Muhallab died A.H. 82 (701), and was succeeded by his son Yezīd in the government of Merv. In A.H. 84 (703)[103] the latter was deprived of his post by the famous Hajjāj,[104] who had the disposal of all such appointments. Yezīd thereupon quitted Khorāsān, and his brother Mufaddhal, who had formerly been his lieutenant, was appointed governor. He held the post for about nine months, undertaking during that brief period successful expeditions against Khiva and Bādghīs. The immense spoils of war he distributed among his soldiers, keeping, we are told, nothing for himself. In A.H. 86 (705) `Abd el-Melik died, and in the same year, on the arrival of Yezīd in `Irāk, Hajjāj appointed Kutayba ibn Muslim el-Bāhili governor of Khorāsān in place of Mufaddhal. The glorious career of Kutayba in Central Asia began at this epoch with his entry into Merv.
THE FIRST EASTERN CAMPAIGNS OF KUTAYBA IBN MUSLIM
The arrival of Kutayba on the scene marks a new epoch in the history of Mohammedan conquests in Central Asia. Though the Arabs had been for many years masters of Khorāsān, with an established capital at Merv,[105] their hold on the country beyond the Oxus was very slight. The expeditions which they had hitherto made into Bokhārā[106] and other parts of Transoxiana were mere raids, and their authority in those countries departed with the main body of their army. Kutayba was the first Arab leader who compelled the inhabitants of the tract lying between the Oxus and Jaxartes to acknowledge the Caliph’s supremacy, and to plant the standard of Islām in lands where the creed of Zoroaster had retained its greatest vitality.
1. PERSIAN 2. PERSIAN 3. AFGHAN 4. KALMUCK ]