and a contingent of the Syrians as well. Jarir (1) and other poets even composed odes on the matter, but nothing of it materialized for al-Walid before he died, and the pledge of allegiance was duly given to Sulayman. Qutaybah b. Muslim then feared him and resolved not to acknowledge him. Sulayman therefore dismissed Qutaybah and appointed Yazid b. al-Muhallab (2) to the governorship of Iraq and, subsequently, of Khurasan, reinstating him in that province after ten years and ordering him to punish the family of al-Hajjaj b. Yusuf—for it was al-Hajjaj who had earlier removed Yazid from Khurasan.
[On the twenty-third of Ramadan that same year, Sulayman relieved ʿUthman b. Ḥayyan of the governorship of Madinah and installed Abū Bakr b. Muhammad b. ʿAmr b. Hazm in his place; he was counted among the scholars] (3).
When Qutaybah b. Muslim learned that Sulayman b. ʿAbd al-Malik had assumed the caliphate, he wrote him a letter offering condolences for his brother’s death and congratulations on his accession. In it he detailed his own hardships, efforts, and battles, the dread he inspired in enemy hearts, and the vast lands, cities, and regions that Allah had opened through him. He pledged to render Sulayman the same obedience and sincere counsel he had given al-Walid—provided he was not removed from Khurasan—and in that letter he took aim at Yazid b. al-Muhallab.
He then drafted a second letter, again recounting his combats and conquests and the awe he inspired in kings and non-Arabs, once more reviling Yazid b. al-Muhallab, and swearing that if Sulayman dismissed him and appointed Yazid, he would depose Sulayman from the caliphate.
Next he composed a third letter in which he flatly declared Sulayman deposed. He entrusted the three letters to a courier (4) with these instructions: “Hand him the first letter; if he reads it and passes it to Yazid b. al-Muhallab, give him the second. If he reads that and passes it to Yazid, then deliver the third.”
Sulayman read the first letter—Yazid happened to be present—and passed it to Yazid, who read it. The courier then produced the second letter; Sulayman read it and again gave it to Yazid. Finally the courier offered the third letter. Sulayman read it and found in it an explicit pronouncement dismissing and deposing him. His face changed color; he sealed the letter, kept it in his own hand, and did not give it to Yazid.
He ordered that the courier be lodged in the guest-house. Later that night he summoned him, gave him gold and a writ confirming Qutaybah as governor of Khurasan, and sent another courier of his own along with him to install Qutaybah in the post.
When the two messengers reached Khurasan (5) they learned that Qutaybah had already renounced allegiance to the caliph. The courier from Sulayman therefore handed his letter to Qutaybah’s courier, and before the latter could return to Sulayman news reached them that Qutaybah had been killed.