Qutayba's Baykand, Bukhara and Nizak's Killing

فتوح قتيبة بيكند وبخارا وقتل نيزك

In 87h Qutayba marched on Baykand with Nizak, crossing from Zamm — nearest of Bukhara's towns to the river — and when they betrayed and summoned Sughd he fought, raided and besieged till they sued: he took it by force. In 88h he campaigned Tumushkat and Karminiya, leaving brother Bashshar over Marw, then Bukhara, opened on sulh — Abu Ubayda's telling: they warded him till he begged 'let me enter and pray two rak'as', admitted, his hidden men overwhelmed the gate, he took great wealth and betrayed its folk. He struck the Sughd, killed Nizak in Tukharistan and crucified him, and opened Kish and Nasaf — Nakhshab — by sulh.

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The Abu Tutayna Affair

Abdallah ibn al-Ahtham, Abu Haqan, Qutayba's Marw deputy during campaigns, wrote al-Hajjaj denouncing him. Bashir of the Ahtham warned Qutayba — 'you've opened to a treacherous envious man' — dismissed as cousin-envy, though Bashir begged it stand as his excuse. When al-Hajjaj forwarded the letter and the courier rode past the Sakka without stopping, Ibn al-Ahtham sensed the trap and fled to Syria: years peddling wine and flax round his neck, then rag and cotton over one eye, styled Abu Tutayna the oilman — until al-Walid died and Sulayman rose, when he cast off the disguise and preached congratulations to Sulayman with attacks on al-Hajjaj and Qutayba — 'Abu Tutayna the oilman, the most eloquent of men'. Reading the letter, Qutayba struck the Banu Ahtham, killing nine; Bashir said 'remember my excuse' — 'you put one foot forward and held the other back, enemy of God' — and killed them all. Waki' ibn Abi Sud, deposed from Tamim's command for a Dabbi, swore then, missed zhuhr and asr, and when asked answered: 'how should I pray to a Lord who killed our best as boys and was not angered for them?'

Qutayba's Baykand, Bukhara and Nizak's Killing

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The Abu Tutayna Affair