climbed onto it and began reviling Qutaybah. A Muslim loosed an arrow at him that gouged out his eye and drove it clear through the back of his head. He died soon afterward, and Qutaybah rewarded the archer with ten thousand. At daybreak Qutaybah again bombarded the wall with catapults, opened another breach, and the Muslims swarmed over it while both sides exchanged volleys of arrows.
The Turks then said to Qutaybah, “Withdraw from us today and tomorrow we shall make peace with you.” He withdrew, and the next day they concluded a treaty requiring them to bring him each year two million one-hundred thousand, and in that very year to hand over thirty thousand slaves—no child, old man, or defective person among them—while another report states one hundred thousand slaves (1). They also agreed that he might take the ornaments of the idols and whatever was in the fire-temples; that the city would be cleared of fighting men until Qutaybah built a mosque there, set up a pulpit from which the sermon would be delivered, eat his midday meal, and then depart. They accepted these terms.
Qutaybah entered the city with four thousand elite warriors. He prayed in the mosque, preached, took his meal, and the idols were brought before him. Their ornaments were stripped away, and they were heaped one upon another until they formed a mound like a great palace. He then ordered them burned—[the people shrieked and wept]—and the Magians said, “Some of these are ancient idols; whoever burns them will perish.” King Gurak came and tried to restrain him, saying, “I am advising you sincerely.” Qutaybah replied, “I shall burn them with my own hand.” He took a torch, stood over them while proclaiming the greatness of Allah (exalted be He), threw the fire upon them, and they were consumed. In the ashes he found fifty thousand mithqals of gold.
Among the captives he seized was a maiden descended from Yazdegerd (2). He presented her to al-Hajjaj, who in turn gave her to al-Walid, and she bore him Yazid ibn al-Walid.
Qutaybah then summoned the people of Samarkand and said, “I seek from you nothing beyond what we have agreed upon, but troops of ours will remain stationed with you.” Their king, Gurak Khan, withdrew, whereupon Qutaybah recited, “and that He destroyed the former people of ’Ad, and Thamud, sparing none” (Qur’an 53:50-51). Qutaybah then set out for Marw, leaving his brother ’Abd Allah ibn Muslim in command of Samarkand and instructing him:
“Let no polytheist enter the gate of Samarkand unless his hand bears a seal, and keep him inside only until the clay of the seal dries; if it dries while he is still within, kill him. If you see any one of them carrying iron or a knife, kill him with it. If, once the gate is closed, anyone is found inside, kill him.”
Regarding this, Ka‘b al-Ashqarī (3)—though some attribute the verses to a man of Juhfī—said:
Every day Qutaybah gathers plunder
and adds fresh wealth to his already vast treasure.
The Bāhilī has worn the crown so long
that the hair at his temples, once black, has turned grey.
He subdued the Sogd with his battalions
until he left its people sitting desolate in the open plain.
Al-Walid weeps for the loss of his father,
while a grieving father is made to weep for al-Walid.
Whenever his cavalry enters a town or reaches it,
it leaves behind gaping trenches (4).