The accounts of the fighting that ensued, as given by the two versions of Tabari, offer great discrepancies. The Arabic original, which in this case seems the most trustworthy source, points to an almost total defeat of the Mohammedan forces in the first instance, while the Persian translation, in abridging this account, omits many of the details of disaster. According to the Arabic, Junayd was marching on Tokhāristān when news reached him that Saura was hard pressed in Samarkand by the Khākān of the Turks, whereupon Junayd resolved to march to his relief. But his forces were so scattered that he was obliged to set out with the small contingent under his personal command. When about half-way he was surrounded by the Turkish hordes, and a fearful struggle ensued in which hundreds of his brave Arabs were slain. At last he withdrew to a defile,[155] threw up entrenchments, and called a council of war. His officers pointed out to him that either he or Saura must perish. He therefore sent word to Saura[156] to march out of Samarkand, which with much reluctance he did at the head of 12,000 men. Saura set out in the direction of Junayd’s camp, and had nearly reached it when he was suddenly attacked by the Turks. So great was the slaughter that of the 12,000 we are told only three finally escaped,[157] Saura himself perishing with his army. Having created this diversion, Junayd thought fit to sally from his retreat, but only to find himself again outnumbered by the Khākān’s forces. He now promised freedom to the slaves of his camp if they would fight for him,[158] and by the valour of these impromptu auxiliaries he was able to push his way through to Samarkand. When the Caliph Hishām received Junayd’s report[159] of what had passed he sent him larger reinforcements of men from Basra and Kūfa, numbering in all some 25,000. When Junayd had been four months in Soghdiana, tidings were brought to him that the Khākān was threatening Bokhārā; he thereupon set out from Samarkand, leaving there a garrison in charge of Nasr ibn Sayyār. In the course of two years Junayd appears to have restored order in Transoxiana, and with the help of his new reinforcements to have driven out the Turks. The `Abbāsid faction, which a little later brought about the downfall of the Umayyad dynasty, in the year 113 began to send emissaries into Khorāsān; Tabari tells us that Junayd seized one of these men and put him to death. But, apart from this fact, Tabari has scarcely anything to relate of Junayd between the years 113 and 116.