Then the year 90 AH began.

In that year Maslama ibn ʿAbd al-Malik and al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Walīd marched against the Byzantine lands. They captured a number of fortresses, slew a great many Byzantines, seized abundant spoils, and took numerous prisoners.

During the same year the Byzantines captured Khālid ibn Kaysān, commander of the sea-frontier, brought him to their emperor, and the emperor sent him as a gift to al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik.

That year al-Walīd removed his brother ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Malik from the governorship of Egypt and appointed Qurrah ibn Sharīk in his place.

Also in this year Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim killed the Indian king Dāhir ibn Ṣaṣṣa (1). Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim was leading an army on behalf of al-Ḥajjāj.

In the same year Qutaybah ibn Muslim captured the city of Bukhara, routed all the Turkic forces there, and a number of engagements took place between them whose details are lengthy; Ibn Jarīr (2) has recorded them in full.

After the fall of Bukhara, Tarkhūn, king of Sogd, asked Qutaybah for peace on condition of paying an annual tribute. Qutaybah agreed and took hostages from him as security.

That year Nīzak, king of the Turks, broke the treaty that stood between him and Qutaybah and stirred up all the other rulers against him. Many kings who had made peace with Qutaybah now violated their pacts, joined forces, and agreed to assemble and fight him in the spring of the following year. Yet, before that term arrived, Qutaybah wrought among them an exceedingly great slaughter—the like of which had never been heard— and crucified two continuous rows of their dead over a distance of four farsakhs, an act that shattered their entire alliance (3).

In the same year Yazīd ibn al-Muhallab and his two brothers, al-Mufaḍḍal and ʿAbd al-Malik, escaped from al-Ḥajjāj’s prison and sought refuge with Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, who granted them safety from al-Ḥajjāj. Earlier al-Ḥajjāj had laid heavy restraints upon them, subjected them to severe punishment, and taken from them six million dirhams. Of them all, Yazīd ibn al-Muhallab showed the greatest endurance under torture: not a sound was heard from him no matter what was done to him in reprisal, and for that very reason he became the most detested of men to al-Ḥajjāj. Someone said to al-Ḥajjāj, “Indeed, in …”