Read The Great Arab Conquests Online
Authors: Hugh Kennedy
The Great Arab Conquests (50 page)
But the damage was done. After the recent rebellion of Nayzak, Qutayba could not afford to let any of the local kings defy his authority and was determined to extract obedience and tribute, by force if necessary. The king, however, was in a defiant mood. He was not frightened of Qutayba because he had the strongest castle of any of the kings. ‘When I shoot at the top of it - I, the strongest of men with the bow and the strongest of them in archery - my arrow does not get even halfway up the walls of my fortress. I am not afraid of Qutayba.’
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Qutayba was likewise undeterred. He marched to Balkh, crossed the river and soon reached the fortress of Shūmān. Here he set up catapults and began to batter the walls. One of these siege engines was called ‘the Pigeon-Toed’, and it discharged stones that landed right inside the city and killed a man in the king’s court.
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From that point, it all seems to have been over quite quickly. When it became clear that he could hold out no longer, the king collected all his treasure and jewels and threw them into the deepest well in the castle, from which they were never retrieved. Then he went out to meet his death fighting. Qutayba had taken the fortress by force and the defenders had to pay the price; the fighting men were all killed and the non-combatants taken prisoner. Shūmān was taken, and the king killed, but the principality seems to have survived and retained its identity, for we hear of a later prince of Shūmān fighting as an ally of the Muslims.
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From that point, it all seems to have been over quite quickly. When it became clear that he could hold out no longer, the king collected all his treasure and jewels and threw them into the deepest well in the castle, from which they were never retrieved. Then he went out to meet his death fighting. Qutayba had taken the fortress by force and the defenders had to pay the price; the fighting men were all killed and the non-combatants taken prisoner. Shūmān was taken, and the king killed, but the principality seems to have survived and retained its identity, for we hear of a later prince of Shūmān fighting as an ally of the Muslims.
On his way back to Merv, Qutayba sent his brother Abd al-Rahmān to pay a visit to Tarkhūn, the king of Samarqand, just to make sure that he was not planning any mischief and to collect the tribute. He met up with Tarkhūn’s army in a meadow in the afternoon. The Soghdian soldiers dispersed into groups and began to drink wine ‘until they became silly and made mischief’, as the Arab chronicler sniffily remarks. Firm measures were taken to prevent the Muslims following their bad example. The tribute was duly collected and Abd al-Rahmān returned to his brother in Merv.
Qutayba’s heavy-handed behaviour was resented in many quarters. At Samarqand there was mounting unrest and dissatisfaction at Tarkhūn’s supine attitude; he was called an old man, eager to be humiliated, and they resented the fact that he had agreed to pay taxes. He was deposed in favour of a man called Ghūrak, said by some to have been his brother.
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Tarkhūn took his deposition very badly and, saying that he would rather die by his own hand than be killed by someone else, he fell on his sword until it came out of his back.
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Political suicides like this were completely unknown in the Arab world, though they were, of course, common in imperial Rome, and they also seem to have been a Central Asian custom. His death was to have dangerous consequences for Samarqand, since it allowed Qutayba to pose as Tarkhūn’s avenger when he next led his army into Soghdia, but Ghūrak proved an able and wily ruler, constantly intriguing to preserve his independence from his powerful neighbours.
21
Tarkhūn took his deposition very badly and, saying that he would rather die by his own hand than be killed by someone else, he fell on his sword until it came out of his back.
22
Political suicides like this were completely unknown in the Arab world, though they were, of course, common in imperial Rome, and they also seem to have been a Central Asian custom. His death was to have dangerous consequences for Samarqand, since it allowed Qutayba to pose as Tarkhūn’s avenger when he next led his army into Soghdia, but Ghūrak proved an able and wily ruler, constantly intriguing to preserve his independence from his powerful neighbours.
The next campaigning season, 711, saw Qutayba going further south to confront the Zunbīl of Sistan, perhaps the most formidable of all the princely foes the Muslims encountered. This time, however, there was no serious fighting and the Zunbīl agreed to a peace treaty. It would be interesting to know whether Qutayba heard that in the same year, but 6,000 kilometres to the west, another Muslim military commander, Tāriq b. Ziyād, had crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and begun the conquest of Spain.
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The next year, 712, before campaigning began, Qutayba was warned that many of his troops were exhausted after the long march from Sistan and wanted a year’s respite from military expeditions,
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but an unexpected situation forced them to resume campaigning. The king of Khwārazm appealed to Qutayba for help against his overbearing brother, Khurrazādh. Khurrazādh had been in the habit of taking for himself any slaves, riding animals or fine goods he fancied; courtiers’ daughters and sisters had even been seized. The king professed himself powerless to act but he sent messengers in secret to Qutayba, inviting him to his land to arrest his brother and hand him over for judgement. As a token of his good faith he sent three golden keys to the cities of Khwārazm. It was too good an opportunity to miss and Qutayba, who had been planning another expedition to Soghdia, decided to make a detour.
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but an unexpected situation forced them to resume campaigning. The king of Khwārazm appealed to Qutayba for help against his overbearing brother, Khurrazādh. Khurrazādh had been in the habit of taking for himself any slaves, riding animals or fine goods he fancied; courtiers’ daughters and sisters had even been seized. The king professed himself powerless to act but he sent messengers in secret to Qutayba, inviting him to his land to arrest his brother and hand him over for judgement. As a token of his good faith he sent three golden keys to the cities of Khwārazm. It was too good an opportunity to miss and Qutayba, who had been planning another expedition to Soghdia, decided to make a detour.
The king of Khwārazm told his nobles that Qutayba was heading for Soghdia and that they would be spared military action that year, so, we are told, they began drinking and relaxing. The next thing they knew Qutayba and his army appeared at Hazārasp (the name means Thousand Horses in Persian), the city that lay on the west bank of the Oxus, at the head of the delta. The king and his court gathered at the capital, Kāth, on the other bank of the river. He persuaded his men that they should not fight Qutayba, and negotiations began: they agreed to make peace in exchange for 10,000 prisoners and some gold. During the negotiations, Qutayba’s brother and right-hand man, Abd al-Rahmān, fought and killed the king’s brother, executing many of his supporters in cold blood. It was another stage in the Muslim domination of the ancient delta kingdom, but the Afrīghid dynasty continued to rule as shāhs of Khwārazm for another two hundred years and the area retained its distinctive individual culture and identity.
The real objective of the 712 expedition, however, was Samarqand. Samarqand was the largest and most powerful city in the area, the effective capital of Soghdia. The city as it exists today was built after the Mongol sack of 1220 and beautified by Tamerlane and his family in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries with the blue-tiled domes and minarets that have made it famous. Later Uzbek rulers added more madrasas and completed the square known as the Registan, and, after the conquest of 1880, the Russians developed the Tsarist-period town with its elegant tree-lined streets. The early medieval town lay behind massive mud-brick ramparts between the Timurid city and the river. The site is now lonely and deserted.
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It is easy to pick out the lines of the wall and the remains of the citadel behind its deep moats, overlooking the river. Among these ruins is an old palace, the walls of which are painted with processions of elegant Soghdian princes and their guests, giving a vivid picture of the world the Arabs destroyed.
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It is easy to pick out the lines of the wall and the remains of the citadel behind its deep moats, overlooking the river. Among these ruins is an old palace, the walls of which are painted with processions of elegant Soghdian princes and their guests, giving a vivid picture of the world the Arabs destroyed.
Samarqand was ruled by its new king, Ghūrak, who was determined to put up a stiff resistance to the Arabs. Qutayba’s army is said to have consisted of 20,000 men, one of the largest forces the Muslims ever fielded in Transoxania. A considerable proportion of them were local recruits from Khwārazm and Bukhara, but it is not clear whether they were converts to Islam joining in the
jihād
, mercenaries or men pressed into fighting against their will.
jihād
, mercenaries or men pressed into fighting against their will.
At first Qutayba seems to have made an attempt to surprise the defenders by sending his brother back to Merv, giving the impression that the campaigns were over for that year, but the defenders were not deceived. The Samarqandis, meanwhile, had appealed to the king of Shāsh (Tashkent) and the Ikhshīd of Farghāna to come to their aid, persuading them to assist with the warning that if the Arabs conquered Samarqand, their turn would be next. A force of horsemen, recruited from all the aristocracy of Transoxania, set out to launch a surprise night attack on the Arab camp. Unfortunately for them, Qutayba knew of their plans: he always seems to have had very good intelligence. He sent one of his brothers, Sālih, with a small force to ambush them. The night fighting was extremely fierce. The nobility of Transoxania gave a good account of themselves, but in the end they were defeated; many were killed, few prisoners were taken and many famous families lost their sons and their horses. The Muslims acquired rich equipment and excellent riding animals and Qutayba allowed the small band of victors to keep the spoils of the night ambush, rather than dividing them up among the whole army in the customary way.
The defeat of this force seems to have discouraged the defenders. Qutayba blockaded the city for a month, setting up siege engines outside the walls, creating a breach which the defenders blocked up with sacks of millet. The Muslims pressed on into the breach, holding their shields over their faces to protect them from the showers of arrows the Soghdians shot at them. Once they had established themselves on the walls, Ghūrak sent messengers to sue for peace. Qutayba agreed.
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The Samarqandis were to pay a substantial annual tribute and a large number of high-quality slaves with no old men or young boys among them. Qutayba’s domination also had a conspicuously religious aspect to it. He insisted that a mosque with a pulpit be set up and he ordered the destruction of the old fire-temples and their ‘idols’. All the sculptures of Samarqand were stripped of their silver, gold and silk adornments and piled up in a huge heap. Qutayba ordered that they be burned. Ghūrak and the Soghdians urged him not to do this, warning that anyone who destroyed them would suffer for it, but Qutayba was undaunted, and lit the fire himself. A vast sum was made from the gold and silver nails that were collected. This deliberate purging of the old religion was unusual in the Muslim conquests. Qutayba had always made it clear that his campaigns were a
jihād
, though he was rarely as destructive as this. It may also have been that he wanted to break the Soghdian resistance once and for all, and his triumph was emphatically apparent as he lit the bonfire of the accoutrements of the old religions.
26
The Samarqandis were to pay a substantial annual tribute and a large number of high-quality slaves with no old men or young boys among them. Qutayba’s domination also had a conspicuously religious aspect to it. He insisted that a mosque with a pulpit be set up and he ordered the destruction of the old fire-temples and their ‘idols’. All the sculptures of Samarqand were stripped of their silver, gold and silk adornments and piled up in a huge heap. Qutayba ordered that they be burned. Ghūrak and the Soghdians urged him not to do this, warning that anyone who destroyed them would suffer for it, but Qutayba was undaunted, and lit the fire himself. A vast sum was made from the gold and silver nails that were collected. This deliberate purging of the old religion was unusual in the Muslim conquests. Qutayba had always made it clear that his campaigns were a
jihād
, though he was rarely as destructive as this. It may also have been that he wanted to break the Soghdian resistance once and for all, and his triumph was emphatically apparent as he lit the bonfire of the accoutrements of the old religions.
He did not, however, destroy the previous order entirely. Ghūrak remained king of Soghdia, establishing himself at Ishtīkhān, some 40 kilometres from Samarqand, and Qutayba contented himself with leaving an Arab garrison of some four thousand men in the city under the command of his brother Abd al-Rahmān. The old walled city became a Muslim-only stronghold. Local non-Muslims were allowed within the city walls only if they had permits in the form of clay seals on their hands: if the seals had dried before they left, they were to be killed because it showed that they had been in the city too long. If any of them brought knives or weapons in they were to be killed, and none of them was allowed to spend the night inside the walls.
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The conquest of Samarqand was decisive but it was also precarious. Ghūrak and many of the Soghdians were still settled in the area
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while the Arab garrison remained isolated in a largely hostile environment. There could be no doubt in the minds of the soldiers stationed there that Ghūrak would try to expel them if any opportunity presented itself.
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while the Arab garrison remained isolated in a largely hostile environment. There could be no doubt in the minds of the soldiers stationed there that Ghūrak would try to expel them if any opportunity presented itself.
Qutayba responded to the situation, not by strengthening the Arab hold over Soghdia, but by leading his armies to further and even more distant conquests. In 713 he crossed the river as usual. In addition to his Arab troops, he imposed a levy (
farada
c
alā
) of 20,000 troops on the people of Bukhara, Kish, Nasaf and Khwārazm. They marched through Soghdia without apparently encountering any resistance. The local levies were then directed north to Shāsh while Qutayba led his own men east to Farghāna. There is little reliable information about what these raids achieved - a few poems and inconsequential stories. We can be reasonably certain that they were not a disaster, but no new lands were conquered.
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farada
c
alā
) of 20,000 troops on the people of Bukhara, Kish, Nasaf and Khwārazm. They marched through Soghdia without apparently encountering any resistance. The local levies were then directed north to Shāsh while Qutayba led his own men east to Farghāna. There is little reliable information about what these raids achieved - a few poems and inconsequential stories. We can be reasonably certain that they were not a disaster, but no new lands were conquered.
29
The next year Qutayba was back in the Jaxartes provinces again, perhaps trying to establish control over the Silk Road. There is even some suggestion that he reached Kashgar, which was in the territory of the Tang emperors.
30
China was certainly featuring in the wilder hopes of the Arabs at this time. Hajjāj, in distant Kūfa, is said to have offered the governorship of Sīn (China) to whichever of his commanders in the East reached it first.
31
Arab troops were now coming ever closer to the borders of the Chinese Empire and both the Arabs and the Soghdians began to send envoys to try to win Chinese support. In 713 an Arab delegation reached the imperial court. We know from Chinese sources that a delegation arrived and that they caused a diplomatic scandal by refusing to kowtow to the emperor in the traditional way, but that the mission was still deemed to be a success. No doubt both military and commercial matters were discussed.
32
At the same time, the ruler of Shāsh, under increasing threat from Qutayba’s power, appealed to China for military support, but none was forthcoming.
30
China was certainly featuring in the wilder hopes of the Arabs at this time. Hajjāj, in distant Kūfa, is said to have offered the governorship of Sīn (China) to whichever of his commanders in the East reached it first.
31
Arab troops were now coming ever closer to the borders of the Chinese Empire and both the Arabs and the Soghdians began to send envoys to try to win Chinese support. In 713 an Arab delegation reached the imperial court. We know from Chinese sources that a delegation arrived and that they caused a diplomatic scandal by refusing to kowtow to the emperor in the traditional way, but that the mission was still deemed to be a success. No doubt both military and commercial matters were discussed.
32
At the same time, the ruler of Shāsh, under increasing threat from Qutayba’s power, appealed to China for military support, but none was forthcoming.
These diplomatic exchanges are remembered both in Chinese sources and in an unusual narrative in the Arabic sources. As the Arabic source has come down to us, it has many fantastical elements and has been dismissed as worthless by modern commentators. The Chinese ‘king’ has no name and no geographical location is given. It is quite unclear whether the Arabs are supposed to have visited the imperial capital at Ch’ang-an or simply negotiated with a Chinese commander or governor in Sinkiang. Yet it almost certainly dates from the eighth century and tells us much about the self-image of the Arabs and their attitudes to other peoples.
The story goes that the ‘king’ of China requested Qutayba to send him some envoys so that he could find out more about the Arabs and their religion. Ten or twelve strong, good-looking men were chosen and they set off. When they arrived at the Chinese court they went to the bath house and emerged dressed in white robes and adorned with perfume. They entered the court. No one from either side spoke, and eventually they withdrew. When they had gone, the Chinese king asked his attendants what they thought, to which they replied, ‘We think that they are a people who are nothing but women, there was not one of us who on seeing them and smelling their perfume, did not have an erection.’
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On the second day they appeared in richly embroidered robes and turbans and when they had gone the courtiers conceded that they were after all men. On the third day they went to see the king in full military gear, with their aventails and helmets - ‘they girded themselves with their swords, took up their spears, shouldered their bows and mounted their horses’, and the courtiers were duly impressed.
33
On the second day they appeared in richly embroidered robes and turbans and when they had gone the courtiers conceded that they were after all men. On the third day they went to see the king in full military gear, with their aventails and helmets - ‘they girded themselves with their swords, took up their spears, shouldered their bows and mounted their horses’, and the courtiers were duly impressed.
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