In that same year Marwān ibn Muḥammad, nicknamed al-Ḥimār, mounted a campaign against the lands of the Turks.

During it Asad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Qasrī—the governor of Khurāsān and its provinces on behalf of his brother Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh—passed away. The cause of his death was a dubaylah (an internal abscess) from which he had long suffered. When the festival of Mihrijān came round that year, the dehqāns—the great city lords—from every region arrived with gifts and rarities for Asad. Among them was the deputy of Herāt together with its dehqān, whose name was Khurāsān Shāh. He brought splendid presents and precious treasures (1), including a palace fashioned of gold, another of silver, ewers of gold, bowls of gold and silver, and bolts of that country’s silks in variegated hues (2). All of this he laid out before Asad until the entire hall was filled.

The dehqān then rose to speak, extolling Asad’s many virtues: his intelligence, statesmanship, and justice; the way he forbade his household and intimates to wrong any subject, whether by little or much; how he had humbled the Great Khāqān—who had come with one hundred thousand men—defeated him, and killed him; and how Asad rejoiced at the revenues that reached him while taking even greater joy in the sums that left his hand. Asad praised him in return and bade him sit. He thereupon distributed all those gifts, monies, and everything present among the amirs and notables before him, until nothing remained.

He then rose from the assembly, still ailing from that dubaylah. After he had somewhat recovered, a gift of pears was brought to him, and he began handing them out to those in attendance one by one. When he tossed one to the dehqān of Khurāsān, the abscess burst and his death ensued. He appointed Jaʿfar ibn Ḥanẓalah al-Bahrānī to act in his stead, and the latter governed for four months until the warrant appointing Naṣr ibn Sayyār arrived in Rajab of the same year. Thus Asad’s death occurred in Ṣafar of this year.

Ibn ʿArs al-ʿAbdī lamented him, saying:

A herald mourned Asad ibn ʿAbd Allāh—
my heart quakes for the monarch all obey.
At Balkh destiny overtook him in its course; (3)
there is no repelling the decree of your Lord.
So weep, O eye, and let the tears pour forth—
does the sundering of the ranks not grieve you?
His appointed end found him in the depths of Ṣīgh, (4)
and how many a stalwart hero has fallen at Ṣīgh!
Columns who would answer the summons
on swift, well-marked chargers.
May rain refresh the soil that covers you,
for you yourself were kindly rain, rich pasture
for all who sought new grazing ground.

In that year as well Hishām dismissed Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Qasrī from the vice-governorship of Iraq. He had come to resent him because of the disparaging remarks that reached his ears—Khālid was said to call him “the son of the foolish woman.” Khālid wrote him a curt letter, whereupon Hishām sent back a reply