Sa'id ibn Uthman's Siege of Samarqand

حصار سمرقند في أيام سعيد بن عثمان

Samarqand

Sa'id ibn Uthman marched on Samarqand with the Khatun's Bukhara levies, camped at its gate, and swore not to stir until it opened and he had thrown down its qahandaz. Three days' fighting — fiercest on the third — cost him an eye and cost al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra his (or the Muhallab's eye went at Talaqan); the foe slackened, wounds telling, when a man guided Sa'id to a castle holding their kings' sons and nobles — besieged, the city feared its storm and sued: seven hundred thousand dirhams, hostages of their nobles' sons — fifteen, or forty, or eighty — and his right to enter the city and leave by the other gate. He loosed a stone at the qahandaz and it lodged in its loophole; then he withdrew, and at Tirmidh the Khatun's suit won another sulh.