over Medina; he was the one who struck Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, as noted earlier. He subsequently travelled to Damascus, where he died, and he was the first to introduce systematic study of the Qur’an in the Umayyad Mosque according to the seven canonical readings.

ʿUmayr ibn Ḥakīm (1), al-ʿAnsī al-Shāmī, was a transmitter of hadith. No one in Syria dared to censure al-Ḥajjāj openly except him and Ibn Muḥayriz Abū al-Abyaḍ. He was killed this very year in the expedition of Ṭuwāna in Byzantine territory (2).

[Then the year 89 AH began]

In that year Maslama ibn ʿAbd al-Malik and his nephew al-ʿAbbās campaigned against Byzantine lands. They slew great numbers, captured many fortresses—including the fortresses of Suriya, ʿAmmūriya, Hirqala, and Qamūdiya (3)—and collected abundant spoils and large numbers of prisoners.

That same year Qutayba ibn Muslim campaigned in the regions of Sogd, Nasaf, and Kish. A large host of Turks confronted him there; he defeated and killed them. He then advanced toward Bukhara, where another great force of Turks met him outside the city. They fought for two days and a night at a place called Kharrqān (4), and he prevailed. Concerning this, the poet Nahār ibn Tawsʿa said:
They passed a night of ours at Kharrqān—one night,
While our own night at Kharrqān proved far the longer (5).

Qutayba next marched against Vardān Khudhāh, the ruler of Bukhara. Vardān resisted fiercely, and Qutayba failed to subdue him, so he withdrew to Marw. There he received a letter from al-Ḥajjāj reproaching him for retreating and for shirking the enemy. Al-Ḥajjāj ordered him to send a sketch of the city; when Qutayba complied, he wrote back: “Return to it, repent to Allah of your offence, approach it from such-and-such a direction, seize Vardān Khudhāh, and beware of encirclement. Leave the by-lanes of the route to me.” (6)

In this year as well, al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik appointed Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Qasrī governor of Mecca. At al-Walīd’s command he dug a well at Thaniyyat Ṭuwā and Thaniyyat al-Ḥajūn; its water proved sweet and pure, and people drew from it regularly.

Al-Wāqidī relates: ʿUmar ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to me from Nāfiʿ, the client of Banū Makhzūm, who said: I heard Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Qasrī, while preaching from the minbar of Mecca, declare: “People, which do you deem greater: a man’s deputy over his household, or the messenger he sends to them? By Allah, were you to know no merit of the deputy save that Abraham, the Friend of the All-Merciful, sought water from him and he gave him briny, bitter water, whereas he sought