The Arab conquests in Central Asia

by H. A. R. Gibb

But though the situation was steadily deteriorating the decisive moment had not yet come. The new governor, Asad b. ʿAbdullah, seems to have seen something of the danger though factional feeling was running so high that the administration was almost helpless in face of it. He tried to continue Muslim’s policy of conciliation by appointing agents of known probity. Tawba b. Abī Usayd, a mawlā who had been intendant for Muslim, and who “treated the people fairly, made himself easily accessible, dealt uprightly with the army and maintained their supplies,” he persuaded to remain in office under him. Hāniʾ b. Hāniʾ, the financial intendant at Samarqand, was unpopular; he was recalled and Al-Hasan b. Abiʾl-ʿAmarrata of Kinda, who was in sympathy with the mawālī, appointed in his place. With him was associated Thābit Qutna, who had been a leader of some repute under Saʿīd Khudhayna, “gallant warrior, distinguished poet, confidant of Yazīd b. Muhallab, and universally popular”[80]. Still more significant is the fact that one of Asad’s earliest actions was to renew the practice, neglected since the days of ʿOmar II, of sending an embassy to the Chinese court. As before, however, the Arabs resented the favour shown to the Persians, and the military weakness of Ibn Abiʾl-ʿAmarrata roused them to open anger. Strong Turkish forces, probably guerilla bands swollen by refugees and malcontents from the wasted districts, spread over the country and appeared even before Samarqand. The governor made some show of opposition, but avoided coming to grips with them, thus intensifying his unpopularity.

Samarqand indeed was gradually becoming more and more isolated, but no assistance could be given from Khurāsān. During his three years of office Asad’s attention was wholly engaged with the situation in Tukhāristān and the South. Even here his constant expeditions, to Gharjistān, Khuttal, and elsewhere, met with no success. Worse still, in 108/726 he found his forces in Khuttal opposed by the Khāqān with his Türgesh. The princes of Tukhāristān had taken to heart the lessons of the “Day of Thirst”, and the powerful chief who had already all but driven the Arabs out of Sogdiana was now called in to expel them from the Oxus basin as well. Asad visited his failure on the Mudarites, whom he may have suspected of treachery, but the indignation called out by his treatment of such men as Nasr b. Sayyār, ʿAbdur-Rahmān b. Nuʿaym, Sawra b. Al-Hurr, and Al-Bakhtarī, made his recall inevitable. Nor had his measures removed the distrust and hatred of the subject peoples. The land was wasted and desolate[81], the crushing taxation was not lightened, and all Persian governors were not of the stamp of Tawba; many of them were but too ready to rival their Arab rulers in greed and cruelty. Asad may have gained the friendship of many dihqāns[82], but that was an easier matter than to placate the population. In such an atmosphere it was only to be expected that Shīʿite and ʿAbbāsid propaganda, though actively combated by the administration, found a fertile field among the Muslim converts in Khurāsān and Lower Tukhāristān, and was already beginning to undermine the whole fabric of Arab government.

For a moment the hopes of a radical change of policy entertained by the mawālī and the clearer-sighted Arabs were raised to the highest pitch by the appointment (in 109) of Ashras b. ʿAbdullah as-Sulami, accompanied by the separation of Khurāsān from Khālid al-Qasrī’s province of ʿIrāq. It is unnecessary to recapitulate here the far-reaching concessions by which he hoped to secure, and actually did for a time secure the allegiance of the Sughdians, or the methods by which the local princes, especially Ghūrak, succeeded in checking the movement[83]. It is generally assumed that the hostility of Ghūrak was due to the serious fall in revenue which would result. Though this was doubtless the plea put forward and accepted by Ashras it can scarcely have been the true issue. Ghūrak’s aim was not to maintain himself on good terms with the Arab governors but to recover his independence. If once the people became “Arabs” all hope of success must have been lost. It was a game with high stakes and Ghūrak won. It must not be overlooked, however, that the account as we have it is traditional and may often be mistaken on the sequence of cause and effect. The astonishing reversal of the measures adopted by Ashras is more probably to be explained by pressure from above, not from below, and our tradition may really present only the popular view of the Caliph Hishām’s reorganization of the financial administration[84]. The Arabs resorted to brutal methods to wring the taxes from the new converts, and with incredible blindness selected the dihqāns for special indignities. It is not unlikely that Narshakhī’s story of the martyrdom of native Muslims in Bukhārā is connected with this event, though there are many other possible explanations, such as, for example, an attempted Hārithite movement (see below, [p. 76 f.]) The reaction swung the whole population of Transoxania, dihqāns and peasantry alike, into open rebellion. The first small party of emigrants who quitted Samarqand, although supported by a few Arabs, were induced to surrender and return[85], but within a few months the dreaded Khāqān with his Türgesh had joined forces with the rebels and swept the Arabs across the Oxus. Even Bukhārā was lost[86] and only Samarqand with two minor posts on the Zarafshān, Kamarja and Dabūsia, held out. Ghūrak, however, still supported the Arabs, as Samarqand, although besieged, seems to have been in no danger, while his son Mukhtār, doubtless to keep a footing in the opposite camp, joined with the Türgesh.

The pressing danger sobered the Arabs and temporarily united all parties and factions. The army was concentrated at Āmul but for three months was unable to cross the river in the face of the combined native and Türgesh armies. A small body under Qatan b. Qutayba which had already crossed and fortified itself before the arrival of the Turks was beleaguered. The Turkish cavalry even made raids on Khurāsān with an excess of boldness which was punished by a mounted force under Thābit Qutna. At length Ashras got his forces across and, joining with Qatan b. Qutayba, advanced on Paykand. The enemy cut off the water supply, and had it not been for the gallantry and self-sacrifice of Hārith b. Surayj, Thābit Qutna, and their companions, an even greater and more irretrievable “Day of Thirst” had resulted. In spite of their weakness, Qatan and the cavalry of Qays and Tamīm charged the enemy and forced them back, so that Ashras was able to continue his advance towards Bukhārā. In the heavy fighting the Muslim forces were divided, Ashras and Qatan gave each other up for lost, and Ghūrak judged that the time had come to throw in his lot with the Turks. Two days later, however, the armies were reunited and on the retiral of the Turks encamped at Bawādara outside the walls of Bukhārā, whence they prepared to besiege the city. Ghūrak also retrieved his error and rejoined Ashras. The Khāqān withdrew towards Samarqand, but sat down before Kamarja, expecting to take it by storm in a few days at the most. The Arabic narratives of these events are confused in several places, which has given rise to many incorrect statements, such as that Ghūrak was beleaguered with the Arabs in Kamarja and that the garrison consisted of Qatan and his forces. Kamarja was not in the neighbourhood of Paykand, as Wellhausen states, but a few farsakhs west of Samarqand[87]. When the garrison would not yield to assault Khāqān tried other methods. Accompanying his expedition was Khusrū the son of Pērōz and grandson of Yazdigird, heir of the Sāsānid kings. This prince was sent to parley with the garrison, but when he claimed the restoration of his kingdom and promised them an amnesty, it is not surprising that the Arabs indignantly refused to hear him. Nor would the appearance of a Sāsānid prince evoke much enthusiasm amongst the Iranians of Transoxania. As the Sāsānid house had taken refuge in China, however, the presence of Khusrū might be taken as an indication that the rebels were receiving encouragement from China also, though the Chinese records are silent on this expedition. Khāqān’s second proposal, that he should hire the Arabs as mercenaries, was rejected as derisively as the first. The siege was then pressed with renewed vigour, both sides putting their prisoners and hostages to death, but after fifty-eight days Khāqān, on the advice of the son of Ghūrak and the other Sughdian princes, allowed the garrison to transfer either to Samarqand or Dabūsia. On their choosing the latter, the terms were faithfully carried out after an exchange of hostages.

The fame of the defence of Kamarja spread far and wide, but it brought little relief to the pressure on the Arabs in Transoxania. Even Khwārizm was affected by the movement of revolt, but at the first symptoms of open rebellion it was crushed by the local Muslims, probably Arabs settled in the district, with the aid of a small force despatched by Ashras. The reference made in Tabarī to assistance given to the rebels by the Turks is probably to be discounted, as is done by Ibn al-Athīr. It is of course quite possible that the movement was instigated by the Türgesh, though no such explanation is necessary, but if any Turks were engaged they were probably local nomadic tribes. Ashras seems to have remained before Bukhārā during the winter, possibly in Paykand; the Türgesh probably withdrew towards Shāsh and Farghāna.

In the following year, 730/111-112[88], the attacks on the army of Ashras were renewed. The course of events can only be gathered from the accounts given of the difficulties experienced by the new governor, Junayd b. ʿAbdur-Rahmān al-Murrī, in joining the army before Bukhārā. His guide advised him to levy a force from Zamm and the neighbouring districts before crossing the Oxus but Junayd refused, only to find himself after crossing put to the necessity of calling on Ashras for a bodyguard of cavalry. This force narrowly escaped disaster on its way to meet Junayd and fought a second severe engagement on the return journey before reaching Paykand. The enemy are variously described as “men of Bukhārā and Sughd” and “Turks and Sughdians”; it may therefore be assumed that they were the same forces against whom Ashras had fought the previous year. Wellhausen is probably correct in supposing that Ashras was practically beleaguered, though not in Bukhārā. The recapture of this city and the retiral of Khāqān took place shortly after Junayd’s arrival, in circumstances which are not described[89]. The attitude of Tugshāda during this episode is not recorded. It is practically certain, however, that he remained in Bukhārā, and after the reconquest was able to make his peace with the Arabs, probably on the excuse of force majeure. At all events he retained his position, possibly because Junayd thought it impolitic in the face of the situation to victimise the nobles in the reconquered territories and thus provoke a more stubborn resistance in the rest of the country. The Arabs seem to have followed up the Turks towards Samarqand, probably to relieve the garrison; the two armies met again at Zarmān, seven farsakhs from Samarqand, where the Arabs claimed a success, one of their prisoners being a nephew of Khāqān. From Sughd the army marched to Tirmidh where Junayd halted for two months in the friendly atmosphere of Chaghāniān before returning to Merv. His intention was no doubt to make arrangements for the pacification or reconquest of Tukhāristān and Khuttal; in the following year his troops were actually engaged in this direction when the Türgesh invasion of Sughd forced him to change his plans. Balādhurī quotes Abū ʿUbayda for the statement that Junayd reconquered certain districts in Tukhāristān which had revolted.

How lightly even yet factional feeling was slumbering was shown after the return of the army, when the Bāhilites of Balkh had a chance to retaliate on Nasr b. Sayyār for their discomfiture at Barūqān. Though Junayd was prompt to punish the offending governor, the incident throws a strong light on one cause of the weakness of the Arabs in these campaigns.

Early in 731/112-113, the Türgesh and Sughdians gathered their forces for the investment of Samarqand. Ghūrak now openly joined the Khāqān. Sawra b. Al-Hurr, the governor of Samarqand, unable to face the enemy in the field, sent an urgent message to Junayd for assistance. The governor hastily recalled his troops, but crossed the river without waiting for them against the advice of his generals. “No governor of Khurāsān,” said al-Mujashshar b. Muzāhim, one of the ablest of the Arab commanders, “should cross the river with less than fifty thousand men.” Accompanied only by a small force, Junayd reached Kish, where he raised some local levies and prepared to march on Samarqand. The enemy in the meantime, after blocking up the water supplies on his road, interposed their forces between Samarqand and the army of relief. Junayd thereupon decided to follow the direct route across the Shāwdār mountains in the hope of avoiding an engagement, but when only four farsakhs from Samarqand was surprised in the defiles by Khāqān. The advance-guard was driven in and the main body engaged in a furious struggle in which both sides fought to a standstill. The Arabs, hemmed in on all sides, were forced to entrench; stragglers, refugees, and baggage, collected near Kish, were attacked by a detachment of Turks and severely handled. Khāqān renewed his attacks on the camp the next day, all but overwhelming Junayd, and settled down thereafter to beleaguer him. In this predicament there was only one course open to Junayd. Had his force perished, Samarqand would certainly have fallen in the end and two disasters taken the place of one. He therefore adopted the more prudent, if unheroic, course of ordering Sawra to leave a skeleton garrison in Samarqand and march out to join him by way of the river: Sawra, however, took the short cut across the mountains, and was actually within four miles of Junayd, when the Turkish forces bore down on him. The battle lasted into the heat of the day, when the Turks, on Ghūrak’s advice it is said, having first set the grass on fire, drew up so as to shut Sawra off from the water. Maddened by heat and thirst, the Arabs charged the enemy and broke their ranks, only to perish miserably in the fire, Turks and Muslims together. The scattered remnants were pursued by the Turkish cavalry and of twelve thousand men scarcely a thousand escaped. While the enemy were engaged with Sawra, Junayd freed himself from his perilous position in the defiles, though not without severe fighting, and completed his march to Samarqand. Tabarī gives also a variant account of the “Battle of the Pass,” the main difference in which is the inclusion of the Jabghu on the side of the Turks. In view of the Arab expeditions into Tukhāristān, it is improbable that the Jabghu, even if he was present personally, which is doubtful, was accompanied by any of his troops. The Persian Tabarī also contains an entirely different version of the Battle of the Pass and the fate of Sawra. The original version is amply attested by contemporary poets, who show no mercy to Junayd. Whatever credit the Arabs gained in this battle is reflected on Nasr b. Sayyār and the mawālī. Junayd remained at Samarqand for some time, recuperating his forces, while couriers were sent to Hishām with the news of the disaster. The Caliph immediately ordered twenty thousand reinforcements from Basra and Kūfa to be sent to Khurāsān, together with a large number of weapons and a draft on the treasury, at the same time giving Junayd a free hand in enlistment.

The Turks, disappointed in their attack on Samarqand, withdrew to Bukhārā, where they laid siege to Qatan b. Qutayba. Here they were also on the natural lines of communication between Samarqand and Khurāsān. Junayd held a council, and of three alternatives, either to remain in Samarqand and await reinforcements, or to retire on Khurāsān via Kish and Zamm, or to attack the enemy, chose the last. But the morale of the Arabs was sadly shaken; a garrison of eight hundred men for Samarqand was scraped together only by granting a considerable increase in their pay, while the troops openly regarded the decision to face Khāqān and the Turkish hordes as equivalent to courting destruction. Junayd now marched with the utmost circumspection, however, and easily defeated a small body of the enemy in a skirmish near Karmīnīa. The following day Khāqān attacked his rearguard near Tawāwīs (on the edge of the oasis of Bukhārā), but the attack had been foreseen and was beaten off. As it was now well into November, the Türgesh were compelled to withdraw from Sogdiana, while Junayd entered Bukhārā in triumph on the festival of Mihrjān. In Chaghāniān he was joined by the reinforcements, whom he sent on to Samarqand, the remainder of the troops returning to their winter quarters.

Junayd seems to have been content with saving Samarqand and Bukhārā. As no further expeditions are recorded of his two remaining years of office it must be assumed that the situation in Sughd remained unchanged and that the Türgesh irruptions also were suspended. Though the Arabs still held Samarqand and the territories of Bukhārā and Kish, they were in all probability confined to these, while in the southern basin their authority hardly extended beyond Balkh and Chaghāniān. Both sides may have awaited the first move by the other, but were surprised by the appearance of a new factor, which threatened the existence of Arab sovereignty in the Far East more seriously than any external danger. It is noteworthy that in his last year of office (115/733) Junayd resumed relations with the Chinese court. The Turkish title of the leader of the embassy, Mo-se-lan Tarkan, suggests that none of the ambassadors were actually Arabs, but that the governor had commissioned some dignitaries from the subject states to represent the Arab government. The only embassy recorded in this year from a native state, however, came from Khuttal. In the same year Khurāsān was visited by a severe drought and famine, and to provide for the needs of Merv, Junayd commandeered supplies from all the surrounding districts. This, added to the military disasters of the last few years and the insinuations of Shīʿite propaganda, provoked open discontent in the district which had hitherto been outwardly faithful to Merv, namely the principalities of Lower Tukhāristān. The leader of the malcontents was Al-Hārith b. Surayj, who was flogged in consequence by the governor of Balkh. The discontent flared into open revolt on the death of Junayd in Muharram 716 (Feb. 734). Hārith, assisted by the princes and people of Jūzjān, Fāryāb, and Tālaqān, marched on Balkh and captured it from Nasr b. Sayyār. The versions leave it uncertain whether Hārith defeated Nasr and then captured the city or whether he entered the city first and beat off an attempt at recapture by Nasr. (Wellhausen’s reference to the Oxus is due to his so misunderstanding the “river of Balkh” in Tab. 1560. 2. That it refers here, as frequently, to the Dehas river is clear from the distance to the city (2 farsakhs, whereas the Oxus lay twelve farsakhs from Balkh) as well as from the mention of the bridge of ʿAtā.) From Balkh he moved against the new governor ʿĀsim b. ʿAbdullah al-Hilālī, at Merv, capturing Merv-Rūdh on the way. ʿĀsim found a large section of the inhabitants in league with Hārith, but on his threatening to evacuate Merv and to call for Syrian troops, the local forces rallied round him. At the first reverse, the princes of Lower Tukhāristān deserted Hārith, whose army fell from sixty thousand to three thousand. He was thus reduced to making terms with ʿĀsim, but early in the following year renewed his revolt. ʿĀsim, hearing that Asad b. ʿAbdullah was on the way as his successor, began to intrigue with Hārith against him. The plan miscarried, however; Hārith seized the governor and held him to ransom, so that Asad on his arrival found the rebels in possession of all Eastern Khurāsān, and Merv threatened both from the East and from the South. Sending a force under ʿAbdur Rahmān b. Nuʿaym towards Merv Rūdh to keep Hārith’s main body in check, he marched himself against the rebel forces at Āmul and Zamm. These took refuge in the citadel of Zamm, and Asad, having thus checked the insurgents in this quarter, continued his march on Balkh. Meanwhile Hārith seems to have retreated before ʿAbdur-Rahmān towards Balkh and thence across the Oxus, where he laid siege to Tirmidh. Lower Tukhāristān returned to its allegiance; on the other hand Hārith was now supported not only by the kings of Khuttal and Nasaf, but also, as appears from later events, by the Jabghu of Tukhāristān. The government troops were unable to cross the Oxus in the face of Hārith’s army; finding, however, that the garrison was well able to defend itself, they returned to Balkh, while Hārith, after falling out with the king of Khuttal, seems to have retired into Tukhāristān. Here, following the example of Mūsā b. Khāzim at Tirmidh, he made a safe retreat for himself in Badakhshān.