Mekka soon recognised his mission, and after a fierce struggle with many vicissitudes the whole of Arabia accepted Islām.[77]

At the time of Mohammed’s death, which took place in the 16th year of his Hijra, or A.D. 632, the creed which he had formulated was still a religious rather than a worldly power. But it had profoundly stirred the impetuous, highly strung Arab temperament, which was vaguely conscious of possessing immense hidden force, and of a boundless sphere for its exercise in the worn-out empires which bounded their peninsula. A leader alone was wanted to focus and direct the aspirations engendered by the dead Prophet’s teachings, and one was found in the person of Abū Bekr, Mohammed’s father-in-law and earliest convert. He was proclaimed as the Khalīfa,[78] or successor of the Prophet, and was the first of that long line of sovereigns who, like the Tsars of our own age, wielded unquestioned spiritual and temporal power, and, like them, became prominent factors in the history of the Eastern world.

The new-born creed soon showed its strongly militant character. Led by Khālid, a pillar of Islām who won by his prowess the title of the Sword of God, the Arabs defeated a Roman army with heavy loss, and took Damascus. In six years the whole of Syria and Palestine passed under their sway. Persia was the next object of attack. The Zoroastrians struggled long and desperately for their independence, but in 639 they suffered a crushing defeat at Nahāvend, a battle which must rank high amongst those which have influenced the current of the world’s history. Yezdijerd, the last of the Sāsānian dynasty, fled through Sīstān and Khorāsān to Merv. Here he found no safe asylum, for the governor sent news of his arrival to the Turks, and the Khākān advanced in person to seize so rich a prize. The fugitive became aware of the intended treachery, and concealed himself in a mill near the city. The owner received him with apparent kindness, but was tempted by the splendour of the king’s accoutrements to kill him while he slept. He severed Yezdijerd’s head from his body, which he cast into the mill stream.[79]

THE RAHLA, OR READING-DESK

OUTSIDE THE MOSQUE OF BĪBĪ KHĀNŪM, SAMARKAND

The immediate results of the battle of Nahāvend were disastrous to civilisation. Persia was traversed in all directions by bands of marauding Arabs, and the miserable inhabitants suffered as severely as they had suffered at the hands of the Mazdakites. “The Caliph Othman,”[80] writes Gibbon,[81] “promised the government of Khorāsān to the first general who should enter that large and populous country, the kingdom of the ancient Bactrians. The condition was accepted, the prize was deserved; the standard of Mahomet was planted on the walls of Herāt, Merou, and Balkh; and the successful leader neither halted nor reposed till his foaming cavalry had tasted the waters of the Oxus.” The ill-cemented power of the Caliph was more adapted for conquest than assimilation, and its area overrun by his undisciplined hordes was too vast to be held in permanent subjection. Conscious of their weakness, the Arabs spared no efforts to spread the tenets of Islām, which alone was capable of welding together communities differing widely in race, language, and customs. From this epoch dates the decline of the creed of Zoroaster throughout Persia and the countries of Central Asia. The assassination of the Caliph `Omar by a Persian slave was the signal for a general insurrection throughout this loosely knitted empire. This was not finally quelled till A.H. 31 (652), when Ibn `Āmir gained a victory over the Persians at Khwārazm on the Oxus, and compelled the country as far as Balkh to acknowledge the Caliph’s suzerainty.[82] In A.H. 41 (661) `Abdullah ibn `Āmir organised a successful expedition into Khorāsān and Sīstān;[83] and in the course of the following year Kays ibn al-Haytham was sent thither as provincial governor. He was superseded in A.H. 43 (663) by `Abdullah ibn Khāzim. In A.H. 45 (665) Ziyād, whom in the preceding year the Great Caliph Mo`awiya had officially recognised as his brother, was made governor of Basra and “the East.” Al-Hakam ibn `Āmir al-Ghifārī was sent in A.H. 47 (667) on an expedition into Khorāsān. He occupied Tokhāristān and the country south and south-east of Balkh as far as the Hindu Kush, and was, moreover, the first Arabian general to cross the Oxus.[84] Al-Hakam died at Merv in A.H. 50 (670), on his return from an expedition against the people of Mount Ashall.[85] In the following year Rabī` ibn Ziyād[86] el-Hārithī was sent to Khorāsān to succeed him.[87] About this date many Arabs migrated with their families to Khorāsān and settled there.[88] Rabī`’s first care was the reduction of Balkh, which had been the scene of a revolt, and this he effected without resorting to force. He also engaged the Turks in Kūhistān, and put them to rout. Among the fugitives was Nīzak Tarkhūn,[89] who perished later at the hands of Kutayba ibn Muslim. Rabī` also crossed the Oxus, but made no conquests on the farther side.[90] His death, and that of his master Ziyād, took place in A.H. 53 (673). He named his son `Abdullah as his successor, but the latter died two months later, and was succeeded by Khulayd ibn `Abdullah el-Hanafī. On the death of Ziyād the Caliph gave the governments of Kūfa, Basra, and Khorāsān to his own son `Ubaydullah, while he appointed Ziyād’s son `Ubaydullah, in supersession of Khulayd, as his lieutenant in Khorāsān. `Ubaydullah ibn Ziyād collected an army in Irāk, entered Khorāsān and, crossing the Oxus, penetrated into the mountains of Bokhārā,[91] and conquered Rāmtīna and half of Baykand. The Turks of Bokhārā were at that time governed by a princess named Khātūn, who acted as regent during the minority of her son Tughshāda. On the approach of the Arabs with an overwhelming force, Khātūn fled to Samarkand. According to Tabari,[92] so great was her haste that one of her shoes was left behind. It fell into the hands of the Arabs, and was valued by them at 200,000 direms.[93]

Diplomacy gained for Bokhārā what arms could never have accomplished. Khātūn saved the evacuation of her capital by entering into a treaty by which she bound herself to pay a yearly tribute.[94] `Ubaydullah withdrew to Merv laden with booty, and on his return to Irāk was appointed by the Caliph Mo`awiya, governor of Basra. In A.H. 56 (676) Sa`īd ibn `Othman, who had superseded him in Khorāsān, determined to complete the conquest of Bokhārā, in spite of the treaty concluded by his predecessor. The Queen-Regent Khātūn was powerless to resist the invasion, for she had reason to doubt the loyalty of her troops, and her resources had been well-nigh exhausted in her struggle with `Ubaydullah. She therefore came to terms with Sa`īd by the surrender of the last shreds of her sovereignty in Bokhārā. But Samarkand, the wealthiest of its strongholds, was still unmastered. Sa`īd ibn `Othman embarked on a campaign for its reduction, carrying with him eighty Bokhārān nobles as hostages for their queen’s good behaviour. After several successful engagements with the Turks he stormed Samarkand[95] and carried off 30,000 prisoners, with much booty.[96] When Sa`īd passed through Bokhārā on his return to Khorāsān the queen demanded back the eighty hostages, but he replied that he did not yet feel sure of her good faith, and that he would not part with the Bokhārāns until he had crossed the Amū Daryā. At this stage of his march the queen sent messengers to repeat her demand, but she was informed by Sa`īd that the hostages should be sent back from Merv. Thus he continued to elude compliance, and finally dragged his wretched captives to Medīna. Here they were stripped of the attire proper to their rank and reduced to a condition of slavery. Preferring death to an ignominious existence, the desperadoes broke into Sa`īd’s palace, and, closing fast the doors, slew him and afterwards themselves. This tragedy occurred in A.H. 61 (680), under the Caliphate of Yezīd ibn Merwān, who had succeeded his father Mo`awiya in the previous year.

One of the Caliph’s first acts had been to appoint Salm ibn Ziyād as his lieutenant in Khorāsān.[97] The latter found the northern part of his charge a prey to revolt, for the restless Khātūn had taken advantage of dissension among the Caliph’s followers to throw off his hated yoke. Salm took council with a trusted general named Muhallab,[98] and, establishing a base at Merv, crossed the Oxus with[99] a force 6000 strong and moved rapidly on to Bokhārā. The queen, in her despair, turned to the Tarkhūn Malik of Soghd, to whom she promised her hand in marriage as the price of his alliance against the invaders. The Tarkhūn, seduced by the dazzling bait, advanced to her assistance at the head of 120,000 men. He put a reconnoitring party of the Arabs to flight, destroying more than half their number, but was beset by the entire force, and after a fierce struggle was utterly routed. So vast was the booty taken by Salm’s followers in the pursuit that each man-at-arms received 2400 direms.[100]

This victory[101] brought the queen of Bokhārā to her senses. She sued for peace, which was granted, and Salm returned in triumph. Salm seems to have won for himself universal respect during his two years’ residence in Merv as governor of Khorāsān, and the fact that during this period 2000 children had received his name[102] is quoted as a proof of his popularity.