Utba ibn Farqad's Khabis Baskets

خبيص عتبة بن فرقد

Umar sent his Azerbaijan governor Utba ibn Farqad a hamper of khabis-sweets among the felt-rolls; Utba asked if it was money, then had it sent back. Utba later made two baskets of khabis wrapped in hides and felt, sent by his mawla Suhaym — Umar tasted, 'fine indeed; did the Emigrants eat their fill of it? It is yours alone' — and wrote back: 'it is not your toil nor your mother's nor your father's; eat nothing but what fills the Muslims in their camps'.

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Conquest of Azerbaijan

Al-Mughira came to Kufa as Umar's governor carrying a letter appointing Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman to Azerbaijan; he marched to Ardabil — the province's city, seat of its marzban and its kharaj — where the marzban had gathered fighters from Bajirwan, Maymadh, al-Narir, Sarat, al-Shiz, al-Miyanij and beyond; they fought the Muslims hard for days, then the marzban treated for all Azerbaijan at eight hundred thousand dirhams weight-eight — no one killed, none captive, no fire-temple razed, and no exposure to the Kurds of Balasajan, Sabalan and Satrudan, nor barring the people of al-Shiz from their feast-music and wonted display; he then raided Muqan and Jilan to tribute. Umar dismissed him for Utba ibn Farqad, who found Ardabil on the covenant but its borderlands in breach — he campaigned, won and plundered. Variants: Waqidi has al-Mughira storm it in 22, Abu Mikhnaf in 20 then al-Ash'ath ibn Qays re-conquering on the same terms, and al-Zuhri gives a hundred-thousand treaty. Umar wrote them to eat only dhabiha and wear only pure fur in that carrion-mixed land. Al-Walid ibn Uqba's dismissal of Utba brought another breach, his 25 AH campaign restoring Hudhayfa's terms; when it rose against al-Ash'ath ibn Qays he hunted it 'meadow by meadow' — the han of their speech — resettled Arab stipendaries to preach Islam, and Sa'id ibn al-As's raids on Muqan and Jilan ended with Jarir al-Bajali crucifying the Armenian-Azerbaijani chief on Bajirwan's keep.

Utba ibn Farqad's Khabis Baskets

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Conquest of Azerbaijan