He then appointed him governor of Khurasan when he was only twenty-five years old. ʿUbayd Allah immediately set out for his province, prepared without delay, crossed the river toward the mountains of Bukhara, and captured Rāmīthan (1) and half of Bīkind (2) — both belonging to the district of Bukhara. There he encountered the Turks, fought them fiercely, and routed them so decisively that the Muslims overtook the king’s wife before she could put on both of her slippers; she got one on and left the other. They seized her, valuing her sock (3) at two hundred thousand dirhams, and in addition carried off vast spoils. ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyād remained in Khurasan for two years.

That same year the pilgrimage was led by Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam, the governor of Medina. Kūfa was under ʿAbd Allah ibn Khālid ibn Asīd — though some say it was al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Qays — while Basra was governed by ʿAbd Allah ibn Ghaylān.

Record of the notable figures who died this year:

Usāmah ibn Zayd ibn Ḥārithah al-Kalbī (4) — Abū Muḥammad al-Madanī, the freedman of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and the son of His freedman, his beloved and the son of his beloved. His mother was Barakah Umm Ayman, the freedwoman and nursemaid of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ appointed him commander after his father’s death, but some people disparaged his leadership. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“If you criticize his command, you have already criticized his father’s command before him. By Allah, he is certainly fit for leadership, and he is among the dearest of people to me — and this one is among the dearest of people to me (5) after him (6).”

Al-Bukhārī relates in his Ṣaḥīḥ (7) that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to seat al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī on one thigh and Usāmah on the other, then say, “O Allah, I love them, so love them.”