[135] In the year 95 Hajjāj died at the age of fifty-four.
[136] Welīd had been most anxious to make his own son heir-apparent in the place of his brother, and in his designs had been supported by Hajjāj and Kutayba. Hence the bad blood that existed between the conqueror and the new Caliph.
Vambéry adds the following details without reference (not to be found either in Tabari or Narshakhi): “Having conquered Farghāna, he went through the Terek Pass into Eastern Turkestān. Here he encountered the princes of the Uïgurs, who in default of union among themselves were easily conquered. We are told that the Arabs extended their incursions into the province of Kansu.... Turfan, on the very first appearance of the Arabs, embraced Islam.” (_Bokhara_, pp. 31, 32).
[137] Gibbon recognised the greatness of Kutayba as a conqueror, while lamenting the scanty notices to be found of him in European works; cf. _Decline and Fall_, chap. li. d’Herbelot, in his _Bibliothèque Orientale_, dismisses our hero, under the heading _Catbah_, in a very summary manner. “Ce fut un des plus villains Arabes de son siècle, Valid, sixième Khalife de la race des Ommiades, le fit général de ses armées en Perse, l’an de l’Hégire 88. Il conquît tout le grand pays de Khorazan, et obligea en ces quartiers-là à brûler leurs idoles et à bâtir de Mosquées. Après cette conquête, il passa dans la Transoxiana et prit de force les fameuses villes de Samarcande et de Bokhara, et défit Mazurk roi de Turkestan, qui s’était approché pour les sécourir. Ce grand capitaine finit ses conquêtes l’an 93 (_sic_) de l’Hégire.”
[138] Tabari, _Annales_, Series II. pp. 1283–96.
[139] An important town on the Perso-Turkish frontier, north-east of Baghdād.
[140] This saying is not to be found in the Arabic Tabari, but in the Persian version. See Zotenberg, vol. iv. p. 204.
[141] See Zotenberg’s translation of the Persian Tabari, vol. iv. p. 221.
[142] After remaining, as Tabari tells us, four months in Khorāsān to settle the administration of the province.
[143] Zotenberg, vol. iv. p. 225 _et seq._
[144] Tabari, _Annales_, Series II. p. 1318.
[145] He directed that converts were to be exempt from all taxes, and placed on the same footing as the Arabs; while unbelievers were to be taxed to the utmost. No churches, synagogues, or fire-temples were to be destroyed, but the erection of new ones was forbidden. Cf. Muir, _Caliphate_, p. 380.