There she gave birth to a son whom they named Sughdi (1). The wife of the ruler of al-Sughd sent her a crown of gold set with pearls. Before that time Muslims did not spend the winter in those lands, but Salm ibn Ziyad did so.

[He also dispatched al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufrah against the Turkic city of Khwarazm, besieging it until its people agreed to pay a little over twenty million. In compensation he took from them goods at half their value; the total worth of what he seized reached fifty million. This won al-Muhallab high favor with Salm ibn Ziyad] (2).

Salm then chose a portion of the spoils for Yazid ibn Muʿawiyah and sent it with Marzban and a delegation. During the same campaign he concluded a treaty with the people of Samarqand for a large payment.

In this year Yazid dismissed ʿAmr ibn Saʿid from the governorship of the Two Sanctuaries and reinstated al-Walid ibn ʿUtbah ibn Abi Sufyan, appointing him over Madinah. The reason was that when ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr learned of al-Husayn’s martyrdom he began preaching to the people, magnifying the crime committed against al-Husayn and his companions, censuring the people of Kufah and of Iraq for abandoning him, seeking mercy for al-Husayn and cursing his killers. He would say:

“By Allah, they slew a man who stood long in prayer by night and fasted much by day. By Allah, he never traded the Qur’an for songs and idle amusement, nor replaced tears born of Allah’s fear with frivolous talk or chanting; he never exchanged fasting for drinking wine and eating the forbidden, nor left the circles of remembrance to go hunting”—a veiled criticism of Yazid ibn Muʿawiyah—“and they shall meet utter loss.”

Ibn al-Zubayr stirred the people against the Umayyads, urging them to oppose them and depose Yazid. Many secretly pledged allegiance to him and asked him to declare it openly, but he could not do so while ʿAmr ibn Saʿid remained governor; the man was severe with him yet capable of some forbearance. The people of Madinah and others had already written to Ibn al-Zubayr, and word spread: “Now that al-Husayn has been killed, no one will vie with Ibn al-Zubayr.” When this reached Yazid he was deeply troubled. Some said to him, “If he wished, ʿAmr ibn Saʿid could send you Ibn al-Zubayr’s head, or keep him besieged until he leaves the Sanctuary.” Yazid therefore deposed ʿAmr and—in that same year, some say on the first of Dhu al-Hijjah—appointed al-Walid ibn ʿUtbah, who led the people in the pilgrimage that year.

Yazid swore, “I shall have Ibn al-Zubayr brought to me in a chain of silver.” He sent that chain with a fast courier, along with a cloak of fine brocade, intending thereby to fulfill his oath. When the courier passed by Marwan, who was then in Madinah, and informed him of his mission and of the fetter he carried, Marwan composed the following verses (3):

Take it, for such a scheme is unworthy of the mighty—
it is the speech of a man brought low in submission.
O ʿĀmir, the people would impose this plot upon you,
yet among neighbors that is weaving with a brittle spindle.
I see that when you sit among them as a well-wisher,
they say of the man with the bucket: “Pull back, then draw near.”