the right-wing force ⦗1⦘ until he reached Caesarea in Byzantine territory.

During that same year Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik removed Ashras ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Sulamī from the governorship of Khurasan and appointed al-Junayd ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Murrī in his place; he also made al-Jarrāḥ ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Ḥakamī governor of Armenia.

That year the Turks advanced against the lands of Azerbaijan. Al-Hārith ibn ʿAmr engaged them and routed them. When al-Junayd ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman reached Khurasan he was met by the Turkish cavalry, who were fleeing from the Muslims; he had with him seven thousand men. The two sides drew up and fought a fierce battle. Because the Muslims were few compared with the Turks, the latter—accompanied by their king Khagan—hoped to overpower them, and Junayd was nearly killed. Allah, however, granted him victory: he dealt them a crushing defeat, captured the king’s nephew, and sent him to the Caliph.

That year the pilgrimage was led by Ibrāhīm ibn Hishām ibn Ismāʿīl al-Makhzūmī, who was governor of the Two Sanctuaries and al-Ṭāʾif; the governor of Iraq was Khālid al-Qasrī, and the governor of Khurasan was al-Junayd ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Murrī ⦗2⦘.

[Then the year 112 AH began]

In that year Muʿāwiyah ibn Hishām undertook the summer campaign and captured several fortresses in the vicinity of Malatya. In the same year the Turks marched from the land of the Alān. Al-Jarrāḥ ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Ḥakamī confronted them with troops from Syria and Azerbaijan. They fought before his full army could assemble, and al-Jarrāḥ—may Allah have mercy on him—was martyred at Marj Ardabīl along with a number of his men, while the enemy seized Ardabīl.

When this news reached Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, he dispatched Saʿīd ibn ʿAmr al-Ḥarashī ⦗3⦘ with an army and ordered him to make haste toward the Turks. He overtook them as they were marching with Muslim captives toward their king Khagan. He rescued the prisoners—both Muslim men and women, and even members of the protected communities—killed an exceedingly large number of Turks, and captured many. He then executed the captives deliberately, assuaging the hearts whose grief ⦗4⦘ had long festered.

Still the Caliph was not satisfied: he sent his brother Maslamah ibn ʿAbd al-Malik in pursuit of the Turks. Maslamah set out in severe cold and the depths of winter until he reached Bāb al-Abwāb (Derbent). He appointed a deputy in his place and advanced with his forces after the Turks and their king Khagan; what took place between them will be mentioned in due course.

The governor of Khurasan likewise marched out against the Turks with a large army. He reached the River Balkh and dispatched a detachment of eighteen thousand men and another of ten thousand on the right and the left. The Turks mobilized and massed their forces; they approached Samarqand, and the city’s governor wrote to inform him of their advance and that he was unable to protect