The Great Arab Conquests (47 page)
Read The Great Arab Conquests Online
Authors: Hugh Kennedy
When Umayya became governor of Khurasan in 691, he decided to send an expedition to root Mūsā out. The people of Tirmidh, too, had had enough of Mūsā and his gang and approached the Turks proposing that they ally together against him. Mūsā found himself besieged by an Arab army on one side and a Turkish one on the other. We are told of one of those advice-giving sessions that the Arab narrators employ when they want to discuss military strategy. In the end it was decided that Mūsā should launch a night attack on the Turks as the Arabs were better at night fighting. The raid was a success and they fell upon the unsuspecting Turks and took possession of their camp and weapons and money. Against the Arabs, Mūsā and his men decided to use a stratagem. One of Mūsā’s officers volunteered to be beaten by his master so that he could go to the Arab commander as a defector. When Mūsā remonstrated that he would certainly be flogged and probably killed, the man replied that he risked being killed every day anyhow and that being beaten was much easier than the rest of his plan. The stripes on his back must have made his case plausible for he was accepted as a defector and admitted into the Arab commander’s inner circle. One day he found the commander alone and unarmed. He remonstrated that he thought it unwise to be so defenceless but the commander pulled back his bedding (
farsh
) to reveal an unsheathed sword - whereupon Mūsā’s man seized it and killed him. He galloped back to Mūsā’s lines before anyone knew what had happened. After the death of their commander, the attacking Arab army broke up, some fleeing across the river, others appealing to Mūsā for safe conduct, which he readily granted.
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farsh
) to reveal an unsheathed sword - whereupon Mūsā’s man seized it and killed him. He galloped back to Mūsā’s lines before anyone knew what had happened. After the death of their commander, the attacking Arab army broke up, some fleeing across the river, others appealing to Mūsā for safe conduct, which he readily granted.
37
After this triumph against Turks and Arabs allied together, Mūsā’s position became much stronger. The Arab governors who succeeded Umayya made no attempt to dislodge him from his riverside domain. On the contrary, he became a focus for all those who resented the Arab presence in Transoxania.
Among these were two brothers, Hurayth and Thābit b. Qutba. They were local men, probably of upper-class Iranian stock, who had converted to Islam and attached themselves as
mawli
(clients) to the Arab tribe of Khuzā
c
a. This connection brought them Arab allies from the tribe. They had made themselves useful to the Arab governors and tax collectors and intermediaries, since they knew the local languages and conditions. Thābit was especially popular among the non-Arabs (
ajam
), enjoying great reputation and honour. It was said that if someone wished to swear a binding oath, they would do so on the life of Thābit and would never break their word.
38
They were rich and powerful but were still not fully accepted as equals by the Arabs. At one point Hurayth did a favour to the king of Kish, allowing the return of hostages taken in exchange for tribute. This was against the express orders of the governor of Khurasan, Yazīd b. al-Muhallab, who clearly suspected that Hurayth’s sympathies lay with the king. Hurayth compounded the offence by appearing to cast doubt on Yazīd’s ancestry. A band of Turks intercepted him and demanded a ransom, boasting that they had already extracted one from Yazīd. Hurayth defied them and defeated them saying, ‘Do you imagine that Yazīd’s mother gave birth to me?’ If there was one sure way of incurring an Arab’s wrath it was to insult his mother, and Hurayth’s incautious words reached Yazīd, who arrested him, had him stripped naked and given thirty lashes. The beating was bad enough, but the shame of being stripped naked in public was worse: Hurayth said he would rather have had 300 lashes and kept his modesty intact.
39
mawli
(clients) to the Arab tribe of Khuzā
c
a. This connection brought them Arab allies from the tribe. They had made themselves useful to the Arab governors and tax collectors and intermediaries, since they knew the local languages and conditions. Thābit was especially popular among the non-Arabs (
ajam
), enjoying great reputation and honour. It was said that if someone wished to swear a binding oath, they would do so on the life of Thābit and would never break their word.
38
They were rich and powerful but were still not fully accepted as equals by the Arabs. At one point Hurayth did a favour to the king of Kish, allowing the return of hostages taken in exchange for tribute. This was against the express orders of the governor of Khurasan, Yazīd b. al-Muhallab, who clearly suspected that Hurayth’s sympathies lay with the king. Hurayth compounded the offence by appearing to cast doubt on Yazīd’s ancestry. A band of Turks intercepted him and demanded a ransom, boasting that they had already extracted one from Yazīd. Hurayth defied them and defeated them saying, ‘Do you imagine that Yazīd’s mother gave birth to me?’ If there was one sure way of incurring an Arab’s wrath it was to insult his mother, and Hurayth’s incautious words reached Yazīd, who arrested him, had him stripped naked and given thirty lashes. The beating was bad enough, but the shame of being stripped naked in public was worse: Hurayth said he would rather have had 300 lashes and kept his modesty intact.
39
After this Hurayth and his brother decided to get away from the governor while they could. They left with 300 of their
shakiriya
k
and some Arabs. They rode first to Tarkhūn, the king of Samarqand, who had let Mūsā go free some time before. He took up their cause and gathered support from the people of Bukhara and Saghanian and two other princes, Nayzak and the Sabal of Khuttal. Together they set out to join Mūsā in Tirmidh.
shakiriya
k
and some Arabs. They rode first to Tarkhūn, the king of Samarqand, who had let Mūsā go free some time before. He took up their cause and gathered support from the people of Bukhara and Saghanian and two other princes, Nayzak and the Sabal of Khuttal. Together they set out to join Mūsā in Tirmidh.
At the same time Mūsā was joined by a large number of fugitive Arab tribesmen. Further south in Sistan, the Arab army had mutinied, fed up with long and difficult campaigns in harsh and unrewarding country. Under the leadership of Abd al-Rahmān b. al-Ash
c
ath they had marched west to Iraq to challenge Umayyad rule. The caliph Abd al-Malik and his right-hand man Hajjāj were too powerful for them, the rebels were defeated and the survivors now fled to the east. Eight thousand of them now came to Tirmidh to join Mūsā.
c
ath they had marched west to Iraq to challenge Umayyad rule. The caliph Abd al-Malik and his right-hand man Hajjāj were too powerful for them, the rebels were defeated and the survivors now fled to the east. Eight thousand of them now came to Tirmidh to join Mūsā.
Mūsā’s forces were now much larger, but they were united only in their hatred of the Umayyad regime. Relations between the Arabs and non-Arabs were likely to be strained, and Mūsā seems to have realized that he had to act very carefully and diplomatically in the handling of his troops. Hurayth and the Iranian princes were ambitious. They suggested that Mūsā should cross the Oxus, drive out the Umayyad governor and take over the whole province of Khurasan. They thought that Mūsā would essentially become their puppet and half a century of Arab-Muslim conquest would have been reversed. The Arabs in Mūsā’s army were suspicious, seeing nothing in it for them: either the Umayyads would counter-attack, for they could not simply let all of Khurasan go, or the Iranians would rule the province in their own interests. They were able to persuade Mūsā to adopt a more limited objective, the expulsion of Umayyad governors from all of Transoxania so that, as they put it, ‘the region will be ours to devour’.
40
40
This seems to have been achieved without any great difficulty and the Transoxanian princes now went home, hoping, no doubt, that they had finally put an end to the Arab threat to their homelands. Mūsā ruled Tirmidh with Hurayth and Thābit as his chief ministers. Revenues flowed in and Mūsā became powerful. Many of his Arab supporters, however, resented the influence of the Iranian administrators, telling Mūsā that they were treacherous and urging him to kill them. At first he refused these blandishments, saying that he would not betray men who had done so much for him, but gradually they managed to convince him.
Meanwhile Mūsā faced a more pressing threat. The Iranian princes may have seen him as an ally but the nomad Turks did not. They now assembled an army which the Arab sources said, no doubt with some exaggeration, numbered 70,000 ‘men with tapering helmets [
bayda dht qunis
]’,
41
the characteristic pointed helmets of Central Asia as distinct from the more rounded helmets favoured by the Arabs. This massive Turkish attack, if indeed it ever happened, gave the author of the saga another opportunity to show Mūsā’s military skill and cunning. Mūsā, like many of his contemporaries, commanded the battle seated on a chair (
kursī
), with an escort of 300 heavily armoured horsemen. He allowed the Turks to breach the walls of the suburb of Tirmidh and sat there calmly, playing with the axe in his hand until he saw the moment to fall upon them and drive them out. He joined the battle and then returned to his chair. The intimidated Turks, according to our narrator, compared him to the great Iranian hero (and legendary opponent of the Turks) Rustam and withdrew.
bayda dht qunis
]’,
41
the characteristic pointed helmets of Central Asia as distinct from the more rounded helmets favoured by the Arabs. This massive Turkish attack, if indeed it ever happened, gave the author of the saga another opportunity to show Mūsā’s military skill and cunning. Mūsā, like many of his contemporaries, commanded the battle seated on a chair (
kursī
), with an escort of 300 heavily armoured horsemen. He allowed the Turks to breach the walls of the suburb of Tirmidh and sat there calmly, playing with the axe in his hand until he saw the moment to fall upon them and drive them out. He joined the battle and then returned to his chair. The intimidated Turks, according to our narrator, compared him to the great Iranian hero (and legendary opponent of the Turks) Rustam and withdrew.
In the next episode the Turks captured some of Mūsā’s grazing livestock. Mūsā was very depressed by the insult to his prestige; he refused to eat and ‘played with his beard’, contemplating his revenge. Then he decided on another night attack. With 700 men he followed a dry river bed, hidden by the vegetation on each side, until he reached the earthwork of the Turkish encampment. Here they waited until the livestock were driven out to pasture in the morning. Then they rounded them up, killing anyone who objected, and led the beasts home.
The next morning the Turks renewed the fighting. Their king stood on a hill surrounded by 10,000 of his best-equipped soldiers (again the numbers must be taken with a grain of salt). Mūsā encouraged his followers, saying that if they defeated this group, the rest would be easy. Hurayth led the attack but was wounded by an arrow in the head. He died two days later and was buried in his yurt (
qubba
). Meanwhile, in yet another night attack, Mūsā’s brother wounded the king and his horse, which galloped off to the river. Here the king, weighed down by his heavy chain mail, was drowned.
42
The heads of the slain enemy were taken back to Tirmidh and made into two pyramids.
l
qubba
). Meanwhile, in yet another night attack, Mūsā’s brother wounded the king and his horse, which galloped off to the river. Here the king, weighed down by his heavy chain mail, was drowned.
42
The heads of the slain enemy were taken back to Tirmidh and made into two pyramids.
l
After this victory, the tensions between the Arabs and Hurayth’s surviving brother Thābit intensified. Mūsā was under constant pressure to get rid of him but he steadfastly refused, so the Arabs decided to take matters into their own hands. Thābit, however, was aware that something was up. He found a young Arab from the tribe of Khuzā
c
a, the tribe he was affiliated to, and prevailed upon him to act as an informer. The youth was to play the role of a humble servant who was a captive from distant Bamyan in the heart of the Hindu Kush mountains. He was to pretend he knew no Arabic. Thābit remained on the alert, with his
shakiriya
guarding him every night. Meanwhile Mūsā still refused to allow the killing of Thābit because there was no justification for it and it would lead to disaster for all of them. In the end, one of his brothers, with some Arab friends, decided to take the initiative. They wore Mūsā down so that he weakly accepted their suggestion that they should waylay Thābit as he came in the next day, take him to a nearby house and execute him. Mūsā was very reluctant and warned them again that it would be the end of them.
c
a, the tribe he was affiliated to, and prevailed upon him to act as an informer. The youth was to play the role of a humble servant who was a captive from distant Bamyan in the heart of the Hindu Kush mountains. He was to pretend he knew no Arabic. Thābit remained on the alert, with his
shakiriya
guarding him every night. Meanwhile Mūsā still refused to allow the killing of Thābit because there was no justification for it and it would lead to disaster for all of them. In the end, one of his brothers, with some Arab friends, decided to take the initiative. They wore Mūsā down so that he weakly accepted their suggestion that they should waylay Thābit as he came in the next day, take him to a nearby house and execute him. Mūsā was very reluctant and warned them again that it would be the end of them.
Thābit’s young agent, of course, heard all this and immediately informed his master, who gathered twenty horsemen and slipped away that night. When morning came and Thābit had disappeared the group of Arabs did not at first realize how they had been outmanoeuvred, but when they noticed that the young man was no longer with them, they understood the ruse.
Thābit and his men fortified themselves in a nearby town,
43
where he was joined by Tarkhūn and the people of Kish, Nasaf and Bukhara, who had supported him when he originally came to Tirmidh. It had become a straight conflict between the Arabs and the locals. Now that open conflict was inevitable, Mūsā wanted to finish it off as quickly as possible, and he led his men to attack Thābit. He and his men soon found themselves surrounded and in dire straits. Once more treachery would have to be used where force was failing. Yazīd, one of Mūsā’s Arab supporters, decided that being killed was better than death by hunger and came to Thābit pretending to be a defector. Unfortunately for him, he had a cousin called Zuhayr, who was a close adviser to Thābit and knew Yazīd only too well: political allegiances in Transoxania often cut across racial and even kinship boundaries. He warned Thābit against Yazīd. Yazīd in turn said that he was a man who had already suffered enough, having been forced by the Umayyad authorities to leave Iraq and come to Khurasan with his family and, anyhow, Zuhayr was only acting out of spite. So he was allowed to stay as long as he left his two young sons as hostages.
43
where he was joined by Tarkhūn and the people of Kish, Nasaf and Bukhara, who had supported him when he originally came to Tirmidh. It had become a straight conflict between the Arabs and the locals. Now that open conflict was inevitable, Mūsā wanted to finish it off as quickly as possible, and he led his men to attack Thābit. He and his men soon found themselves surrounded and in dire straits. Once more treachery would have to be used where force was failing. Yazīd, one of Mūsā’s Arab supporters, decided that being killed was better than death by hunger and came to Thābit pretending to be a defector. Unfortunately for him, he had a cousin called Zuhayr, who was a close adviser to Thābit and knew Yazīd only too well: political allegiances in Transoxania often cut across racial and even kinship boundaries. He warned Thābit against Yazīd. Yazīd in turn said that he was a man who had already suffered enough, having been forced by the Umayyad authorities to leave Iraq and come to Khurasan with his family and, anyhow, Zuhayr was only acting out of spite. So he was allowed to stay as long as he left his two young sons as hostages.
Yazīd bided his time and waited for his opportunity. One day news came from Merv that the son of one of Thābit’s Arab supporters had died, and so with a small entourage he went to offer his condolences. By the time they were returning it was dark, and in a moment when Thābit was separated from his other companions, Yazīd seized his chance and gave Thābit a mighty blow to the head with his sword. He lingered for a couple of weeks before dying. With his two accomplices Yazīd fled, but his unfortunate children were left to pay the price of their father’s crime. Zuhayr brought them to Tarkhūn, who seems to have taken command after Thābit’s death. One was executed immediately, his corpse and his head being thrown into the river. The second turned aside at the moment when the blow was being struck and was injured in the chest. Severely wounded, he was thrown into the river, where he drowned.
With the death of Thābit, his followers and allies lost heart. Leadership of the army was assumed by Tarkhūn. When warned that Mūsā was about to attempt a night attack on his camp, he was full of scorn: ‘Mūsā couldn’t even enter his own privy without help,’ he told his followers. It was never a wise move to underestimate Mūsā. The night attack duly came and there was fierce fighting in and around the camp. At one stage one of Mūsā’s Arab followers reached Tarkhūn’s own tent, finding him sitting on a chair in front of the fire his
shakiriya
had lit. His
shākiriya
, who should have been protecting him, fled, but he fought off the attacker himself and in the counter-attack he succeeded in killing one of Mūsā’s own brothers. He sent a message to Mūsā, who, of course, he knew quite well, asking him to call off his men if he agreed to withdraw. The next day, the non-Arabs packed up and went home to their own lands.
44
shakiriya
had lit. His
shākiriya
, who should have been protecting him, fled, but he fought off the attacker himself and in the counter-attack he succeeded in killing one of Mūsā’s own brothers. He sent a message to Mūsā, who, of course, he knew quite well, asking him to call off his men if he agreed to withdraw. The next day, the non-Arabs packed up and went home to their own lands.
44
On the surface, this seemed like a famous victory for Mūsā, but in fact it marked the beginning of the end. He had been able to maintain his independence because he enjoyed the support of his Arab followers and the non-Arabs led by Hurayth and then by Thābit. When Mūsā had only a thousand or so Arab followers, they seem to have been able to cooperate, but with the arrival of many more Arabs from the defeated rebel armies, the pressures proved too great. Without the support of the non-Arabs of Transoxania, Mūsā’s dream of independence perished. To his credit, he himself seems to have understood this and made considerable efforts to keep his coalition together. But in the end blood was thicker than water and he sided with the Arabs against the rest.
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