Qutayba ibn Muslim
Qutayba ibn Muslim al-Bahili | |
---|---|
Governor of Khorasan | |
In office 705–715 | |
Leader | Al-Walid I |
Personal details | |
Born | 669 Ferghana |
Relations |
|
Children | Salm, Qatan |
Military service | |
Years of service | Before 700 – 715 |
Rank | Commander |
Allegiance | Umayyad Caliphate |
Battles/wars | |
Abū Ḥafṣ Qutayba ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ Muslim ibn ʿAmr al-Bāhilī (
To increase his strained manpower, Qutayba initiated the wide-scale levy of native Khurasani and Transoxianian soldiers who fought alongside the Arab Muslim troops. Following Walid's death, Qutayba, insecure of his position under the new regime, rebelled but failed to secure the support of his army, and was killed. Most of his conquests in Transoxiana were lost in the years after his death; only in the 740s was the Muslim position restored to the line reached by Qutayba, and only after the Battle of Talas in 751 did the region come solidly under Muslim control.
Origin and early life
Qutayba was born in 669 CE in
Then, in late 704 or early 705, Abd al-Malik appointed Qutayba as governor of
Qutayba would spend the next ten years of his life in
Conquests in Central Asia
The Arabs had reached Central Asia in the decade after their decisive victory in the
Conquest of Tokharistan and Bukhara
The first task which Qutayba set himself was the suppression of the rebellion in Lower
In 706–709, Qutayba occupied himself with the long and bloody conquest of
The brutal punishment meted out to Baykand shocked the region: the Sogdians patched up their quarrels and the Sogdian princes of
Consolidation of Arab rule over Tokharistan
This success was followed however by the rebellion in the autumn of 709 of much of Lower Tokharistan under Nizak of Badhgis. Leaving Qutayba's camp on a pretext of going to Balkh and escaping to his native lands, Nizak quickly managed to gain the support of the principalities of
Despite the swift end of Nizak's revolt, the diversion of Arab resources for its suppression encouraged the king of Shuman and Akharun decided to rebel as well. Qutayba led his forces against him, and captured his citadel after a brief and violent siege. The king fell in battle, and his supporters were executed.[31] Qutayba then marched west over the Iron Gate, taking Kish and Nasaf and visiting Bukhara, where he settled relations between the Arabs and the locals, installed Tughshada in the position of Bukhar Khudah and established an Arab military colony in the city. Later, in 712/13, Qutayba built a mosque in the city's citadel, but although the Arab authorities encouraged the conversion of the native population by paying them to attend prayers, Islamization proceeded slowly.[1][32][33]
At the same time, Qutayba had adopted a measure that marked a radical departure from previous practice in the East and had long-term repercussions: the raising of native Khurasani auxiliary levies, usually some ten to twenty thousand strong and mostly composed of non-converts, to supplement the Arab tribal army, the muqatila.[a] This measure was later expanded to include the newly conquered territories in Sogdia and Khwarizm.[34][35] Gibb suggests that this move may be seen as an answer to the need for more troops to control the conquered territories and continue Muslim expansion, as well as a means of placing the local manpower in Arab service and depleting it at the same time, reducing the risk of anti-Arab revolts. Gibb also suggests that the creation of an indigenous force may have been an attempt by Qutayba to establish a power base of his own.[36] From c. 712, Qutayba also appears to have recruited a special corps, known as the "Archers", from among the Khurasani, Tokharian and Sogdian nobility. Their skill was such that they were known as rumāt al-buduq ("archers who pierce the pupils of the eyes"), and they apparently served as a bodyguard.[37] Among the local Khurasani converts, Hayyan al-Nabati emerged as the foremost leader, and appears frequently in Tabari's account both as the main military leader of the Khurasani conscripts and as chief negotiator with the Sogdians,[26] for example during the 709 treaty with Tarkhun.[38]
Campaign against the Zunbil
Later in 711, al-Hajjaj ordered Qutayba to march against the Hephthalite kingdom of
Qutayba's victories, parallel with the
Conquest of Khwarizm and the expeditions in the Jaxartes valley
Taking advantage of Qutayba's absence in the south, the inhabitants of Samarkand overthrew their ruler Tarkhun due to his passive stance towards the Arabs, and installed the prince
Khwarizm had been previously subdued in the mid-690s by
After leaving Khwarizm, Qutayba initially turned towards Merv, for his army had grown weary and demanded an end to the campaign. During the march, however, Qutayba suddenly turned the army around towards Samarkand. The Sogdians had disbanded most of their forces, and the Arabs, reinforced with levies from Bukhara and Khwarizm, were able to brush aside the local resistance and advance straight to the city itself and lay siege to it. Ghurak and the inhabitants of the city resisted the Arabs with determination, and called upon the rulers of Shash and the
Arab sources indicate that at about his time, the Sogdian princes called upon the Turkic Khaganate or the Türgesh for help against the Arabs, although the chronology and veracity of these accounts is open to question.
Rebellion and death
Caliph Walid quickly re-confirmed Qutayba as governor, and even made his province independent from the governor of Iraq, but Qutayba's position was not secure: the Arab army was tired of constant campaigning and was still riven by factional rivalries, while Qutayba himself had alienated the most powerful Arab tribal groups. He was generally popular among the native Iranians, but the leader of the native auxiliaries, Hayyan an-Nabati, had secretly turned against him. Qutayba was completely unaware of the situation however, and began preparations for the campaign of 715, during which he intended to finally capture the Ferghana Valley and complete the subjugation of the Jaxartes valley. His only concern was that his old rival, Yazid ibn al-Muhallab, might be restored to the Caliph's favour after al-Hajjaj's death, and he took few precautions except for removing his family and belongings from Merv to Shash and placing a guard on the Oxus.[59][60]
His campaign against Ferghana was under way when news reached the army of Caliph Walid's death and the accession of his brother Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik to the throne. The new Caliph was a bitter enemy of Qutayba, for the latter had argued in favour of excluding him from the succession. Although Sulayman re-confirmed him in his position as governor, Qutayba feared that he would soon be removed. At the last, after negotiations with the new regime in Damascus failed, Qutayba resolved to rebel. The Khurasani Arabs refused to support him, and the native auxiliaries, although favourably disposed towards him, were prevented from declaring their support by Hayyan al-Nabati. Only his family, his fellow Bahili tribesmen and his bodyguard, the Archers, remained faithful. The opposition, led by the Tamim tribe, coalesced around their leader Waki ibn Abi Sud al-Tamimi. In August 715 (according to al-Tabari) or early 716 (according to the 9th-century historian Ibn Qutaybah), Qutayba and other members of his family were killed at Ferghana by Arab soldiers. Waki ibn Abi Sud succeeded him as governor, and ordered the army to return to Merv, where it was disbanded.[52][61][62][63]
After Qutayba's death, the Arab position in Transoxiana swiftly crumbled. His successors did not command his prestige among the local population and were unable to maintain his conquests in the face of local revolts and invasion by the Türgesh, and most of Transoxiana was abandoned or became hotly contested territory in the years after his death. During this period, the Arabs suffered the grave defeats of the "
Qutayba's role in the conquest and gradual Islamization of Central Asia was crucial, and in later times, a number of locations in Ferghana where his tomb was supposedly located (
Notes
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Bosworth 1986, p. 541.
- ^ Crone 1980, pp. 136–137.
- ^ Fishbein 1990, p. 181, n. 649.
- ^ Crone 1980, p. 137.
- ^ Gibb 1923, pp. 24–28.
- ^ Shaban 1970, p. 61.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, pp. 429–430.
- ^ Gibb 1923, pp. 29–30.
- ^ Litvinsky 1996, pp. 453–456.
- ^ Kennedy 2007, pp. 236–243.
- ^ Kennedy 2007, pp. 243–254.
- ^ Jalilov 1996, pp. 456–457.
- ^ Gibb 1923, pp. 30–31.
- ^ Gibb 1923, pp. 31–32.
- ^ a b Gibb 1923, p. 32.
- ^ Jalilov 1996, pp. 457–458.
- ^ Gibb 1923, p. 31.
- ^ Gibb 1923, p. 33.
- ^ Gibb 1923, pp. 33–34.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, pp. 434–435.
- ^ Gibb 1923, p. 34.
- ^ a b Gibb 1923, pp. 34–35.
- ^ Gibb 1923, p. 35.
- ^ a b c d Jalilov 1996, p. 458.
- ^ Gibb 1923, pp. 35–36.
- ^ a b Shaban 1970, p. 65.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, p. 435.
- ^ Gibb 1923, pp. 36–37.
- ^ Gibb 1923, pp. 37–38.
- ^ Shaban 1970, pp. 66–67.
- ^ Gibb 1923, p. 38.
- ^ Gibb 1923, pp. 38–39.
- ^ Shaban 1970, p. 67.
- ^ a b Gibb 1923, p. 40.
- ^ Shaban 1970, pp. 65–66, 70.
- ^ Gibb 1923, pp. 40–41.
- ^ Shaban 1970, pp. 71–72.
- ^ Gibb 1923, p. 36.
- ^ Shaban 1970, pp. 67–69.
- ^ Bosworth 1986, pp. 541–542.
- ^ Gibb 1923, pp. 41–42.
- ^ Shaban 1970, p. 69.
- ^ Barthold 1928, p. 185.
- ^ Gibb 1923, p. 42.
- ^ a b Wellhausen 1927, p. 436.
- ^ Bulgakov 1996, pp. 228–229.
- ^ Bulgakov 1996, pp. 229–230.
- ^ Gibb 1923, pp. 42–43.
- ^ Gibb 1923, p. 43.
- ^ Bulgakov 1996, pp. 230–231.
- ^ Gibb 1923, p. 44.
- ^ a b c d e f Bosworth 1986, p. 542.
- ^ Gibb 1923, pp. 44–45.
- ^ Shaban 1970, pp. 69–71.
- ^ Gibb 1923, pp. 45–47.
- ^ Gibb 1923, pp. 48–51.
- ^ Gibb 1923, p. 51.
- ^ Shaban 1970, p. 74.
- ^ Gibb 1923, pp. 51–52.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, pp. 441–443.
- ^ Gibb 1923, pp. 52–54.
- ^ Shaban 1970, p. 75.
- ^ Wellhausen 1927, pp. 439–444.
- ^ Gibb 1923, pp. 55, 61–87.
- ^ Blankinship 1994, pp. 125–129, 155–161, 176–182.
- ^ Jalilov 1996, pp. 459–461.
- ^ Gibb 1923, pp. 88–95.
- ^ Blankinship 1994, pp. 182–184.
- ^ Jalilov 1996, pp. 461–462.
- ^ Gibb 1923, p. 54.
- ^ Blankinship 1994, p. 110.
- ^ Barthold 1928, p. 160.
- ^ Gibb 1923, p. 56.
- ^ Crone 1980, pp. 137–138.
- ^ Barthold 1928, p. 1.
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Further reading
- Stark, Sören (2018). "The Arab Conquest of Bukhārā: Reconsidering Qutayba b. Muslim's Campaigns 87‒90 H/706‒709 CE". Der Islam. 95 (2): 367–400. S2CID 165333714.