The Bahili Tribe in the Conquests of the Caucasus and Central Asia - 1st Century AH - Journal Article

Machine summary:

Gibb wishes to describe this shift as follows: "He summoned the unfortunate current governor (87 AH) and handed the reins of Khorasan to Hajjaj"3 During his entire period of rule over the eastern part of the Umayyad Empire, Hajjaj sent only two governors to Khorasan and Transoxiana: first Muhallab ibn Abi Safra al-Azdi (from 86 to 87 AH) and then Qutayba ibn Muslim al-Bahili (86 to 96 AH). Some time later, when he advanced further into Khorasan and Transoxiana and intended to conquer Jawzjan, "he summoned a famous Arab man, Aqra ibn Sa'ib al-Tamimi, and gave him a thousand men, commanding him to go to Jawzjan and make either peace or war with the people of that city"3. For example, when Waki ibn Washah Tamimi was actually in front of the guard during the first conquest of Bukhara, Qutayba wrote a letter to al-Hajjaj saying, 'I sent Abd al-Rahman ibn Muslim [his brother] and God granted him victory. Another example is Khwarizm; here, the Khwarizmshah, the official ruler of the region, became rebellious due to his brother's interference in his governmental affairs, sought help from Qutayba, and wrote to him: "that I will give you so-and-so and so-and-so, and I will hand over the keys of the city to you, on the condition that you reclaim the country from my brother and return it to me"3 With these preliminaries, the army of Abd al-Rahman ibn Muslim set off towards Khwarizm while the ruler was waiting for him in the city of Fil (which Lesterring believes must be the city of Gurganj4) and was able to kill the usurper Khurzad and restore the rule of the ruler of Khwarizm to him; however, it is not clear why the people declared their king to be an incapable man and killed him because of this seeking of help from the invading Arabs.