One day Khalid entered upon ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān while al-Ḥakam ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ was in attendance. He complained to the Caliph that his son al-Walīd looked down on his brother ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yazīd.
ʿAbd al-Malik replied by reciting: “Indeed, when kings enter a town, they ruin it and turn the mighty of its people into the humiliated” (al-Naml 27:34).
Khalid responded with the verse: “And when We intend to destroy a town, We command its affluent, but they defiantly disobey therein; so the sentence is justified against it, and We destroy it with complete destruction (16)” (al-Isrāʾ 17:16).
ʿAbd al-Malik said, “By Allah, your brother ʿAbd Allāh came to me and he never commits a grammatical error.”
Khalid answered, “Nor does al-Walīd make a mistake in grammar.”
ʿAbd al-Malik retorted, “His brother Sulaymān never speaks incorrectly.”
Khalid replied, “And I, the brother of ʿAbd Allāh, do not mispronounce either.”
Al-Walīd—who was present—then said to Khalid ibn Yazīd, “Be quiet! By Allah, you count for nothing, whether with the caravan or with the battle host!”
Khalid said, “Listen, O Commander of the Believers.” Then he turned to al-Walīd and declared, “Woe to you! What are the ‘caravan and the battle host’ except my grandfather Abū Sufyān, lord of the caravan, and my grandfather ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah, lord of the battle host? Had you instead spoken of a few sheep, a couple of vine-trellises, and al-Ṭāʾif—and may Allah have mercy on ʿUthmān—we would have agreed that you spoke the truth.”
(The narrator means that al-Ḥakam had been exiled to al-Ṭāʾif, herding sheep and taking shelter beneath a small vine-trellis (1) until ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, upon becoming caliph, brought him back.) Al-Walīd and his father were struck silent, unable to reply. Allah, exalted be He, knows best.
[Then the year 86 AH began.]
In that year Qutaybah ibn Muslim, the deputy of al-Ḥajjāj over Marw and Khurāsān, campaigned against many territories of the Turks and other unbelievers. He took prisoners, seized booty, returned safely, and received the surrender of fortresses, citadels, and kingdoms. When he set out homeward he outpaced his army.
Al-Ḥajjāj wrote to reproach him, saying: “When you head toward the enemy’s land, place yourself at the vanguard of the army; and when you return, stay at its rear”—that is, serve as a shield lest anyone from the enemy or elsewhere harm them. This is sound strategy, and the sunnah upholds it.
Among the captives was the wife of Barmak (2)—the father of Khālid ibn Barmak. Qutaybah gave her to his brother ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muslim, who slept with her and she conceived by him. Later Qutaybah granted the captives their freedom and sent that woman back to her husband Barmak while she was pregnant with ʿAbd Allāh’s child. The child remained with them until they embraced Islam and accompanied the Muslims during the ʿAbbāsid era, as will be mentioned.
When Qutaybah returned to Khurāsān, the king of Ṣaghāniyān (3) met him bearing splendid gifts, including a key made of gold (4).
And in that same year there occurred