prc-
pa ra tio ns fo r an inv asio n of Bulchaii.
T h e Shao-wu pr incipal i ty
1
Bulchara was a t this tim e
sec ond in importance o n l y to Sanarqand. I t illcluded
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I
18
ARAB
CONQUESTSN CENTRALASIA
i
i
no t only the greater p ar t of th e oasis (" a l -Bulh8r iya ")
then tnuch more thicltly pop ulate d th an n ow , but also th e
i
great elnporiuln of Paylcand, which controlled t h e tra d e
roote across the Oxus a t A m nl. Of its early his to ry we
have ~ \ V O ccounts, both confused, inaccurate in detail ,
and often conflicting. Fr om thes e it ]nay be gatherecl
that the prince, who held t h e high T urltish title of Sh ad
i
5) ,
esided at Paylcand,the citade l
o
BiikhBr?ibeing e itlier
loui~detlr rcstored by t h e BulchBr I
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THEE RLY IDS 19
NaysXbfiri the re is no reference a t all- o KhBtiin.
More-
over there a r e indications that Tabari was aware of the
local tradition and completely rejected it
;
this, a t least,
would account o r the unusual practice of specifying
Qabaj-IChStfin as the wife of thc lcing in 5 n a
Even Balldhuri rejects the Inore fantastic developments
of the legenrl. Tabari's narrativcs, however, require to
be collated with the additioilal material in Balldhuri,
who hasno
t
relied entil-ely on thc local tradition. The germ
of the native version is probably to be found in a con-
fusion of the Arab conquests with the later
w r
between
BulthBrl a n d Wardana
7),
whose echoes are heard
in
Qutayba's iiivasions thir ty years after.
In the spring of 64 874 Ubaydulld~ ZiyLd crossed
the river ai ld marched directly on Paylcald. After a
partial success, he led his forces forward towards Bukhlra
and severely defeated the army of t he Bulrhar JChudXh.
From Tabar i 's narrative, which relates only that two
thousand m e n of Bulchiirl, slcilful archers, were talten by
'Ubaydullah to Basra, where they formed
his
personal
guard, it i s left t o bc inferred that
a
treaty was concluded
under which the Bulthjr IChudZh became tributary.
The
local~traditionmagnifies the expedition by adding a siege
of Bulth8rH (during the winter) and bringing in an army
of Turlcs t o assist KhXtCn, but confirms the success of
the Arabs. 'Ubaydullah's practice on this occasion of
lorrning bodyguard or retinue of captives appears to
liave been
a
common one. 'Abdur-Rakman ibn Samura
hacl previously brought captives from Sijisth to Basra,
where they built him a mosque,
and
later governors of
I
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2
R B
CONQUESTS N
CENTRAL SIA
i
reduced their city. Talcing fifty young nobles as hostages, i
he retired from Sughd and subsequently occupied
Tinnidh, a11 important fortress on the Oxus colltrollillg
tile maill North and South trade route, having pre-
sull~ably ~arched hrough the Iron Gatc. Thc conquest
of Sughd was thus definitely co-ordinated'with tha t of
Cllagli6ni nn.T barils arrative is strangely vague and
abrupt it contains no mention of BulchBrR nor any
tleh~iite eierence to Sa~narqand, xcept for the statement
Ilkat it was the objective of Sa'id's expedition. Using
this narrative alone, one ~vouldbe inclined to suspect
that the city captured by Sa'id was not Samarqand but
I
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THEEARLY
IDS 21
avaricious 'Abdur-Rakm,~nb. ZiyBd. In 61/680-681
Yazid I appointed Salm, another son of Ziyiid, to
IchurBsxn and S i j i s t ~ n . Eager to enlulate his brother,
Sahn, even before leaving Basra, announced his intention
o renewing the expeditions into Transoxania and enlisted
a picked force on the spot, including such tried leaders as
Muhallab b. Abi Sufra and 'Abdullah
b
I
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T a s
E RLY
~ I D S
3
influence in determining the attitudc of the peol>les o
Sogdiana to the Arabs. From 67 to 602 ilowever, the
new power of Tibet held the Chinese armies in cllcclc
ill
the Tarim basin and cut off all possibility of Chi~lcse
intervention in the West. Tile Sogdiall princes were
thus
throw11 on their own resources, and, @orant as
yet of the danger behind the Arab raids, thev seem to have
bowed. to the storm. It must not be forgbtten that the
cities had never before met such n enemy a s the Arabs.
They
had been accustomed to plundering raids by Tnrlcs,
wlio disappeared as quicltly as they came, and who,
dislilting t o undertake a lengthy siege, were easily
appeased by
a
ransom. Familiar with such nominal
annexations, [hey would naturally adopt the same tactics
against the new invaders. Had tlie Arabs maintained
their pressure, there was thus every prospect that Trans-
oxania would have
bee11 colonised with a tithe of t l ~ e
expense and loss incurred in its reconquest and would
liave become as integral a part of ilie Muslirn dominioils
as I
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4
ARABCONQUESTS
N
CENTRALASIA
from whicll lie continually raided the neighbouring
districts. His exploits were worlced up in popular story
illto an epic of adventure, in which legend has almost
I
i
overlaicl historical fact.
The most fantastic exaggera-
tions were devised in order to provide a suitable back-
round for the incredible dceds of valour indulged in
by
the hero.
But in truth his actual exploits were
sufficiently anlazing, and all the efforts of the forces of
t h e local rulers (magnified in the legend to huge armies of
" Turks and I-laytal and Tibetans ) although aided
o n one occasion by a force of Khuzg'ites, were unable to
dislodge him. For fifteen years he remailled in secure
possession of his stronghold, a refuge for the disaffected
from all sides, and a standing example of the helplessness
of the ru1el.s across the river.
In 77/006 Umayya re-opened the campaigns into
Transoxania. An expedition to I
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Taa
E RLYR IDS 25
outward tranquillity. The same extrenle measures that
had been adopted there were not necessary in I
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ill; ^^ ~ o ~ g u ~ s r sN
CENTR L
ASIA
llol\~cl,cc, llat Hajjzj, whose policy Was to keep
golremors (lcpen(1ent on himself, viewed with suspicioll
tile concclllration of autllority in the hands of the leader
of a llo\\,erful ~ostilc lan, bu t he was content to wa it for
the i ~ ~ e a ~ ~ t i ~ n rnt1 give Irazid sufficient rope to hang him-
self. Esccpt lor a11 attempted raid on RllwLrizm
Yazi(I carried ont no cspeditions, while under his govern-
I I I C I I ~the precarious internal balance of I
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TME ARLYAIDS 7
claimed for Yazid in BBclghis can have beell of little cifcct
19). Fortunately for thc Arabs, Muss's jealousy of
ThZbit and IIurayth causcd a division ill tllc ranlts
of
their enemies, but though the brothers both fell ill battle,
the danger remained acute. The so11 of PEr6z still
lingered in TukharistSn, and even at t lere
was some uneasiness about the situation in Rllurazn 20).
TO Hajjaj i t was obvious that the first. essential was
to reunite the Arabs and that so long as Yazid was in
power that was impossible. The only difficnlty lvns to
find a governor acceptable to Qays and to substitute 11irn
without rislting a revolt of Azd. I t was solved wit11
admirable ingenuity. By ordering Yazid to transfer
his authority to his weaker brother Mufaddal, Ilajjsj
a t one stroke removed the man from whom he had most.
to fear and prevented him from uniting Azd in opposition,
although Yazid realised
that
the fall of his house ir7as
imminent. At the same time the Caliph's permission
was sought for the nomination of Qutayba ibn h1usli1n
as governor of KhurLsBn. Belonging
to
the neutral tribe
of B&hila, Qutayba was recboned as allied to Qnys,
b u t might be trusted to hold the scales evenly between
the factions he had already di st in ~~ is he dimself in
Ir8q
and in his governorship of Rayy, and was the more
devoted to HajjEj in that he was protected by no strong
party of his o m . The accepted belief that HajjZj took
no steps to remove the family of Mui~ailab ntil Mosa was
put out of the way is based on a remark att ributed to
Muhallab
n
the &Ifis -legend.which is frequently contra-
dicted elsewhere both expressly and by implication.
Mufaddal, during his nine monll~s f office in 851704
seems to have endcavoured to in~prcssHajjaj by a show
of military activity against the rebels in BBdghis. At the
same time, acting in concert with the local princes
(magnified in the legend to Tarlthiin a ~ l d s-Sabal
),
he sent an expedition to Tirmidh under 'OthmAn bb.
~ ~ ~ [ f i d ,\ f f i ~ gas cut off ancl ltilled
in
a sortie ancl his
S u l a y m ~ urrendered at discretion. Il aj js j' s
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first
exclalnation on hcarillg the
i lews is said to have
been
one of anger at the insult to
Qays,
but
the
last hindrance
t o the
appoiutme~lt
f the
new
governor
was now
removecl
and towards the
close of
the
year
Qutayba b. Muslim
arrived
in
M e y v .
NOTES
I .
RaI. 408
: Chnv.. Doc. 172,
n
1 . T here wrre two ocalilies called 31Zya-
m u r g h in
Soghd
:one n e a r S a n ~ a r q a n d Idalrhri
321. G ,
a n d t h e
olll r
o n e
d a y ' s m a r c l i from Nasal an the Bul rhar l road ( ib id .
3 Y 7
7), According
to
t h e
Cllinose records th e
fanner
i s t ho
one
n quost ion hcre.
%
YYBqilt,
ed.
Wiislcnfeld. TI.
411. 21
:
of
Cuclani,
Annali
V111.
4
If.
00
QBrin, Ni3ldelre. Sasaniclca
I??, 831
:
Marquart,
I l r i n s l m h r
134.
I . C h a v . , Doc, 172.
4.
Cf La m me ns. Zi td b. Abil li
(R.S.O.
1012)
p.
604.
G
Cf.
with
Tuglisl~bda
he
nam e of th e reign ing prince in GEE, Cllav., Doc.
137.
(i.
Chov.,
Doc.
130.
7 . Narsltakhi 8
and
30.
8.
C l l r o n o i o ~ i o
7
: Erdcinshaltr 303 i This view i s suppor ted a l so by tho le t te r
f m m L11e king of Salnarqand ta the Empe ror of China i n 718 soe p. 00).
w l ~ l c l l uts th o f irst Arab conqnest some 36
years
before, i c in 082 or 83.
0.
A c c o u ~ l t s lsr, in I
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111. THE CONQUESTS OF QUTAYBA
THEachievements of the Muslim ar~lliesn Central nsia
during the reign of Walid I wel-e due in the first lace to
the complete co-operation between tlle directive gcnil s f
Hajjzj and the mili tary capacity of Qutayba. Qutayl,n's
strategic abilities have been somewhat overrated, tl,ougll
the Arabic texts are
t
no pains to conceal the fact tllat
his gifts fell something short of genius. On lnorc tllall
one occasion we are shown in wliat coilstant toucll thc
viceroy was kept with the progress of his armies, ;ullci llow
large a part he toolr in drawing up the'plan of campaign,
though the credit of carrying it throng11 to a succcssiul
issue rightly belongs to Qutayba. Iiajjiij seems to 11avc
had the fullest confidence in his lieutenant, ancl if
hc did
not hesitate lo utte r reproof and waiming when occnsioll
required, he was equally quick to express appreciation of
Qutayba's success. The Arabs of
ll
carties sooil rcalisccl
that behind their general lay the authority of HajjHj,
i h c
wholesome respect inspired by whom prcventerl a.11~ open
breach during his lifetime. The second factor wl1ic11
materially assisted the conquests was tha t in tlleic prosc-
cution Qutayba united all parties in I
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T H E CONQUESTS
O
Q U T A Y B A
31
assistance in response to any appeals for sulpport wllicll
may have reached them from Sogdiana
1).
Rqtlally if
not more impossible was i t for the Tiirgesh to intervene
in Sogdiana during th e sam e period 2). B y the Turl ts ,
as we have seen, th e A rab historians mean as a general
rule the local inhabitants, amongst whom tl iere inay
qu ite possibly hav e been included a t t h a t time Turkisli
ele m en ts. Occasional references t o the 1
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33
A R A B CONQUESTS
N CENTRAL
ASIA
revolt
alllollgst solne of t he inha bita nts. T h is l n a y
l L~ .llal~s tllc lrlorc correct version, since we hear of
~ ( ; ~ l k l ~cillg
ill
a l.ui11ous condition fo u r Years l a t e r
1 ,
. ) . Thc submission of Ballch w as f ol lo ~ ve d
1, . ~ l ~ ~ ~ tf 'rislr, king of Ch agh Zn ijll, w ho h a d
~xobabb'
1
cclolwr;ltctlwit11 Mufaddal in the at ta ck on T in n i d h t h e
\j[ylr llefore.
His action was, i t seems, inspired b y e u d
\Vitl1 tllc liillg of S lliimxn a n d Althariul , ill t h e upper
o
the Surltllan and Penjab rivers, against
l,c llo1)cd to use tlie Arab troops in re tur n f o r h i s as sis-
i
1:lncc to thcm. Mufaddal ha d actually p ro je c te d a n
cs],ctlitio~l gainst SliUln&n before his recall, a n d it w a s
I I I J \V
c::~rrictl out by Qutay ba , who
was
p e rh a p s t h e I n o r e
~.rr:itly to ul~ der take t since i t assured t h e sa fe ty
of
t h e
coi~tllernnplxoacli to the Iron Gate. Afte r t h e su bm is -
sil)n
of
tllc Icing GllislashtHn, who
w s
of Tu rk i sh b lood ,
:~c.cortling o Yu an-C liwa~ ~g, lntayba re tu rn e d t o Merv
.
;~lonc>,c :rv i~~g l ~ c rmy to fo llow under h i s b ro th e r
Srilik,
who carried out a number of minor raids oil the
y . t is ol,vious t h a t, in spite of B a lsdh u ri 's i m ag i n a -
tive nccciunt, these raids must be located in t h e d i s t r i c t s
ltc3ifil~bouri~~gn tllc Oxus. The readings in T a b a r i ' s
11:irrntive arc, I~ @ \\~ ev er,efective
3).
H a v i n g t h u s
i~o1:itcrl Nc'zak in BZdghis, the hea rt of t h e r e v o l t ,
[,. ~lta$x~ \K?I I~ he winter months in negot ia t ing w i t h
lli111 tllr(~ng11 ulayn ~ he Counsellor," a n in fl u en ti al
I't r~i:lll wllosc sltill in co nd uc ti~ lg he m o s t d if fi cu lt
n~'h'Otiatiolls pr o~ cc l more il la n once of the u t m o s t
\';'lllc
t
Jjutayba. Nezalc was persuad ed to s u r r e l l d e r
:uld
was
~(111dllCt~do Mcrv, wllere peace
was
co n c l u d ed
on coll(litio11 that Q utayba would no t e nte r ~ g d ~ l ~ i
perso11.
AS
a precautionaly measure however t h e
cl\'cmor a l~ an g e d ha t NezaIc sllould
accompany
h i m
i l l all
cspeditions.
Thus for the molnent
at
least , the
d W c r of an outbrealc in I < h u r~ s~ l . nas averted, in a
'nmlllc'c llononrable to both part ie s,
tile son of peraz
" ~ ) k
IVaY back to China to await
a more
f vour ble
ol)portn~~ity
4).
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THE
CONQUESTS
QUTAYBA
The
owques t o BukAltr~
In the following year, Qutayba, first making sure
of
the crossings at Amul and Zamm, opened his calnpaigns
in Bu l~ h ~&it11 3 attack on Paylrand, From the
expressions of Narshakhi, on whose llistory of this
we may place more reliance since his details as
a I-de
fit in with and supplement the other ilistol.ies, it
can be gathered that the principality of BukhSra was
weakened by civil war and invasion. During the minority
of TughshCda and the regency of ICh tiln, he alllbitious
nobles had struggled between tl~ernselves or the cl~ief
power most of the territories, includi~lgBukhirfi itself,
had been seized by the prince of Warrl,~na nd the re
maining districts seem to have been bmugllt under the
rule of Khunuk IChudSh, a noble who assulned the title
of
Bulrhar
Xhudah
(5) .
Paylcand
w s
thus more or less
isolated and, from Narshalclii's account, secms to have
been left to its fate. The battle with the Sughdinns
related
in
Tabari is an obvious anticipation from thc
events
of
the following year. After a siege
of
some two
months the city came to tenns with Qutabya, who left
it under a small garrison and, according to Tabari's
version, began the return march to Merv.
n
kineute in
Payltand, however, brought liim back a t once. t seems
reasonable to assume that the citizens, illlagining
Qntayba's
attaclz
to hnve been
no
more than a11 isolated
raid, tried to expel the garrison as soon as 11e retired.
The details given in Narshalrhi, that on Qntayba's ad-
vance towards BukharZ a certain citizen, a ~ ~ a g e dy
the insulting conduct of the governor, Wlrqa' b. Nasr
al-Bzxli, attempted t o murder him, are trivial and
unconvillcing. Whatever the cause of tllc revolt may
have been, however, Qutayba took ierriblc revenge.
In accordance mediaeval practice the ralegadc city
was sacked, its fighting'lnen put to death, and its
wornel
and children enslaved. The booty taken from t'lisl the
first of the great trading cities of Central Asia
be
forciblycaptured by the Arabs, furnidle(l inexhaustible
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3 1:
ARAB ONQUESTS I N C E N T R A L ASIA
for the exaggerated details of later tradition.
~l~~ ]nost ilnportant part nf the spoil was
an
arsenal of
\\rcapons and ar.mour, the excellence of which was s11ch
that the forging of Sugl~d appears in contenlporary
alongri le the traditional forging of Davicl for
sclperlativc craftsmanship
6).
With the consent
of
IlajjSj, these weapons were not incIuded in the division
tllc booty but used to re-equip t h e army. The s ta te-
lllc~,that
there
were only
350
suits
o
armour in the whole
army bcfore this is, however, of Bshilite provenance
and
scarcely worthy
of
credence. The exemplary puni sh -
I U C I I ~
thns meted out by Qutayba to Paykalld at t h e
I~rgin~~ingf his career was a stern warning to N~za lc n d
t l ~ c ogdia~~s. hose wl~o ccepted Arab dominion would
I)c
1n1111a11clyrcatccl, but any at tempt at rebellio~lwould
11c
ii~cxorably cruslled. Nevertlleless the sentence o n
I ' a ~ ~ k a ~ ~ das so~newl~at itigated in the sequel,
s
N;~rsl~akl~illds that tlle captives were ra~lsorned
by
t h e
~nrrc:l~a~~tsf Payltancl on their return from
the
a nnua l
irntlit~g xl>cclition to China, ancl
the
city, after lying in
ruins for n1r111y years, was eventnally rebuilt.
The clisxster at
Payltand
roused the princes
ancl
nlcrcl~ants f Trnnsoxania to the danger of neglecting t h e
illv;l(lcrs. Tl~e eud between WardZna and BukhZr3
(\.;IS
pakhcd up
;
round Wariljn I
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THECONQUESTSF QUTAYBA 5
i a ~ n o u s unning order of Hajjiij : Crush ICish, destroy
N as al , and drive Wardill] back. Narshakhi and Ya'-
q n b i gives an account of th e nego tiations between
Hayyan an-Nabati, representing Qutayba, and Tarkhan
k in g of Su ghd , which is certainly to be put, with Tabari ,
aftel: the conquest of Bu lhiirii two years late r. Th rough-
out all these campaigns there is manifest a tendency,
common to th e early chronicles of all nations, t o exag ger-
a t e the num bers ancl composition of the opposing forces.
As usual the B d ~ i l i t e ccount carries this to th e p oint of
absurd ity by introducing a Tiirgesh force of n o lcss th an
200,000 men, an obvious ai~ach ronism , nfluenced by th e
la te r Tiil-gesh invasions. Th e connection is nl ad e clear
b y the inention of IICfir Maghalfin , whom we find nea rly
th irt y years later (T ab . 11. 1602. 2) as one of th e chiefs
of the Tiirgesh. The true accoun t would seem to b e
that Qutayba did not attempt to f ight a pitched batt le,
but by dilatory tactics wearied out the allies and gave
time for their natural inclination towards disunion to
operate, then evaded ihcm by a rapid march through the
Iron Ga te ancl, except for a rcarguard skirmish w ith the
enemy's cavalry, got his army clear across the river
at
Tirmidh. The app ointm alt of 'Abdur-RahmZn ibn
Muslirn t o comm and th e real-guard gives us t h e clue, a s
it was to this brother that Qutayba regularly entrusted
all the most difficult comm ands. In the following ye ar
Qutayba was still unable to make beadway against the
united forces of Wardiin IIChudiih, ICish and Nasaf, and
after protracted fighting
(in
spite of the double victory
claimed by th e Bghilites) returned to Merv. F or th is
weakness he was severely reprimanded by Hajjzj, who,
with th e aid of a map , drew up
a
plan of a tt a c k . T h e
i~ ivas ion f 00/709 seems to have taken W ardiin IIChudBh
by surprise, as the IvIuslim arm y w as able to ad van ce a t
once to the siege of Bukhilrii. There is som e ground fo r
the conjecture, however, th at t l ~ edeath of WardZn
I
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6
CO N Q U ESTS
IN
CEN TRA L SIA
tile liesitation of tlie forces of Sam arq and t o inter-
crle
TIle battle before the walls of Bulthgrg is dcs-
cribcd by Tabari in a long Ta m imite tradit ion re m in is ce n t
f tile
ancient days," bu t tl ie actua l ca pt ur e
o
h e c i t y
s left t be ide r red . Th is siege i s t r an s fe r red t o
WnrdSna by Vambery
cf. Heart
o
A s i a P. 62
l ,rObably on the authority of th e Persian T a b a ri (Z ot en -
1
I ~ ~ ~
11 l ~ i j ) , ut N a rs ha kh i, T a b a ri a n d a l l o t h e r
nu ~llo r.itics uite definitely refe r to BukhHriE. A b fi
' l]haydaEs radition (Bal . 420) of captu re by t r e a c h e ry is
at best a confusion with the ca ptu re of S a m a rq a n d . A ll
tlla details given in Narsllalthi relative to Q u t a y b a 's
orgnnia;ltion of Uulcli%r% o no t refer to th is y e a r m o s t
lnoh11)ly the only imlnediate measures ta ke n w e re t h e
inllmsitioii oi a t r ibute of 200,000 dirhelns an d t h e o c c u p a -
tioli o t l ~ c itadel by a n A rab garrison.
tliplomatic success followed the victory a t B u k h a rB .
f i rkhfin, king of Sanlarqand, opened ne go t ia t io ~i s w i t h
( t~t;qlba, who w s represen ted by the comm ande r o f h i s
l lcrs i;~u orps, Hayy?in an-Nabati , an d term s we re a g r e e d
I I ~ I O I I ,probably on th e basis of th e old tr e a ty m a d e
by
Salm ibn Ziyiid. Tarlthfiil gave hostages for t h e p a y m e n t
of tr ibutc and Qutayba begail the march b ack t o M e r v .
Cotrsolirlnlioic and Advance.
If tllc Aral~s etunled in the a utuln n of B0/709 e l a t e d
nit11 tllcir success, they were soon given fr es h c a u s e f o r
:ln xi ct ~. NEzak, finally realising tha t all ho pe of re c o v e r-
illl:
intlependcnce must be extinguished
i
A r a b r u l e
was
strengtll[ lle~ln I
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8
, i l t ~ u
~o~gurss . r s
N
CENTRAL SIA
t
tllis time \\re find traces of the new spirit that was t o
makc
itself
lllore felt in later years,and hear voices ra ised ,
like
Tllabit Qullla's, against the treachery that calls
itself
resolution." Tabari inserts at this point t h e
Ilarl:lti\rc of tile p u t t i ~ ~ go death of the hostages of
JfixjfiIl, ll retaliation for the lllurder of the Arab host age
In JtLjBn, a more excusable incident. BalEdhuri
puts it at t]~eeginning of Qutayba's career, however,
as tllougll it bclo~~gedo the first pacificatioll of Lower
l'~~kl~grisbdn,o that its position in Tabari may possibly
IIC
tluc to its superficial similarity with the case of NBzak.
The
results of this exl~editio~lere of the greatest impor -
t;uncc not only was NBzalc's scheme crushed and Lower
'I'uklidrist311 eliceforth i n co~ ~o ra t edn the Arab Emp ire,
I)ut also for the first tinlc Arab authority was extended
cl\.csr tlic Jabghu and his immediate vassals in the Oxus
1,asin. I Jic fonner, exiled to Damascus, formed a
valu-
l ~ l oiostagc agaiust any attempt to regain indepa~dence,
;111tl it sce~us ot improbable that the king of ChaghZniSn
\US
made rcgcnt
for
the young Jabghu (see above,
p.
9 ,
'Abtli~r-l
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TIIE
CONQUESTS
1;
QUTAYDA :{ I
re-orgalisation was necessary. Tughsh~da,llougll still
youtll, w s restored to the position of Bl\lrh. r-I
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THECONQUESTSF QUTAYBA
41
lines as the Ar ab forces, but m ore devoted t o tile person
of the ~ o v e r l i o r ncl able to take his par t agail ls t th e
Arabs. E I o ~ery nearly this plan succeeded, even hi
~ u ta y b a 's w n case, the sequel was to show.
The llractice of raising native levies, once started,
appears t o h av e become general in I< hu r zn. We have
no information as to when the local forces of I
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4
ARAB ONQUESTS IN
CEN TRA L SIA
R utb il hastened to tender his subnlission, a nd a t th e sarne
time sen t an embassy to convey his homag e lo the
Bm pe ror of China (14). Recognition of Arab suzerainty
over Z?tbulist n involved of course only th e p a y m e n t of
a
fixed tribute, ancl no at te m p t was mad e a t a perm ane nt
occul~ation.
Meauvllile a serious situatioil had arisen in Sughd.
Ti le l~ lercha l~ t snd nobles of S a ~ n a rq a n d ad resented
th e wealilless of their lcir~g nd the pay m en t of tr ib u te
in Qu tay ba 's absericc the pa rty for resistailce
oztlraace
gained the upper hand, and Tarkhtn, deposed on the
grouilcl of incapacity, co m m itte d suicide . T h e choice
of the electors fell 011 Ghiirak
15),
prince of whom we
would gladly hav e known more. U nd er th e ev er incre'as-
ing clificulties with which he was confronted during
his
twenty-seven years of rule, his consu~n~nateandl ing
01 the n o s t confused situations shows to h a v e beell
at
once statesnlan and patriot, and preserved his king-
i
donl fro111 repeated dis as ter .
The action of the Su gl~ clia n
nobles, lio~ve ver,he Arabic account of wh ich is c o l~ ii rm e d
by
the Chhcsc records, coil st ituted a c h a l l a ~ g e o A rab
pretensions whicl~Qutayba could ]lot be slow in answer-
ing. These considerations clearly disprove the partial
tradition of Abii 'Ubayda (Bal.
422 ,
l o t he ef fec t tha t
Qutayba treacherously a t tacked I< h w ~ riz n l n d San lar-
q m d in spite of the treaties of Sa'id i b i ~O t hm a n , a n d t h e
argument based upon it b y van Vloten in L a Dorni atio,r
Auabe, mu st also, in consequence, be som ewh at m od ified.
The winter of
931711
therefore, was spent in
pre-
paratiorls lor an expedition against Samarqand, but
before the opening of th e cainpaigning season, Q u ta y b a
I
received a secret ruission from the IChwLriz~n
SllSh,
wllo offered to beconie trib ut ar y if the Ar ab s w ou ld ri d
lliln of his rebellious bl-oilier I
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TLKE
ONQUESTS
O QU TA Y D ~ . 43
terms, which included, ill accordance wit11
tllc
llew
scheme, the provision of a corps oi 10 000 at)lcbodied
lllen as well as the usual tribute. Qutayba rclnnined ;,t
tile capital (16) until tlie army was collcctcd, wllilc
'Abdur-Rahm~nwas employed, according to
T ahlri,
ill
reducing the Icing of RhLmjird, wlio from tbc l,arallel
account in BalHdhuri is to be iclc~itifiedcitller t riill
IChurrazLdh, or a t least with his party. Tile lJcrsiall
Tabari adds a long and cloubtless lege11da1.y ~ ; I ~ . I ~ L L I . C
of liis surrender. Four thousa~~drisoners were takcll
and butchered, probably by order of the l
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A R A ~ ONQUESTSN CENTRAL ASIA
The booty from the first expedition into I
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THECOWQUESTSF QUTAYBA
the humiliating position of Tugl~sl~Bda,nd wit11 l l s
retinue, accompanied possibly by the merchants, witlldrcw
from Samarqand altogether and built a nejv city, Iiarnrl-
la th , some four farsaklls distant ill the dircctioll
Ishtikhan (18). Qutayba s doable-dcaliug ou tllis
occasion, however, tarnished his reputation alllong bolll
Persians ancl Arabs, far more than liis severity to Paykarld
and I
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46
ARAUCONQUESTSN CENTRAL
SIA
BZhilite tradition. Professor Hou tsm a has raised
several objections to th is view, the m ost im p or ta nt being
th a t the cl~rouology f t he inscriptions has lo be m an ipu -
lated t o allow of this date , as tlie natura l d a t e to assume
froin the contest is at la tes t
711.
These, together with
the consideratiolis mentioned above, render Marquart's
hypotliesis absolutely untenable.
sccond suggestion has been pu t forward
by
Professor
Barthold, to which, however, Professor Houtsma's
objections would apply with equal force
20).
I n t h e
na rra tive of the historian Y a'qfibi (11. 314 , there is a
brief notice
as
follows Q uta yb a appointed his bro the r
'Abdur-RnhinFm ibn Muslim goveillor of Samarqand,
b u t t h e
Inen of Sa ~n arq an dreacherously revolted against
him, and llewith our o ther in for~na t ion . W l ~ i le
it callnot be said definitely therefore, that Ya'qfibi's
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THE
CONQUESTS P QUT~IYB 47
statements in this case coiltai~i o trntll, it is certainly
preferable to regard them as a later development
of
the
narrative, on the lines of the Bal~ilite radition.
f the chronological objectio~lsraised by Professor
Houtsma are sound, there reinains still a third possible
solution, which, however, as tliere is no con-oborativc
evidence from either the Arabic or Chinese sources, must
remain nothing but
a
hypothesis. I t is surely cluitc
tenable that Icd- tegin's organizatioil of t11e Sogdiall
people had something to do with t l ~ e eposition
of
Tarkhfin and appointment of GMralc. With Sogclian
trade playing the most important part which wc know
in the Turkish lands, it would be well worth whilc to t y
to prevent the Arabs from obtaiuing control over it.
The very unexpectedness of the description givcn to this
expedition shows clearly that there was some motive for
organization and it is clifficult to see what other
motive there could have been. These circumstnilces
would render it quite probable that GhGralc did, in fact,
appeal to t he
IShBq n
for assistance against the Arabs,
bu t it seems that the growing power of thc Tiirgesl~
barred the way into Sogdiana against t l ~ cNorlhern
Khanate for the remainder
of
its sllort existence.
By
the conquest of Samarqaild Qulayba fillally estab-
lished his position in Transoxania. It must not be
assamed, however, as many of the Arab historians give
the impression of assuming, that the holding of Samarqand
meant the conquest of Suglld. All that had beell done
was to settle an Arab garrison in a colllltr~as yet
unfriendly. I t was the cluty of the conllnanders at
Samarqa1ld gradually to extend their autllo~it~ver the
the whole district of Sughd by expeditions and
91) .
There \ as thus a radical difference between the
collquest of BukhSrZ and ' th at o Samarqand.
The
former w s the result of a series of campaips in which
the resources of the country had been
exh usted
and the
province annexed piecemeal. The whole
P ~ P ~
ad
become subjects of the Arabs a i d
Were
under constallt
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8
A R A BCONQUESTSN CENT RAL SIA
surveillance
:
TughshS.da llimself held his ranlr on suffer-
anc e ancl w as compelled to maintain a t least a n o utw ard
sho w of lo yal ty . But: Sainarqancl had been captured
in one sw ift thrust
;
Sughd as a whole was still unsubd ued
a n d only f ro m policy aclrnowledged the suz erainty of t h e
A rab s fo r t h e time being. Ghfiralr a t Ishtilrhan w as
free to t u r n e i ther to the Arabs or to the Turks 18).
Nevertheless in the years that followecl there is evidence
t h a t friend ly relations were formed between t h e A rab
garris on a n d m any of th e local leaders and in ha bi ta nt s
3). T h e w hole country, however, had suffered terribly
in the constant iilvasioils and counter invasions. A
co nt en lp ora ry poet gives a vivicl picture of i ts d issip ated
wealth , its
ruinecl and desolate lands :
'
Daily Qniayba gatbels spoil, increasing om. wealth with new
weal th
:
A BZllilitc who has worn the crown till the h ai r th at w a s
black has whitencd. Sughd is subdued by his squ adr ons , it s
people lef t sitt ing in nalcedncss As oft as he lig ht s in a la n d ,
his h ors e lea vc it furrowed and scarred.
he
Ex editions wto the Jaxartes Provinces.
I t m ig h t pcrliaps have been expectecl t h at Q utay ba 's
n e x t o bje ct afte r the capture of Sam arqand wo uld be t o
establish A rab authority in Sughd as firmly a s ha d b ee n
done in BukllarE. I t would probably have be en b e tt e r
in t h e e nd liacl he done so, bu t for the moment t h e at tra c-
tio ns of t h e forwarcl policy wllich had al re ad y provecl
so successful were too strong. Instead of conc en tra tin g
on t h e red uction of Suglid, it was decided t o push t h e
fro nt ie rs of th e Empire furthe r into Central Asia, ancl
leave t h e former to be carried out at leisure. Q ut ay ba
therefore crossed to BulthhB, where 20,000 levies f rom
. K h w & r i z ~ n ,ulrhzra, Rish, and Nasaf had been su m m on ed
t o
in ee t h im , and marched into Sughd. If th e re w s a
T urk ish a rm y wintering in the country, it offered n o
con sidera ble resistance to the advance of t h e A ra bs .
I11
S u g h d Q ~ ~ t a y b aivided his forces into two corps.
The Persian levies were sent in the direction of Sh3,sh,
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THE ONQUESTSP QUTAYBA
D
while he himself with the Arabs niarclled on I
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THE ONQUESTSP QUTAYBA 51
only the first of many such sent by the governors of
IChurCsjn to maintain frialclly relations with the Chinese
court.
It
cannot be doubted that in the majority of
cases at least the object o these missions was commercial,
particularly where joint embassies were sent with one or
other of the Sogdian principalities.
In the following year
951714 the raids on the Jaxartes
provinces were renewed. I t wlould seem on comparing
Balsdhuri s account with Tabari that Qutayba made
ShXsh his headquarters and worked northwards as far as
Isbijiib. The prince of Shash appealed to China for
assistance, but without effect
26).
Qutayba s plan
therefore was to follow up the important trade-route
which led from Turfan clown the Ili valley, along the
northern edge of the Thian-Shan mountains, through
Tokmak and Tariiz into Shiish and Samarqand. Though
the economic importance
o
controlling this trade-route
may have had its part in this decision, especially in view
of their new patronage of Sogdian trade, it is probable
that this was less in the mind of the Arabs than its
strategic value as the road by which the Central Asian
Turks debouched on Transoxania. Towards the end of
the summer, the expeditions were abruptly interrupted
by the news of the death of Hajjsj, which had occurred
in Shawwd (June). Deeply affected by the loss of his
patron and not a little uncertain of the effect on his own
fortunes, Qutayba disbanded the army, sending garrisons
to BukhjrB, Icish, and Nasaf, and returned to Merv.
WaIid, however, allayed his fears by an encouraging letter,
and made his province independent of IrBq. But the
death of Hajjjj llad affected IChurBsBn too deeply for
such a simple remedy. The Arabs had gained wealth in
their expeditions, they were weary of the constant
campaigns and anxious to enjoy the comforts of peace.
Factional feeling was merely slumbering, and a new ele-
ment of unrest had been added by a ICfifan corps under
Jahm b. Zahr, which had been transferred to IChurXsiXn
from India by Hajjgj in his last year. All parties among
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62
A ~ f n ONQUESTS
I N
CENTRAL SIA
t llc ~~~b~ were alienated froin Q uta yb a eve n g a y s
had
been estranged by his highhanded actioll
in
t h e
first
place ,vitjl the iiouse of Al-Ahtam an d again b y his f e u d
wa l t iC , Abi Siid, the chicf of Tamiln 27) m o re -
o,rcr, were suspicious of his lneclizing te ndenci es .
rimollgst the Persians he was popular, but H ~ Y Y S ~l l -
Nab a tllougll restored t o his position in co m m an d of
the
I+rsian Lrool~s, ad not forgiven Q uta yb a for hi s dis gra ce
a t I
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THE
CONQUESTS
F
QUTAYBA
83
i t ies 11 whicli
it
professedly rests.
Only one 01 these
relates an expedition to I
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6
ARAB ONQUESTS
IN CENTRAL
ASIA
family and bodyguard of Sogdian princes remained
faithful.
The death of Qutayba marked not merely the end of
t]le Arab conquests in Central Asia for a quarter of a
century, but tlie beginning of
a
period of retrogression.
Under Waki' b. Abi SBd, his successor
20),
the armies
melted away. Mulrhallad, the son of Yazid b. Mul~allab
and his lieutenant in Transoxat~ia, anied out summer
raids on the villages of Sugl~d, ut an isolated attempt on
the
Jaxartes provinces by 'Omar's governor, Al-JarrZlt
b. 'Abclullah, met with ignominious failure. It is possibly
to this that the tradition, mentioned by Barthold
Turbcsta~, 60 , of the disaster met with by a Muslim
army refers. On the other hand an embassy was sent in
tlle name of tlie Caliph to renew relations with the
Clliliese court, and a third in concert with tlie ltingdoms of
TulltBrist%n and Samarqand, etc., during the reign of
'Omar
25).
There is mention also
of
an expedition into
ICliuttal wl~ich regaitled some territory. But it was
Qutayba, with Hajjiii a t his baclr, who had held his
conquests together, and when lie disappeared there was
neither leader nor organisation to talte his place. The
history of the next decade clearly shows how loose and
unstable was thc authority of the Arabs. It was force
that had made the conquests, and only a settled policy
of
force or coilciliation could hold them. The first was
absent. Qutayba in chains at the worId's end is more
terrible to us than Yazid as governor in our very midst
is
the
graphic
sumnlary
put
into the mouths of t h e
conquered, while of Rutbil, king of Zibnlistiin, we are
told expressly that after the death of Hajjzj he paid
not a ccnt of tribute to any of the govenlors of Sijistiin
on behalf of the Umayyads 'nor on behalf of Abii
hluslim.
30).
Nor was 'Omar's policy a true policy of conciliation,
based as it was iiot on the maintenance of the Arab
collquests but on the co~npletevacuation of Transoxania.
His
orders
t o
that effect were of course indignantly
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rejected by Llle Arab colonists ul Bulthiira and Samaqand,
but together with his appointment of the feeble and
ineffective 'Abdur-Rahrn~tl b. Nu'ayin al-Qushayri as
governor, such a policy was naturally coilstrued by the
Sogdialls as mere weakness, and an invitation to regain
their independence. In addition to the embassies to
China, to
be
related in the next chapter, and possibly also
some negotiations with the Tiirgeslr, Ghiirak sought to
win back h i s capital by playing on 'Omar's piety. The
Caliph sent envoys t o the princes of Sogdiana calling on
them to accept IslBm, and Ghiirak, outwardly professing
his adherence, sent a deputation to 'Oinar urging that as
Qutayba deal t with us treacherously and tyrannically,
but God h a s now caused justice and equity i-o reign
the city should be restored to the Sughdians. The
commonsense of the judge appointed to try the case on
'Omar's instructions by the governor of Sanlaqand,
SulaymZn b Abi's-Sari (himself a mawlii), solved th
problem in a n eminently practical manner, and
w
are
told that
is
decision, so far from being malicious,
was satisfactory to both the Arabs and the Suglidians,
if
not perhaps to Ghiirak. Beyond the relnission of ltl\araj,
it is doubtful whether 'Omar's administration benehted
the subject peoples in the slightest, and the ~.enction
which followed his brief reign only aggravated the
situation. Already before its close the Sughdians had
withdrawn' their allegiance 31).
Thus wi thin six years from the death of Qutayba,
rnuch of
his
work was undone. He had laid the founda-
tions on which the later rule of Islam was built, and laid
them well, though his own superstructure w s too flimsy
to withs tand the tempests of the years ahead. But the
fault was n o t entirely, perhaps not even chiefly, the fault
of th e builder. He
w s
snatched away before his work
was done, even if in his latter years he tellded t o neglect
everything else for military glary. S we shall see, there
was no peace
in
Transoxanja until other men arose, great
and strong enough to adopt and carry out
til
best of
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CONQUESTS
N CEXTRAL
ASIA
llis
The nlthlessness and ferocity of h is co nq ues ts,.
llowever, llave been mnch exaggerated.
H e w a s a lw a y s
ready
to
use cliplomacy rathe r th an fo rc e
if
i t offered ally
]lope of suc cc~ s, much so tha t his len ie nc e w as mis-
cotlstrucd 11 occasion by both friends a n d fo es. O nly
in cases
of
treachely aud revolt his puni shm ent ca m e sw ift
alld terrible. Th at he did not hesitate t o t a k e ven geallce
011
bis private enemies is to say no more t ha n t h a t h e was
A rab. I t was ilot without reason t h a t in la te r days
the Muslir~lsof Central Asia added Q u ta y ba s n a m e t o
thc roll of nlartyrs and tha t his tomb i n F ar g h Z n a bec am e
a favourite place of pilgrimage 32).
To surn up the position in Central sia in the years
i~nmecliaiely ollowing Q utayba s con que sts
:-
1)
Lower Tukharistan and CliaghZniSn formed an
integral part of the Arab Einpire.
2)
Tnklialistxn, now
in
the decay of i ts power, was
h ld as a vassal state, together
wi t h
t h