Yazid ibn al-Muhallab's Jurjan Campaign

غزو يزيد بن المهلب جرجان

Jurjan

Sulayman gave Yazid ibn al-Muhallab Iraq; bound for Khurasan he met Sul al-Turki on the road, took the caliph's leave to raid him — Jilan and Sariya — then besieged him in Dihistan, cut his supplies, and accepted his treaty: safe self, property and household for the city — and kept faith, while killing fourteen thousand Turks, though Abu Ubayda reports Sul slain. Jurjan paid him Sa'id's tribute, breached, and Jahm ibn Zahr retook it — one account has a hundred and twenty thousand in his host against the fired-brick wall the Turks had seized, one end in the sea; he found Sul at al-Buhayra, besieged him six months and treated him out with three hundred of his household. When Jurjan breached again its marzban fortified at Wajah among thickets — seven months, mangonels, then an informer's path and hide-ladders; Jahm swore 'if I am spared life, let me not be spared death', the gate-keepers fell, and the enemy knew only the takbir behind them — the captives driven to Wadi Jurjan were slaughtered till the blood ran, and Yazid built Madinat Jurjan.