Muhallab’s first care, however, was to encourage the settlement of Azd in Khurāsān, until he was supported by a division equal in size to any other. After securing the crossing at Zamm in 80/699 he marched into the district of Kish and there established his headquarters for two years, besieging the city and sending out minor expeditions under his sons in various directions[37]. Yazīd was sent with a force into Khuttal, nominally to co-operate with a pretender to the throne, but met with little success; Habīb, sent against Rabinjān, found himself countered by the forces of Bukhārā. Balādhurī’s account of Muhallab’s campaigns is ludicrously exaggerated; Tabarī quotes Muhallab himself as discouraging any attempts at effecting a conquest. On the death of his son al-Mughīra in Rajab 82, he came to terms with Kish and abandoned his expeditions, but died in the following Dhuʾl-Hijja (Jan. 702) near Merv Rūdh, and was succeeded by his son Yazīd.
The Muhallabite tradition which represents the appointment as distasteful to Hajjāj but popular in Khurāsān is almost certainly influenced by the later hostility between Yazīd and Hajjāj. It is probable, however, that Hajjāj, whose policy was to keep his governors dependent on himself, viewed with suspicion the concentration of authority in the hands of the leader of a powerful hostile clan, but he was content to wait for the meantime and give Yazīd sufficient rope to hang himself. Except for an attempted raid on Khwārizm Yazīd carried out no expeditions, while under his government the precarious internal balance of Khurāsān was soon upset. The quarrels of Qays had been composed by Muhallab, but they were in no mood to bear with the leadership of the parvenu Azd; already before the death of Muhallab, in spite of the Tamīmite eulogy quoted by Tabarī, there was a moment when the feud threatened to break out. The pronounced factional leanings of Yazīd strained the situation still further. Even more serious was the attitude of the mawālī. Hurayth, the brother of Thābit ibn Qutba, had been left behind at Kish by Muhallab to collect the tribute, but on his return was scourged for disobedience. The disgrace cut Hurayth deeply; too late Muhallab realised the gravity of his act, but Hurayth spurned his overtures and with Thābit fled to Mūsā at Tirmidh. Yazīd retaliated with foolish severity by maltreating their families, which only inflamed the general resentment. Hurayth and Thābit used their influence to stir up an insurrection to act in concert with Mūsā; the king of Chaghāniān and his Ephthalite confederates headed by Nēzak, prince of Bādghīs, readily responded, while Persian interest was excited by the return to Tukhāristān of the son of Pērōz, the heir of the Sāsānids. It seems probable that even some of Qays were a party to the scheme[38]. Seizing an opportunity when Yazīd was occupied with the rebel forces of Ibn al-Ashath on the borders of Khurāsān the revolt broke out. Yazīd was powerless to prevent the expulsion of his residents from Chaghāniān and Lower Tukhāristān, and Mūsā is said to have refrained from invading Khurāsān only from fear that it would fall into the hands of Thābit and Hurayth. Even the success claimed for Yazīd in Bādghīs can have been of little effect[39]. Fortunately for the Arabs, Mūsā’s jealousy of Thābit and Hurayth caused a division in the ranks of their enemies, but though the brothers both fell in battle, the danger remained acute. The son of Pērōz still lingered in Tukhāristān, and even at Damascus there was some uneasiness about the situation in Khurāsān[40].
To Hajjāj it was obvious that the first essential was to reunite the Arabs and that so long as Yazīd was in power that was impossible. The only difficulty was to find a governor acceptable to Qays and to substitute him without risking a revolt of Azd. It was solved with admirable ingenuity. By ordering Yazīd to transfer his authority to his weaker brother Mufaddal, Hajjāj at one stroke removed the man from whom he had most to fear and prevented him from uniting Azd in opposition, although Yazīd realised that the fall of his house was imminent. At the same time the Caliph’s permission was sought for the nomination of Qutayba ibn Muslim as governor of Khurāsān. Belonging to the neutral tribe of Bāhila, Qutayba was reckoned as allied to Qays, but might be trusted to hold the scales evenly between the factions; he had already distinguished himself in ʿIrāq and in his governorship of Rayy, and was the more devoted to Hajjāj in that he was protected by no strong party of his own. The accepted belief that Hajjāj took no steps to remove the family of Muhallab until Mūsā was put out of the way is based on a remark attributed to Muhallab in the Mūsā-legend, which is frequently contradicted elsewhere both expressly and by implication.
Mufaddal, during his nine months of office in 85/704, seems to have endeavoured to impress Hajjāj by a show of military activity against the rebels in Bādghīs. At the same time, acting in concert with the local princes (magnified in the legend to “Tarkhūn and as-Sabal”), he sent an expedition to Tirmidh under ʿOthmān b. Masʿūd. Mūsā was cut off and killed in a sortie and his nephew Sulaymān surrendered at discretion, Hajjāj’s first exclamation on hearing the news is said to have been one of anger at the insult to Qays, but the last hindrance to the appointment of the new governor was now removed and towards the close of the year Qutayba b. Muslim arrived in Merv.
Notes
[21] Bal. 408. 5: Chav., Doc. 172, n. 1. There were two localities called Māyamurgh in Sughd: one near Samarqand (Istakhrī 321. 6), and the other one day’s march from Nasaf on the Bukhārā road (ibid. 337. 7). According to the Chinese records the former is the one in question here.
[22] Yāqūt, ed. Wüstenfeld, II. 411. 21: cf. Caetani, “Annali” VIII. 4 ff. On Qārin, Nöldeke, Sasaniden 127, 437: Marquart, Ērānshahr 134.
[23] Chav., Doc. 172.
[24] Cf. Lammens, “Ziād b. Abīhi” (R.S.O. 1912) p. 664.
[25] Cf. with Tughshāda the name of the reigning prince in 658, Chav., Doc. 137.