—namely, mangonels and ʿarrādāt (arrow-launching engines). The people of Balanjar then sallied forth, aided by the Turks, and a fierce battle broke out. The Turks had previously been afraid to fight the Muslims, imagining that they never died, but on this day they finally dared to face them. They met in combat, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Rabīʿah—nicknamed Dhū al-Nūn—was killed. The Muslims were routed and split into two groups: one fled to the land of the Khazars, while the other headed toward Gilan and Jurjan; among the latter were Abū Hurayrah and Salmān al-Fārisi.

The Turks seized the body of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān—one of the nobles and champions of the Muslims—buried him in their own land, and to this very day they seek rain at his grave. When he fell, Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ appointed Salmān ibn Rabīʿah over that frontier, and ʿUthmān reinforced them with troops from Syria under Ḥabīb ibn Maslama. Ḥabīb and Salmān quarrelled over the overall command until a rift developed, marking the first disagreement between the people of Kūfa and those of Syria. On that occasion a Kūfan poet, Aws (1), composed the following verses:

(2) If you strike at Salmān, we shall strike at your Ḥabīb,
and if you march toward Ibn ʿAffān, we shall march as well;

(3) If you act justly, the frontier is our commander’s front line,
and here is a leader advancing with his companies;

(4) We are the wardens of the border, its long-time guardians—
nights when we manned every post and drove the foe away.

In that same year Ibn ʿĀmir captured Marw al-Rūdh, Ṭāliqān, Fāryāb, Jūzjān, and Ṭukhāristān. As for Marw al-Rūdh, Ibn ʿĀmir (5) sent al-Aḥnaf ibn Qays against it. He besieged the city; its people came out to fight, and he routed them and drove them back into their fortress. They then sued for peace on payment of a large sum and on the condition that the kharāj (land tax) be levied only on the peasants’ lands, leaving untaxed the tract that Kisra (6) had once granted to the father of the marzbān, the ruler of Marw, after he had slain the serpent that used to waylay travellers and devour them. Al-Aḥnaf accepted these terms and issued them a written treaty.

He next dispatched al-Aqraʿ ibn Ḥābis to Jūzjān; he captured it after a battle in which many brave Muslims were killed, but victory was ultimately granted. On that occasion Abū Kathir al-Nahshali composed a long ode that includes these lines (7):

May the rain-bearing clouds, when they pour, water
the resting places of the youths in Jūzjān,

all the way to the two castles in Rustāq Khūt (8),
where the two Aqraʿs annihilated them.