Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/379

 350 Barmeki. The next campaign was against Peikund, a trading emporium of Bokhārā, beyond the Oxus. The Turkomans of Soghd and other hordes swarmed in such multitudes around Ḳoteiba for the defence of this rich city, as to cut off his communications. For two months Al-Ḥajjāj received no tidings, and had prayers offered up for him in the mosques throughout the East. At last the city fell. The fighting men were put to the sword, their families taken captive, and vast stores of arms and "spoil such as never before seen in Khorāsān." In 88 another advance was made on Bokhāra, and many places of note were taken. A heavy battle was fought with a vast host from Soghd and the surrounding districts, commanded by "a nephew of the Emperor of China," who after a determined resistance was put to flight. Next year, Ḳoteiba again advanced through Soghd and Kish, against Werdān, king of Bokhārā, who after two days' fighting took to flight; but the city, resisting every attempt, was left unstormed. Al-Ḥajjāj upbraided Ḳoteiba with the failure, and bade him renew the attack on a plan furnished to him of the defences. This he did with a strong force, which mainly through the bravery of the Beni Temīm (for the Azd at first gave way before the fierce onset of the Turks), routed the enemy. Bokhārā thus taken, the surrounding province was completely subdued.

On the approach of winter, the Muslim troops being withdrawn for the season, Nizak, minister of the Prince of Tukhāristan, formed a conspiracy with the surrounding powers to cast off the foreign yoke too evidently now settling down heavily upon them. To prevent his Sovereign, who opposed the design, from interfering, and