Overview

Al-Baladhuri relates that Qutayba raided the City of the Elephant and conquered it. Umayya ibn Abd Allah ibn Khalid ibn Usayd had conquered it before him, and then they broke their covenant. Yazid ibn al-Muhallab tried to enter it and could not. ¹

Kab al-Ashari said of this that the Elephant had given itself into Qutayba's hands, meaning Yazid ibn al-Muhallab. ¹

What is not covered here: the year, which needs an additional source.

The Abu Tutayna Affair

Abdallah ibn al-Ahtham, Abu Haqan, Qutayba's Marw deputy during campaigns, wrote al-Hajjaj denouncing him. Bashir of the Ahtham warned Qutayba — 'you've opened to a treacherous envious man' — dismissed as cousin-envy, though Bashir begged it stand as his excuse. When al-Hajjaj forwarded the letter and the courier rode past the Sakka without stopping, Ibn al-Ahtham sensed the trap and fled to Syria: years peddling wine and flax round his neck, then rag and cotton over one eye, styled Abu Tutayna the oilman — until al-Walid died and Sulayman rose, when he cast off the disguise and preached congratulations to Sulayman with attacks on al-Hajjaj and Qutayba — 'Abu Tutayna the oilman, the most eloquent of men'. Reading the letter, Qutayba struck the Banu Ahtham, killing nine; Bashir said 'remember my excuse' — 'you put one foot forward and held the other back, enemy of God' — and killed them all. Waki' ibn Abi Sud, deposed from Tamim's command for a Dabbi, swore then, missed zhuhr and asr, and when asked answered: 'how should I pray to a Lord who killed our best as boys and was not angered for them?'

Qutayba's Conquest of Madinat al-Fil

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The Abu Tutayna Affair