The Court's Wooing of Transoxania

استمالة المأمون وجند المعتصم لأهل ما وراء النهر

Al-Ma'mun's Khurasan agents campaigned the unsubmitted while his envoys enrolled willing Transoxanians — their kings' sons included — in the diwan, honored and raised in stipend at court. Al-Mu'tasim kept the same till most of his army's standing troops were Sughdians, Faraghanis, Ushrusanis and Shashis, their kings attending his gate; Islam prevailed there and they raided the Turks beyond them. Abdallah ibn Tahir's son Tahir opened lands of al-Fuziyya none had reached before; and Ibn Ayyash holds Qutayba settled Arabs beyond the river as far as Farghana and al-Shash.

Overview

Al-Baladhuri relates that al-Ma'mun wrote to his governors over Khurasan about those of Transoxiana who were not under obedience or Islam. He sent his envoys, who enrolled in the register those among them who wished, and their princes' sons. ¹

Winning them over

He won them over with favour: when they came to his door he honoured them and gave them generous stipends and provisions. Then al-Mu'tasim, who succeeded him, followed the same course, until most of his army came from the people of Transoxiana: the Soghdians, the Farghanians, the Ushrusanians and the people of al-Shash. ¹

The result

Al-Baladhuri says that Islam prevailed among them, and they began to raid the Turks beyond them. Abd Allah ibn Tahir sent his son Tahir to raid the lands of Fawzia, and he took places that no one had reached before him. ¹

The Sack of Zibatra and al-Mu'tasim's Retaliation

In al-Baladhuri: Zibatra was an old Roman fortress taken with the old fortress of al-Hadath by Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri, standing until the Romans wrecked it in al-Walid ibn Yazid's days; rebuilt unsoundly, the Romans camped on it in Marwan ibn Muhammad's civil war and demolished it; al-Mansur rebuilt it, they damaged it, and al-Rashid rebuilt and garrisoned it through Muhammad ibn Ibrahim; in al-Ma'mun's caliphate the Romans raided it and its people's pasturage, driving off livestock, and al-Ma'mun ordered its repair and fortification; when the Byzantine tyrant's embassy came in year 210 seeking peace he refused and wrote to the frontier governors, who ranged Byzantine lands killing and subduing with handsome success, only Yaqzan ibn Abd al-A'la ibn Ahmad ibn Yazid ibn Asid al-Sulami being hit; then in the caliphate of al-Mu'tasim — Abu Ishaq ibn al-Rashid — the Romans came to Zibatra, killed the men, captured the women and wrecked it, which grieved and angered him so that he raided them as far as Amorium — having destroyed forts before it — camped on it, took it, killed the fighters, captured the women and children, then demolished it and ordered Zibatra rebuilt, fortified and garrisoned, which the Romans afterwards attempted and failed to take.

The Court's Wooing of Transoxania

At a glance

Overview

Winning them over

The result

Connections

People and things also explored

Sources

Time

The Sack of Zibatra and al-Mu'tasim's Retaliation