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| - The region of Transoxiana (Arabic: Ma wara' al-nahr) had been conquered by the Muslims under Qutayba ibn Muslim in the reign of Al-Walid I (r. 705–715), following the Muslim conquest of Persia and of Khurasan in the mid-7th century. The loyalties of its native Iranian and Turkic inhabitants and autonomous local rulers however remained volatile, and in 719, they sent a petition to the Chinese and their Turgesh vassals for military aid against the Muslims. In response, Turgesh attacks began in 720, and the native Sogdians launched uprisings against the Caliphate. These were suppressed with great brutality by the governor of Khurasan, Sa'id ibn Amr al-Harashi, but in 724 his successor, Muslim ibn Sa'id al-Kilabi, suffered a major disaster (the so-called "Day of Thirst") while trying to captur
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| abstract
| - The region of Transoxiana (Arabic: Ma wara' al-nahr) had been conquered by the Muslims under Qutayba ibn Muslim in the reign of Al-Walid I (r. 705–715), following the Muslim conquest of Persia and of Khurasan in the mid-7th century. The loyalties of its native Iranian and Turkic inhabitants and autonomous local rulers however remained volatile, and in 719, they sent a petition to the Chinese and their Turgesh vassals for military aid against the Muslims. In response, Turgesh attacks began in 720, and the native Sogdians launched uprisings against the Caliphate. These were suppressed with great brutality by the governor of Khurasan, Sa'id ibn Amr al-Harashi, but in 724 his successor, Muslim ibn Sa'id al-Kilabi, suffered a major disaster (the so-called "Day of Thirst") while trying to capture Ferghana. For the next few years, Umayyad forces were limited to the defensive. Efforts to placate and win the support of the local population by abolishing taxation of the native converts to Islam (mawali) were undertaken, but these were half-hearted and soon reversed, while heavy-handed Arab actions further alienated the local elites. In 728 a large-scale uprising, coupled with a Turgesh invasion, led to the abandonment of most of Transoxiana except for the region around Samarkand by the Caliphate's forces. In the hope of reversing the situation, in early 730 the Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik (r. 723–743) appointed a new governor in Khurasan, the experienced Junayd ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Murri, who had been recently engaged in the pacification of Sindh. The difficult security situation at the time is illustrated by the fact that Junayd needed an escort of 7,000 cavalry after crossing the Oxus, and that he was attacked by the Turgesh khagan while riding to link up with the army of his predecessor, Ashras al-Sulami, who was besieging Bukhara. Junayd was able to repel the attack and assume command of al-Sulami's forces. Bukhara and most of Sogdiana was recovered soon after, as the Turgesh army withdrew north towards Samarkand. The Muslim army followed, and scored a victory in a battle fought near the city. Junayd then retired with his troops to winter in Merv. During the winter, rebellions broke out south of the Oxus, in Tokharistan, which had hitherto been quiescent to Muslim rule. Junayd was forced to set out for Balkh and there dispersed 28,000 of his men to quell the revolt. This left him seriously weakened when, in early 731, the Turgesh laid siege to Samarkand and appeals for aid arrived from the city's governor, Sawra ibn al-Hurr al-Abani. Despite the opinion of the army's veteran Khurasani leaders, who counselled that he should wait to reassemble his forces and not cross the Oxus with less than 50,000 men, Junayd resolved to march immediately to Samarkand's rescue.
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