Musa's Wars from Tirmidh

حروب موسى من الترمذ

al-Tirmidh

Tirmidh's dahqan and folk went to the Turks for help — refused: 'curse you, a man in a hundred comes, expels you, takes your city'. His father's old companions joined Musa; when the Turks finally aided, surrounding him, he night-attacked and took their camp — sixteen Muslims wounded. Thabit and Hurayth ibn Qutba, backed by Tarkhun's levies, became his army's real commanders — 'yours is the name, theirs the command'. Hayatila and Turks sallied and were beaten — al-Hajjaj: 'praise God who gave the hypocrites victory over the polytheists' — and Musa built two great mounds of his foes' heads. Hurayth fell to a stray arrow; the men pressed Musa against Thabit, who fled, won Tarkhun's aid, took the rabad, and besieged him in eighty thousand as Kish, Nasaf and Bukhara reinforced Musa. Yazid ibn Huzayl, sent against Ziyad al-Qasir, took a head-blow and died in seven days — Yazid himself escaped across the Saghaniyan river — and Musa's night-raid on Thabit's camp scattered the Ajam home. Khurasan's people said: never his like — two years unbeaten with his father, Tirmidh taken with a handful, its king expelled, Turks and Ajam routed.