—in the Maghrib, though some place the event in the following year.

• In the same year ʿAmmār was removed from the governorship of Kūfah.

• Jurjān was conquered.

• Suwayd ibn Muqarrin took Rayy; he then encamped, marched on Qūmis, and captured it as well.

• In that year Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah was born.

Muḥammad ibn Jarīr reports that ʿUmar maintained ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Rabīʿah al-Bāhilī over the frontier of al-Bāb and ordered him to campaign against the Turks. He led the troops, crossed the pass of al-Bāb, and Shahriyār asked, “What do you intend to do?” He replied, “I will engage them in their own homeland. By Allah, I have with me men such that, were our commander to let us press on, I would reach the Wall with them.”

When ʿAbd al-Raḥmān entered the Turks’ territory, Allah prevented them from marching out against him. They said, “No one would have dared this unless angels were with them, shielding them from death.” They fled to their fortresses, so he returned triumphant and with spoils. He then raided them twice during ʿUthmān’s caliphate, returning unharmed and enriched each time. On a later engagement he fought, was martyred—meaning ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Rabīʿah, may Allah have mercy on him—so his brother Salmān ibn Rabīʿah seized the banner and drew the troops together. He said, “The Turks still seek rain by means of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān’s body to this very day.”

Account of the Wall:

Al-Walīd narrated to us: Saʿīd ibn Bashīr, from Qatādah, who said: Two men informed me, from Abū Bakrah al-Thaqafī, that a man came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and said, “I have seen …”