al-Rabi' ibn Ziyad's Sijistan Campaign

حملة الربيع بن زياد إلى سجستان

Sijistan

Ibn Amir, bound for Khurasan in 30h, camped at Shaq al-Shirjan and sent al-Rabi' ibn Ziyad into Sijistan: al-Fahraj, then the seventy-five-farsakh mafaza, then Rustaq Zaliq raided on Mihrjan day — its dahqan ransomed himself by planting his spear and piling gold and silver over it — then Karkuya and Haysun surrendered unresisted. Guided to Zaranj across Wadi Nuq, he fought Zusht hard — Muslim dead — till they were forced inside the walls; Nashrudh fell with the father of Abu Salih, later al-Hajjaj's secretary — a Marra woman, Abla, bought him — and Shirwadh with Ibrahim ibn Bassam's grandfather. At Zaranj the marzban Aparwiz sought aman: al-Rabi' sat him on a corpse, leaned on another, seated his companions on corpses — dark, long-limbed, loud-voiced — and the awed marzban truced for a thousand slave-youths each bearing a gold cup. His governorship ran two and a half years, forty thousand captives, and al-Hasan al-Basri was his secretary.