ثورة ابن الأشعث على الحجاج

In 81 AH people gathered to Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath to depose al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, and he was the first to declare it. One of them said that if al-Hajjaj was deposed, then Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, who had appointed him, was deposed too. ¹ The heading of the report in the index of the sixth volume is "The dissent of Ibn al-Ash'ath against al-Hajjaj". ²

Al-Mas'udi says that al-Hajjaj appointed Ibn al-Ash'ath over Sistan, Bust and al-Rukhkh, and he fought the Turks there and their neighbours among the kings of India, such as Rutbil. Then he threw off al-Hajjaj's obedience. Abd al-Malik wrote to him in harsh words denying this. ³

A book included among the sources says that the army of the peacocks was prepared in 80 AH at the direction of al-Hajjaj, and reached about forty thousand: twenty thousand from Kufa and as many from Basra. The expenditure on it reached two million dirhams apart from the stipends, and Ibn al-Ash'ath was chosen as its commander. ⁴