It was said that the announcement of al-Ḥajjāj’s death and that of Qurrah reached al-Walīd at the same moment, but the report is unsound, for Qurrah actually died in the middle of the year 96 AH (1).
160 – Qutaybah ibn Muslim ibn ʿAmr ibn Ḥuṣayn ibn Rabīʿah al-Bāhilī
The commander, Abū Ḥafṣ, was one of the great warriors—courageous, resolute, astute, far-sighted, and well supplied.
He is the one who reopened Khwarazm, Bukhara, and Samarqand after those regions had broken their pact and apostatized; then, in 95 AH, he conquered Farghānah and the lands of the Turks.
He governed Khurasan for ten years.
He narrated hadith from ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn and Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī.
When news of al-Walīd’s death reached him he revoked his allegiance. His army split, and the Tamīm chief Wakīʿ ibn Ḥassān rose against him, incited the troops, charged with ten Tamīm horsemen, and killed him in Dhu l-Ḥijjah of 96 AH. He lived forty-eight years.
His father, the commander Abū Ṣāliḥ, had been killed alongside Muṣʿab.
Bāhilah is a tribe of low standing among the Arabs. A poet said:
“Were someone to call to a dog, ‘O Bāhilī!’
the dog would howl at the shame of such a lineage.” (2)