THE FIRST EASTERN CAMPAIGNS OF KUTAYBA IBN MUSLIM
The arrival of Kutayba on the scene marks a new epoch in the history
of Mohammedan conquests in Central Asia. Though the Arabs had been
for many years masters of Khorāsān, with an established capital at
Merv,[105] their hold on the country beyond the Oxus was very slight.
The expeditions which they had hitherto made into Bokhārā[106] and
other parts of Transoxiana were mere raids, and their authority in
those countries departed with the main body of their army. Kutayba was
the first Arab leader who compelled the inhabitants of the tract lying
between the Oxus and Jaxartes to acknowledge the Caliph’s supremacy,
and to plant the standard of Islām in lands where the creed of
Zoroaster had retained its greatest vitality.
[Illustration: CENTRAL ASIAN TYPES
1. PERSIAN
2. PERSIAN
3. AFGHAN
4. KALMUCK
]
In A.H. 86 (705), as we have seen, `Abd el-Melik died. He was succeeded
in the Caliphate by his son Welīd, and in the same year Kutayba ibn
Muslim made a triumphal entry into Merv as governor of Khorāsān. On
arriving at Merv, Kutayba called together the inhabitants, and urged
them to join a Holy War, emphasising his trumpet-call by quotations
from the Koran. The fierce Arabs swarmed to his standard, and Kutayba
soon found himself at the head of an army animated with the keenest
enthusiasm, to whom he distributed pay sufficient to maintain their
families during their career of conquest. The military and civil
administration of the oasis during his absence was delegated by him to
trusted lieutenants. Having thus organised victory, he set out in a
westerly direction across the desert. The first town which he reached
was Tālikān.[107] Here he was received by the _dihkans_[108] and chief
men of Balkh, who escorted him across the Oxus. He was met on the
right bank by the king of the Chaghāniān, who brought presents and a
golden key, and invited him to enter his capital. Kutayba accepted his
submission, and allowed him to remain in office under the Caliph’s
suzerainty. He then marched to Akhrun and Shūmān, and after levying
tribute on their chief, returned to Merv. Some authorities relate that
Kutayba, before crossing the Oxus, made an expedition into Balkh, and
there crushed a rising among the inhabitants, who were attempting to
rid themselves of the Arab yoke.[109] In the same year he concluded a
peace with Nīzek, Tarkhūn of Bādghīs. In the following year, A.H.
87 (705), Kutayba set out for Transoxiana. During his march thither
he passed through Merv er-Rūd, Āmul, and Zamīn; and, crossing the
Oxus, sat down before Baykand. This place was, according to Tabari,
the Bokhārān town nearest to the great river, and lay at the edge of
the desert. It was known far and wide as the “City of Merchants,”
and was equally renowned for the strength of its fortifications. The
inhabitants, on learning Kutayba’s approach, put their town into a
state of defence, and sent messengers into Soghdiana imploring aid.
The call was obeyed, and Kutayba’s little force was soon hemmed in on
all sides by numerous and determined foes. For a space of two months
so closely was he pressed that he was unable to send a messenger to
Hajjāj, whose consequent anxiety led him to order prayers for the army
in all the mosques. Tabari tells us that Kutayba had in his employ a
Persian spy, named Tandar, whom the Bokhārāns bribed to induce his
master to retire from their country. Tandar obtained a private audience
of Kutayba, which was attended only by a certain Dhirār ibn Hasan. He
told the Amīr that his patron Hajjāj had lost his office, and that a
new governor had arrived to replace the former. Kutayba called one of
his slaves named Siyāh, and ordered him to strike off Tandar’s head.
When this had been done, he turned to Dhirār and said: “No one knows of
this affair except you and myself. If it is bruited abroad I shall be
certain that you are to blame; so master your tongue. For should the
people hear the story, they will be discouraged.” He then summoned his
followers into his presence. When they saw the body of Tandar they were
filled with fear, and threw themselves on the ground before Kutayba. He
asked them why they were appalled by Tandar’s execution. They replied:
“Verily, we thought that he was a friend to the Musulman.” “No,”
replied Kutayba, “he was a traitor--may God punish him for his sins,
but he has met with his deserts. Now go and prepare to meet the enemy
to-morrow with more courage than you have hitherto shown.”
On the following day the Arabs took up their positions and began the
fight with fresh vigour, while Kutayba passed through the ranks giving
his commands and encouraging his men in every way.[110] The battle
lasted till sunset, when the enemy gave way and fled in disorder
towards the town, hotly pursued by the Arabs. A few only reached the
shelter of its walls, while the rest were slain or taken prisoners.
Kutayba immediately began a regular siege of Baykand, which, though
the place had lost most of its garrison, cost the assailants many
lives.[111] For fifty days, says Narshakhi, “the efforts of the
Musulmans were of no avail, and their sufferings were great. At last
they had recourse to stratagem. A party of soldiers dug a trench under
the town-wall, near the citadel, connected with a stable within the
fortress, where they made another breach in the wall. Hardly had the
Musulmans reached the fortress ere these men sallied from the breach.
Kutayba shouted: “To the first man who enters the fort by this breach I
will give blood-money, and if he should be killed, then his children
shall receive it.” This promise filled the besiegers with emulation.
All threw themselves into the breach, and captured the fort. The men
of Baykand begged for quarter, which Kutayba granted, and then retired
laden with booty, leaving a lieutenant in the town with a detachment
of troops. But when he reached Khunbūn,[112] which is only a farsakh’s
distance from Baykand, on the Bokhārā road, he learnt that the
people of Baykand had risen against his lieutenant and garrison, and
slaughtered them after cutting off their noses and ears.[113]
Kutayba immediately turned back and invaded the town a second time.
The siege lasted a month, when the Amīr had a tunnel excavated under
the wall and filled with wood, which was set on fire. The wall above
crumbled and fell, crushing forty men to death. The Baykandis offered
to capitulate on condition that their lives were spared, but Kutayba
stormed the town and put to death all the fighting men. The rest were
carried off into slavery, and the city became a heap of ruins. Kutayba
then returned to Merv with much spoil,[114] which, according to Tabari,
exceeded in value all the booty that had been taken by the Arabs in
Khorāsān.
The story of Baykand’s resurrection is a curious one. It was a town
of long-standing fame and a great centre of trade; and, during the
siege, most of the heads of families were absent in China and other
distant countries with their caravans. On their return they redeemed
their wives and surviving relatives from the Arabs, and soon repeopled
Baykand. Narshakhi justly remarks,[115] that it is the only town in
history which, after undergoing a destruction, root and branch, was
restored to its former prosperity by the same generation as saw its
ruin. Tabari adds that the inhabitants agreed to pay a yearly tribute
to the Arabs, and were guaranteed peace, under a written pact, by
Kutayba.
The conquest of Baykand was achieved by Kutayba in the autumn of the
year of the Hijra, 87 (705). He then returned for the winter season to
his headquarters at Merv. It was not till A.H. 88 (706) that Kutayba
entered on a career of conquest. During his first two years of command
he had achieved little towards the extension of the Caliph’s authority
in Central Asia. His predecessors had already carried their arms as far
as the city of Bokhārā, while his own had never extended far beyond
the frontier of that kingdom. The destruction of Baykand was, however,
a feat of no mean value, as, quite apart from the immense booty which
fell into the victor’s hands, the position of the town rendered it “the
south-western gate of Transoxiana,”[116] and hence its importance to
the Arabs as a basis for further encroachments.
The immediate objects of Kutayba’s attacks were, according to
Tabari,[117] Numushkat and Rāmtīna, which obtained peace on condition
of paying a yearly tribute.
Meanwhile the people of Bokhārā, Soghdiana, and the surrounding
countries had banded together to oppose the Arab invaders, who found
themselves surrounded in the country lying between Tārāb, Khunbūn,
and Rāmtīna. The combined forces numbered about 40,000 men, and
comprised the armies of the _Tarkhūn Melik_ of Soghd, Khunuk-Khudāt,
Vardān-Khudāt, and Prince Kur-Maghānūn,[118] who was a son of the
Chinese emperor’s sister, and who was, according to Narshakhi, a
mercenary soldier of fortune. Kutayba had set out on his return to
Merv when the Turks suddenly fell upon his rear-guard. The Musulmans
were beginning to waver, but Kutayba appeared on the scene of action
and filled them with fresh courage. The battle lasted till midday,
when “God put the Turks to flight.”[119] Kutayba then returned to
Merv, taking the road in the direction of Balkh, and crossing the Oxus
above Tirmiz. On reaching Fāryāb[120] he received a letter from Hajjāj
ordering him to march against the Vardān-Khudāt, king of Bokhārā. He
therefore retraced his steps and crossed the Oxus at Zamīn. On the
road through the desert he was met by some Soghdians and the people
of Kess (Kesh) and Nasaf (Nakhshab), whom he engaged and defeated. He
then plunged into Bokhārā, and pitched his camp at Lower Kharkāna, to
the right of Vardān, where he was attacked by superior forces. After
a battle which lasted for two days and two nights, victory declared
for the Arabs. Kutayba now advanced against the Vardān-Khudāt, king
of Bokhārā, but was repulsed and retreated to Merv. Here he informed
Hajjāj by letter how he had fared, and was ordered to send his master
a map of the country. Having examined this map, Hajjāj wrote to him in
the following terms: “Return to your former purpose, and acknowledge
in prayer to God your repentance for having abandoned it. Attack the
enemy at vulnerable points. _Crush Kesh, destroy Nasaf, and repulse
Vardān._[121] Take care that you are not surrounded; and leave the
difficulties of the road to me.” On receiving these instructions,
Kutayba left Merv, and in the beginning of the year A.H. 90 (708)
again invaded the kingdom of Bokhārā. When the Vardān-Khudāt heard
of Kutayba’s advance, he sent messengers to the Soghdians and their
neighbours asking for their help. Kutayba arrived before their allies,
and immediately laid siege to Vardān; but as soon as reinforcements
appeared the garrison sallied forth and attacked the Arabs.
The versions of the battle that ensued as given by Tabari and
Narshakhi[122] differ materially, while both enter into so much detail
that it is hard to reconcile them. That given by Tabari[123] is graphic
enough to deserve epitomising.
“When the Turks came out of the town, the men of the tribe of Azd asked
Kutayba to allow them to fight separately. They straightway charged
down on the Turks,--Kutayba remaining seated the while, wearing a green
mantle over his armour,--and their endurance was great. At length
they were driven back to Kutayba’s camp by the Turks, but here the
women struck their horses’ heads[124] and forced the Musulmans to turn
against the enemy. They succeeded in driving them back to his first
position, a piece of rising ground which appeared to them inassailable.
Then said Kutayba: ‘Who will dislodge them for us from this place?’
No one advanced, and all the tribes remained where they were. Then
Kutayba went up to the Beni Temīm[125] and appealed to their old
prestige, whereupon their chief Wakī` seized the banner and said: ‘Oh
ye sons of Temīm, will you abandon me to-day?’ They shouted ‘No,’ and
advanced until they came to the stream separating them from the enemy,
over which Husayni, the commander of the horse, leaped, followed by
his men. Meanwhile Wakī` gave the banner to Husayni and, dismounting,
superintended the construction of a small bridge. He then said to his
men: ‘He who is willing to risk his life, let him cross; and he who
is not willing, let him remain where he is!’ Eight hundred men dashed
across the bridge. Then Wakī` told Husayni to harass the enemy with his
cavalry, while he himself attacked them with his foot-men. So great
was the fury of their double onslaught that the Turks gave way, seeing
which the Musulmans sprang towards the bridge as one man, but ere
they could cross the Turks were in full flight. The latter were thus
completely routed; the Khākān and his son were both wounded. When the
inhabitants of the surrounding countries saw what had happened to the
men of Bokhārā they trembled before Kutayba.”
After this victory Kutayba again withdrew to Merv. The chroniclers
differ as to the part which the Tarkhūn Melik of Soghd played in this
battle. Tabari relates that the Tarkhūn, seeing that the day was going
with the Musulmans, rode, accompanied by two horsemen, close up to
Kutayba’s camp--there being only the river of Bokhārā between them, and
asked him to send a man across to confer with him. A certain Hayyān,
the Nabatæan, came over, and through his mediation a peace was settled
upon, the Tarkhūn agreeing to pay tribute to Kutayba. The Tarkhūn then
returned to his own country, while Kutayba, as stated above, retired
to Merv, accompanied by Nīzek. Narshakhi, on the other hand, says that
Hayyān, the Nabatæan, told the king of Soghd that it would be much
wiser for him to abandon the allies and return to his own country.
“We,” he said, “will remain here as long as the warm weather lasts,
but when the winter sets in we shall retire, and then you will find
the Turks all against you,--for nothing will induce them to leave your
beautiful Soghd.” The Tarkhūn, convinced of the value of this advice,
asked what course he should pursue. Hayyān replied: “First, you must
make peace with Kutayba, and pay him an indemnity. Next represent to
the Turks that Hajjāj is sending reinforcements by way of Kesh and
Nakhshab. Then you must turn back; and haply they will do likewise.”
That same night the Tarkhūn concluded a treaty with Kutayba, and gave
him 2000 direms;[126] Kutayba, for his part, promising not to molest
his kingdom. He then sounded his trumpets and marched off, and his
example was very soon after followed by the emperor of China’s nephew.
“Thus did God deliver the Musulmans from the great straits in which
they had been plunged for four months.” During this period Hajjāj
had received no news from Kutayba, and his anxiety was so great that
special prayers were offered in the mosques for his safety.
“This was Kutayba’s fourth expedition into Bokhārā.”[127]