The author said:
Ibn Jarīr (1) reports: In this same year, after the death of al-Ḥakam ibn ʿAmr, Ziyād appointed al-Rabīʿ ibn Ziyād al-Ḥārithī governor of Khurāsān. He captured Balkh by treaty, although its people had shut the gates after al-Aḥnaf ibn Qays had once made peace with them. He then took Quhistan by force. A contingent of Turks was stationed there; he killed them all, sparing none but Nīzak (2) Tarkhān, whom Qutaybah ibn Muslim would later kill, as will be mentioned.
That same year al-Rabīʿ—the man just named—raided Transoxiana, acquired spoils, and returned safely.
In that year as well, according to Abū Maʿshar and al-Wāqidī, Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah led the people in the pilgrimage.
Ibn al-Jawzī notes in his work al-Muntaẓam that among the eminent figures who died this year were: Jarīr ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Bajalī, Jaʿfar ibn Abī Sufyān ibn al-Ḥārith, Ḥārithah ibn al-Nuʿmān, Ḥujr ibn ʿAdī, Saʿīd ibn Zayd ibn ʿAmr ibn Nufayl, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Unays, and Abū Bakrah Nufayʿ ibn al-Ḥārith al-Thaqafī—may Allah be pleased with them.
As for Jarīr ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Bajalī (3): he embraced Islam after the revelation of Sūrat al-Māʾidah, in Ramaḍān of the tenth year. He arrived while the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was delivering a sermon in which he said:
“A man is coming to you from this mountain pass who is one of the best of those of Yemen, and upon his face is the touch of an angel.”
When Jarīr entered, the people fixed their eyes on him, and he was exactly as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had described. They informed him of that, and he praised Allah Most High (4).
It is related that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ seated him, he spread his cloak for him and said:
“When a nobleman of a people comes to you, honor him.” (5)
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then dispatched him to Dhū al-Khalāṣah—a shrine that the tribe of Daws had venerated in the pre-Islamic era. Jarīr told the Prophet ﷺ that he could not keep his seat on horseback, so the Prophet struck him on the chest and said:
“O Allah, steady him and make him a guide who is himself rightly guided.” (6)
He went to the shrine and demolished it.