Read The Great Arab Conquests Online
Authors: Hugh Kennedy
The Great Arab Conquests (49 page)
According to the Tamīmis the real victory was achieved, unsurprisingly, by their own tribe. The Turks were on a hill on the other side of a river and the Muslim forces were very reluctant to cross and engage them. Qutayba appealed directly to tribal pride, telling them that they were like ‘a coat of mail on which swords break’, and he harked back to the traditions of the tribe in pre-Islamic times, saying that he needed them to fight today as they had fought of old.
11
The chief of the tribe, Wakī,
m
a tough, uncouth, foul-mouthed Bedouin who was later to be Qutayba’s nemesis, took the standard and began to advance on foot towards the enemy. He urged the cavalry to go on in advance, but when the commander of the cavalry reached the river he refused to continue; when Wakī urged him to go over ‘he gave him the look of a fierce camel’ and refused to budge. Wakī, who had a well-deserved reputation for violence and brutality, started to abuse him and belabour him with his iron mace and the cavalry commander, shamed into action, led his men up the hill. At first Wakī followed with the infantry and, while the cavalry distracted the Turks by attacking them from the wings, the infantry were able to drive them from the hill.
11
The chief of the tribe, Wakī,
m
a tough, uncouth, foul-mouthed Bedouin who was later to be Qutayba’s nemesis, took the standard and began to advance on foot towards the enemy. He urged the cavalry to go on in advance, but when the commander of the cavalry reached the river he refused to continue; when Wakī urged him to go over ‘he gave him the look of a fierce camel’ and refused to budge. Wakī, who had a well-deserved reputation for violence and brutality, started to abuse him and belabour him with his iron mace and the cavalry commander, shamed into action, led his men up the hill. At first Wakī followed with the infantry and, while the cavalry distracted the Turks by attacking them from the wings, the infantry were able to drive them from the hill.
In the aftermath of the battle, the Muslims occupied Bukhara for the first time. It seems most likely that once the relieving force had been defeated, the people of the city made their peace with the Muslims, possibly allowing a Muslim garrison in the citadel. The conquest of Bukhara lasted at least four campaigning seasons, the inhabitants being forced to submit and pay tribute each year. It was only after the fourth time this had happened that Qutayba took steps to establish a firm Muslim presence in the city.
Bukhara at this time was made up of three distinct zones. The oldest was the citadel, the Ark, on the ancient tell where the king, with the title of Bukhara-khudā (Lord of Bukhara), lived. Slightly to the east, and separated by open ground, was the walled city, the Shahristān, where the merchants and other citizens lived. Finally there were numerous fortified dwellings, called
kushk
s in the local language, scattered in the fields and orchards of the oasis. Qutayba was determined to establish a Muslim presence in the heart of the Shahristān, by persuasion, bribery or force if necessary. He destroyed fire-temples, built mosques and enforced the laws of Islam. He obliged the inhabitants to give half of their houses and fields to the Arabs so that they could live with them and provide them with fodder for their horses and firewood. Many of the richer inhabitants chose to leave the city proper and retire to their country houses. The walled city was divided into different zones and assigned to different tribal groups to settle. Soon neighbourhood mosques were set up by the different groups, one of them on the site of a Christian church. Within a generation the walled city seems to have been predominantly inhabited by Muslims of Arab descent while Iranians lived in the suburbs and villages.
12
The Arab amirs lived in the walled city and the kings, the Bukhara-khudās, continued to live, as they had always done, in the citadel. Relations between the Arab governors and the kings were usually, but not always, friendly, and Tughshāda, the king who accepted Muslim rule over the city, called his son Qutayba, in honour of the conqueror.
kushk
s in the local language, scattered in the fields and orchards of the oasis. Qutayba was determined to establish a Muslim presence in the heart of the Shahristān, by persuasion, bribery or force if necessary. He destroyed fire-temples, built mosques and enforced the laws of Islam. He obliged the inhabitants to give half of their houses and fields to the Arabs so that they could live with them and provide them with fodder for their horses and firewood. Many of the richer inhabitants chose to leave the city proper and retire to their country houses. The walled city was divided into different zones and assigned to different tribal groups to settle. Soon neighbourhood mosques were set up by the different groups, one of them on the site of a Christian church. Within a generation the walled city seems to have been predominantly inhabited by Muslims of Arab descent while Iranians lived in the suburbs and villages.
12
The Arab amirs lived in the walled city and the kings, the Bukhara-khudās, continued to live, as they had always done, in the citadel. Relations between the Arab governors and the kings were usually, but not always, friendly, and Tughshāda, the king who accepted Muslim rule over the city, called his son Qutayba, in honour of the conqueror.
In 713 Qutayba built a great mosque in the citadel on the site of a fire-temple. The new religion was now publicly established in the old centre of power and prestige. Finding a congregation to fill it was not so simple. Local people were paid 2 dirhams for coming to Friday prayers as a way of encouraging them. Since they did not know how to perform the rituals of prayer, Persian-speaking instructors were appointed who would tell them when to bow and when to prostrate themselves. The Koran was read in Persian because the people did not know Arabic. Not all the people of the city were impressed by the new religion. The poor, we are told, were attracted by the 2 dirhams on offer but many of the rich obstinately stayed in their country houses. One Friday the Muslims went out to these country houses and called on the inhabitants to come to the mosque. They were met with showers of stones. The Muslims then attacked the houses. By way of humiliating the inhabitants, they removed the doors of the houses and carried them off to be used in the new mosque. These doors had images of household gods on them, and when the doors were brought to the mosque these images were defaced, either as a result of the Islamic prohibition of images or, more simply, to humiliate the old religion and its devotees. Many years later Narshakhī, the local historian of Bukhara, noticed the erased images on the doors and made enquiries about what had happened, which is how the story has come down to us.
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Qutayba also laid out a place for festival prayers at the foot of the citadel in the Registan (square). When they first came to pray there, the Muslims were ordered to bring their arms, ‘because Islam was still new and the Muslims were not safe from the infidels’.
14
13
Qutayba also laid out a place for festival prayers at the foot of the citadel in the Registan (square). When they first came to pray there, the Muslims were ordered to bring their arms, ‘because Islam was still new and the Muslims were not safe from the infidels’.
14
Despite the changes in rituals, religion and ceremony, the kings of Bukhara continued to wield very considerable power in the city and the surrounding oasis, and the old line survived through the rule of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs until the coming of the Samanids at the end of the ninth century. So, as in many other areas of Transoxania, Muslim government was really a protectorate and the Arab authorities ruled with and through the local aristocracy. In the aftermath of this success, the king of Soghdia, Tarkhūn, came from his capital Samarqand seeking peace. He approached Qutayba’s camp with two men, keeping the Bukhara river between them, and opened negotiations. He agreed to pay tribute in exchange for an agreement that the Arabs would not invade.
Any sense of satisfaction Qutayba may have felt as he returned to Merv after the first conquest of Bukhara in the autumn of 709 was soon rudely interrupted. The prince Nayzak, who had been brought to Merv and had joined Qutayba’s expedition to Bukhara, now seems to have felt that if he ever wanted to regain his independence, he had to act before it was too late. ‘I am with this man,’ he is said to have told his retinue, ‘and I don’t feel safe with him. The Arab is like a dog: if you beat him he barks and if you feed him he wags his tail. If you fight against him and then give him something, he is pleased and forgets what you have done to him. Tarkhūn fought him several times and when he gave him tribute, he accepted it and was pleased. He is violent and full of himself.’ Presumably the implication of this was that Nayzak felt he could attempt a rebellion and, if it failed, could make his peace again with Qutayba. When the army reached Āmul on the west bank of the Oxus, Nayzak asked permission to return to his homeland, and this was granted.
He headed as quickly as possible to Balkh. He had clearly formulated a plan to rouse all the princes of Tukhāristan, the middle valley of the Oxus, against Arab rule. When he reached the city the first thing he did was to pray at the great Buddhist Nawbahār shrine for success in the forthcoming struggle. He was aware that Qutayba would soon regret giving him permission to depart and would order the local Arab governor to detain him so he kept on the move. He wrote to a whole list of local princes encouraging them to join him, to the Ispahbādh of Balkh, to Bādhām, king of Mervrūd, Suhrak, the king of Tāliqān, Tūsik, the king of Faryāb, and the king of Jūzjān. All responded positively and he arranged that they should come and join him in the spring of 710. He also made preparations in case things went wrong. He wrote to the shāh of distant Kabul, securely beyond the range of Arab armies, requesting his help. Nayzak sent much of his baggage to Kabul for safe keeping and was given an assurance that the shāh would give him refuge if he needed it.
15
Then he expelled Qutayba’s governor and prepared to wait until his allies gathered in the spring. He had taken every precaution but had underestimated his adversary.
15
Then he expelled Qutayba’s governor and prepared to wait until his allies gathered in the spring. He had taken every precaution but had underestimated his adversary.
Qutayba was now in his winter quarters in Merv and his troops had mostly dispersed to their homes, but he immediately sent 12,000 men under the command of his brother to Balkh with orders to hold out there until spring. Very early the next year (710), before the rebels had mobilized, he assembled an army from Merv and the Arab settlements in the western parts of Khurasan and marched on Tukh-āristan. His first stop was Mervrūd, a small town on the upper Murghāb river, whose ruler had pledged his support to Nayzak. The ruler himself fled but Qutayba caught his two sons and crucified them. Next was Tāliqān, where, according to some reports, he killed and crucified a large number of people to intimidate the inhabitants of the area.
16
Then the king of Faryāb humbly made his submission and he and his people were spared. The king of Jūzjān soon followed suit and Qutayba went on to receive the submission of the people of Balkh.
16
Then the king of Faryāb humbly made his submission and he and his people were spared. The king of Jūzjān soon followed suit and Qutayba went on to receive the submission of the people of Balkh.
Nayzak could now see that his plan was in ruins. Qutayba’s swift and decisive action had wrong-footed him and almost all his princely allies had now reconciled themselves with Qutayba. There were Arab governors in all the towns of Tukhāristan. He now fled south to the Hindu Kush, hoping to reach Kabul. He left a detachment of his supporters at Khulm (modern Tashkurgan), where the road south leaves the Oxus plains and enters a narrow defile, probably in the citadel whose ruins can still be seen in the town.
17
Qutayba could find no way to get round this obstacle until a local landowner approached him and offered to show him a path round behind the castle in exchange for safe conduct. Once more, divisions and rivalries among the local people allowed the Arabs to take advantage of them. Qutayba’s men fell on the garrison at night and took the fortress. Nayzak, meanwhile, had fled along the route of the modern road that leads from the Oxus valley to the Salang Pass and Kabul. He holed up in a mountain refuge at a site that cannot now be identified in Baghlān province. Qutayba was hard on his heels. He soon caught up with him and laid siege to his refuge for two months. Nayzak’s supplies began to run low but Qutayba too had his problems; winter would soon be upon them and he did not want to be trapped in the mountains.
17
Qutayba could find no way to get round this obstacle until a local landowner approached him and offered to show him a path round behind the castle in exchange for safe conduct. Once more, divisions and rivalries among the local people allowed the Arabs to take advantage of them. Qutayba’s men fell on the garrison at night and took the fortress. Nayzak, meanwhile, had fled along the route of the modern road that leads from the Oxus valley to the Salang Pass and Kabul. He holed up in a mountain refuge at a site that cannot now be identified in Baghlān province. Qutayba was hard on his heels. He soon caught up with him and laid siege to his refuge for two months. Nayzak’s supplies began to run low but Qutayba too had his problems; winter would soon be upon them and he did not want to be trapped in the mountains.
Negotiations began. Qutayba sent an adviser of his called Sulaym, who took with him loads of food, including a dish called
khabīs
made of dates and clarified butter. The starving fugitives fell on the food and Nayzak could see that he had to try to make terms or perish, especially when Sulaym stressed that Qutayba was prepared to spend the winter there if necessary. Sulaym offered safe conduct. Nayzak was very suspicious: ‘My feeling is that he is going to kill me even if he gives me safe conduct but safe conduct makes my decision [to give myself up] more excusable and gives me some hope.’
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khabīs
made of dates and clarified butter. The starving fugitives fell on the food and Nayzak could see that he had to try to make terms or perish, especially when Sulaym stressed that Qutayba was prepared to spend the winter there if necessary. Sulaym offered safe conduct. Nayzak was very suspicious: ‘My feeling is that he is going to kill me even if he gives me safe conduct but safe conduct makes my decision [to give myself up] more excusable and gives me some hope.’
18
So they made their way down the steps from Nayzak’s refuge to the plain where his riding animals were, Sulaym trying to reassure him all the way. When they reached the pass, Sulaym’s escort slipped round behind Nayzak in case he changed his mind and attempted to escape back to the mountains. Nayzak took that as a bad sign. When he was brought to Qutayba, his worst fears were realized. Questioned by the governor, he said that he had been granted safe conduct by Sulaym but Qutayba retorted that he was lying. Qutayba was in a quandary as to whether to execute him or not. He was the ringleader of the rebels and a very dangerous man, who could easily try to foment another insurgency. On the other hand, safe conducts were taken very seriously and to breach one might make negotiations with other rebels and defectors much more difficult in the future. Opinion among the governor’s advisers was very divided. Finally one of them said that he had heard the governor promise God that if Nayzak fell into his hands he would kill him and that if he did not do so, he could never ask for God’s help again. The governor sat for some time thinking about this before giving his orders: the prisoner was to die. This brutal and treacherous murder was a stain on Qutayba’s reputation for ever but it terrified the rest of the princes into submission. Nayzak’s death meant the end of the insurrection and most of the princes of Tukh-āristan were, at least for the moment, firmly under Arab control.
Qutayba still faced a smaller but nonetheless significant challenge to his authority. The little kingdom of Shūmān lay on the north bank of the Oxus. Its capital was a fortified city at or near the site of Dushanbe, the modern capital of Tajikistan. The king of Shūmān had made peace with Qutayba and is said to have become a friend of the governor’s brother Sālih, another example of the ties that were developing between Arab and local elites. An Arab political agent had been installed. The king now repudiated the treaty and expelled the political agent. The ease with which this was done suggests that the kingdom had been ‘conquered’ in a very superficial way and that there was no Arab garrison there. Qutayba’s reaction was to try diplomacy. He selected a man who is described as a ‘Khurasani ascetic’, presumably a preacher of Islam, a sort of proto-dervish, and a man called Ayyāsh al-Ghanawī. When they arrived they received a hostile reception from the local people who shot arrows at them. The ascetic turned back but Ayyāsh was made of sterner stuff and called out, asking whether there were any Muslims in the city. One man replied. He came out to ask what Ayyāsh wanted, to which he replied that he wanted help in waging
jihād
against the people. The man accepted, and despite the fact that there were only two of them, they engaged the enemy with some success. Then the local Muslim, clearly feeling that his loyalties to his fellow citizens were stronger than his commitment to his new faith, came up behind Ayyāsh and killed him. They found sixty wounds on him and the Shūmānis immediately regretted what they had done, saying that they had killed a brave man.
jihād
against the people. The man accepted, and despite the fact that there were only two of them, they engaged the enemy with some success. Then the local Muslim, clearly feeling that his loyalties to his fellow citizens were stronger than his commitment to his new faith, came up behind Ayyāsh and killed him. They found sixty wounds on him and the Shūmānis immediately regretted what they had done, saying that they had killed a brave man.
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