Tarikh (al-Tabari) 2519
The Year 110 of the Prophetic Hijrah
وَقْعَةِ كَمَرْجَهْ ثُمَّ إِنَّ خَاقَانَ حَصَرَ كَمَرْجَهْ، وَهِيَ مِنْ أَعْظَمِ بُلْدَانِ خُرَاسَانَ، وَبِهَا جَمْعٌ مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ، وَمَعَ خَاقَانَ أَهْلُ فَرْغَانَةَ وَأَفْشِينَةَ وَنَسَفَ وَطَوَائِفُ مِنْ أَهْلِ بُخَارَى، فَأَغْلَقَ الْمُسْلِمُونَ الْبَابَ، وَقَطَعُوا الْقَنْطَرَةَ الَّتِي عَلَى الْخَنْدَقِ. فَأَتَاهُمُ ابْنُ خِسْرُو بْنِ يَزْدِجَرْدَ، فَقَالَ: يَا مَعْشَرَ الْعَرَبِ لِمَ تَقْتُلُونَ أَنْفُسَكُمْ ؟ أَنَا الَّذِي جِئْتُ بِخَاقَانَ لِيَرُدَّ عَلَيَّ مَمْلَكَتِي، وَأَنَا آخِذٌ لَكُمُ الْأَمَانَ. فَشَتَمُوهُ. وَأَتَاهُمْ بَازَغْرَى فِي مِائَتَيْنِ، وَكَانَ دَاهِيَةً، وَكَانَ خَاقَانُ لَا يُخَالِفُهُ، فَدَنَا مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ بِأَمَانٍ، وَقَالَ: لِيَنْزِلَ إِلَيَّ رَجُلٌ مِنْكُمْ أُكَلِّمُهُ بِمَا أَرْسَلَنِي بِهِ خَاقَانُ. فَأَحْدَرُوا يَزِيدَ بْنَ سَعِيدٍ الْبَاهِلِيَّ، وَكَانَ يَفْهَمُ بِالتُّرْكِيَّةِ يَسِيرًا، فَقَالَ لَهُ: إِنَّ خَاقَانَ أَرْسَلَنِي، وَهُوَ يَقُولُ إِنِّي أَجْعَلُ مَنْ عَطَاؤُهُ مِنْكُمْ سِتُّمِائَةٍ أَلْفًا، وَمِنْ عَطَاؤُهُ ثَلَاثُمِائَةٍ سِتَّمِائَةٍ، وَهُوَ يُحْسِنُ إِلَيْكُمْ. فَقَالَ [ لَهُ ] يَزِيدُ: كَيْفَ تَكُونُ الْعَرَبُ وَهُمْ ذِئَابٌ مَعَ التُّرْكِ وَهُمْ شَاءٌ ! لَا يَكُونُ بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَهُمْ صُلْحٌ. فَغَضِبَ بَازَغْرَى، وَكَانَ مَعَهُ تُرْكِيَّانِ، فَقَالَا: أَلَا تَضْرِبُ عُنُقَهُ ؟ فَقَالَ: إِنَّهُ نَزَلَ بِأَمَانٍ. وَفَهِمَ يَزِيدُ مَا قَالَا، فَخَافَ، فَقَالَ: بَلَى إِنَّمَا تَجْعَلُونَنَا نِصْفَيْنِ، فَيَكُونُ نَصْفُنَا مَعَ أَثْقَالِنَا، وَيَسِيرُ النِّصْفُ مَعَكُمْ، فَإِنْ ظَفِرْتُمْ فَنَحْنُ مَعَكُمْ، وَإِنْ كَانَ غَيْرُ ذَلِكَ كُنَّا كَسَائِرِ مَدَائِنِ الصُّغْدِ. فَرَضُوا بِذَلِكَ، وَقَالَ: أَعْرِضُ عَلَى أَصْحَابِي هَذَا. وَصَعِدَ فِي الْحَبْلِ، فَلَمَّا صَارَ عَلَى السُّورِ نَادَى: يَا أَهْلَ كَمْرَجَهْ، اجْتَمِعُوا، فَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ قَوْمٌ يَدْعُونَكُمْ إِلَى الْكُفْرِ بَعْدَ الْإِيمَانِ، فَمَا تَرَوْنَ ؟ قَالُوا: لَا نُجِيبُ وَلَا نَرْضَى. قَالَ: يَدْعُونَكُمْ إِلَى قِتَالِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ مَعَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ. قَالُوا: نَمُوتُ قَبْلَ ذَلِكَ. فَرُدَّ بَازَغْرَى. ثُمَّ أَمَرَ خَاقَانُ بِقَطْعِ الْخَنْدَقِ، فَجَعَلُوا يُلْقُونَ الْحَطَبَ الرَّطْبَ، وَيُلْقِي الْمُسْلِمُونَ الْحَطَبَ الْيَابِسَ، حَتَّى سُوِّيَ الْخَنْدَقُ، فَأَشْعَلُوا فِيهِ النِّيرَانَ، وَهَاجَتْ رِيحٌ شَدِيدَةٌ صُنْعًا مِنَ اللَّهِ، فَاحْتَرَقَ الْحَطَبُ، وَكَانُوا جَمَعُوهُ فِي سَبْعَةِ أَيَّامٍ، فِي سَاعَةٍ وَاحِدَةٍ. ثُمَّ فَرَّقَ خَاقَانُ عَلَى التُّرْكِ أَغْنَامًا، وَأَمَرَهُمْ أَنْ يَأْكُلُوا لَحْمَهَا، وَيَحْشُوا جُلُودَهَا تُرَابًا، وَيَكْبِسُوا خَنْدَقَهَا، فَفَعَلُوا ذَلِكَ، فَأَرْسَلَ اللَّهُ سَحَابَةً فَمَطَرَتْ مَطَرًا شَدِيدًا، فَاحْتَمَلَ السَّيْلُ مَا فِي الْخَنْدَقِ، وَأَلْقَاهُ فِي النَّهْرِ الْأَعْظَمِ. وَرَمَاهُمُ الْمُسْلِمُونَ بِالسِّهَامِ، فَأَصَابَتْ بَازَغْرَى نُشَّابَةٌ فِي سُرَّتِهِ فَمَاتَ مِنْ لَيْلَتِهِ، فَدَخَلَ عَلَيْهِمْ بِمَوْتِهِ أَمْرٌ عَظِيمٌ. فَلَمَّا امْتَدَّ النَّهَارُ جَاءُوا بِالْأَسْرَى الَّتِي عِنْدَهُمْ، وَهُمْ مِائَةٌ، فِيهِمْ أَبُو الْعَوْجَاءِ الْعَتَكِيُّ، وَالْحَجَّاجُ بْنُ حُمَيْدٍ النَّضْرِيُّ، فَقَتَلُوهُمْ وَرَمَوْا بِرَأْسِ الْحَجَّاجِ، وَكَانَ عِنْدَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ مِائَتَانِ مِنْ أَوْلَادِ الْمُشْرِكِينَ رَهَائِنَ، فَقَتَلُوهُمْ وَاسْتَمَاتُوا، وَاشْتَدَّ الْقِتَالُ. وَلَمْ يَزَلْ أَهْلُ كَمَرْجَهْ كَذَلِكَ حَتَّى أَقْبَلَتْ جُنُودُ الْعَرَبِ فَنَزَلَتْ فَرْغَانَةَ، فَعَيَّرَ خَاقَانُ أَهْلَ الصُّغْدِ، وَفَرْغَانَةَ، وَالشَّاشِ، وَالدَّهَاقِينَ، وَقَالَ: زَعَمْتُمْ أَنَّ فِي هَذِهِ خَمْسِينَ حِمَارًا، وَأَنَّا نَفْتَحُهَا فِي خَمْسَةِ أَيَّامٍ، فَصَارَتِ الْخَمْسَةُ شَهْرَيْنِ. وَأَمَرَهُمْ بِالرَّحِيلِ وَشَتَمَهُمْ، فَقَالُوا: مَا نَدَعُ جُهْدًا، فَأَحْضِرْنَا غَدًا، وَانْظُرْ مَا نَصْنَعُ. فَلَمَّا كَانَ الْغَدُ وَقَفَ خَاقَانُ، وَتَقَدَّمَ الطَّارْبَنْدُ، فَقَاتَلَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ، فَقَتَلَ مِنْهُمْ ثَمَانِيَةً، وَجَاءَ حَتَّى وَقَفَ عَلَى ثُلْمَةٍ إِلَى جَنْبِ بَيْتٍ فِيهِ مَرِيضٌ مِنْ تَمِيمٍ، فَرَمَاهُ التَّمِيمِيُّ بِكَلُّوبٍ، فَتَعَلَّقَ بِدِرْعِهِ، ثُمَّ نَادَى النِّسَاءَ وَالصِّبْيَانَ، فَجَذَبُوهُ فَسَقَطَ لِوَجْهِهِ، وَرَمَاهُ رَجُلٌ بِحَجَرٍ، فَأَصَابَ أَصْلَ أُذُنِهِ، فَصُرِعَ، وَطَعَنَهُ آخَرُ، فَقَتَلَهُ، فَاشْتَدَّ قَتْلُهُ عَلَى التُّرْكِ. وَأَرْسَلَ خَاقَانُ إِلَى الْمُسْلِمِينَ: إِنَّهُ لَيْسَ مِنْ رَأْيِنَا أَنْ نَرْتَحِلَ عَنْ مَدِينَةٍ نُحَاصِرُهَا دُونَ افْتِتَاحِهَا، أَوْ تَرَحُّلِهِمْ عَنْهَا. فَقَالُوا لَهُ: لَيْسَ مِنْ دِينِنَا أَنْ نُعْطِيَ بِأَيْدِينَا حَتَّى نُقْتَلَ، فَاصْنَعُوا مَا بَدَا لَكُمْ. فَأَعْطَاهُمُ التُّرْكُ الْأَمَانَ أَنْ يَرْحَلَ خَاقَانُ عَنْهُمْ وَيَرْحَلُوا هُمْ ( عَنْهَا إِلَى سَمَرْقَنْدَ أَوِ الدَّبُّوسِيَّةَ، فَرَأَى أَهْلُ كَمَرْجَهْ مَا هُمْ فِيهِ مِنَ الْحِصَارِ، فَأَجَابُوا إِلَى ذَلِكَ، فَأَخَذُوا مِنَ التُّرْكِ رَهَائِنَ أَنْ لَا يَعْرِضُوا لَهُمْ، وَطَلَبُوا أَنَّ كُورُصُولَ التُّرْكِيَّ يَكُونُ مَعَهُمْ فِي جَمَاعَةٍ ) لِيَمْنَعَهُمْ إِلَى الدَّبُّوسِيَّةِ، فَسَلَّمُوا إِلَيْهِمُ الرَّهَائِنَ وَأَخَذُوا أَيْضًا هُمْ مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ رَهَائِنَ، وَارْتَحَلَ خَاقَانُ عَنْهُمْ، ثُمَّ رَحَلُوا هُمْ بَعْدَهُ، فَقَالَ الْأَتْرَاكُ الَّذِينَ مَعَ كُورُصُولَ: إِنَّ بِالدَّبُّوسِيَّةِ عَشْرَةَ آلَافِ مُقَاتِلٍ، وَلَا نَأْمَنُ أَنْ يَخْرُجُوا عَلَيْنَا. فَقَالَ لَهُمُ الْمُسْلِمُونَ: إِنْ قَاتَلُوكُمْ قَاتَلْنَاهُمْ مَعَكُمْ. فَسَارُوا، فَلَمَّا صَارَ بَيْنَهُمْ وَبَيْنَ الدَّبُّوسِيَّةِ فَرْسَخٌ نَظَرَ أَهْلُهَا إِلَى الْفُرْسَانِ فَظَنُّوا أَنَّ كَمَرْجَهْ فُتِحَتْ، وَأَنَّ خَاقَانَ قَدْ قَصَدَهُمْ، فَتَأَهَّبُوا لِلْحَرْبِ، فَأَرْسَلَ الْمُسْلِمُونَ إِلَيْهِمْ يُخْبِرُونَهُمْ خَبَرَهُمْ، فَالْتَقَوْهُمْ وَحَمَلُوا مَنْ كَانَ يَضْعُفُ عَنِ الْمَشْيِ وَمَنْ كَانَ مَجْرُوحًا. فَلَمَّا بَلَغَ الْمُسْلِمُونَ الدَّبُّوسِيَّةَ أَرْسَلُوا إِلَى مَنْ عِنْدَهُ الرَّهَائِنُ يُعْلِمُونَهُ بِوُصُولِهِمْ، وَيَأْمُرُونَهُ بِإِطْلَاقِهِمْ، فَجَعَلَتِ الْعَرَبُ تُطْلِقُ رَجُلًا مِنَ الرَّهْنِ وَالتُّرْكُ رَجُلًا، حَتَّى بَقِيَ سِبَاعُ بْنُ النُّعْمَانِ مَعَ التُّرْكِ، وَرَجُلٌ مِنَ التُّرْكِ عِنْدَ الْعَرَبِ، وَجَعَلَ كُلُّ فَرِيقٍ يَخَافُ مِنْ صَاحِبِهِ الْغَدْرَ، فَقَالَ سِبَاعٌ: خَلُّوا رَهِينَةَ التُّرْكِ، فَخَلَّوْهُ، وَبَقِيَ سِبَاعٌ مَعَ التُّرْكِ، فَقَالَ لَهُ كُورْصُولُ: مَا حَمَلَكَ عَلَى هَذَا ؟ قَالَ: وَثِقْتُ بِكَ وَقُلْتُ: تَرْفَعُ نَفْسَكَ عَنِ الْغَدْرِ، فَوَصَلَهُ كُورْصُولُ وَأَعْطَاهُ سِلَاحَهُ وَبِرْذَوْنًا وَأَطْلَقَهُ. وَكَانَتْ مُدَّةُ حِصَارِ كَمَرْجَهْ ثَمَانِيَةً وَخَمْسِينَ يَوْمًا، فَيُقَالُ: إِنَّهُمْ لَمْ يَسْقُوا إِبِلَهُمْ خَمْسَةً وَثَلَاثِينَ يَوْمًا.
Translation
✧ The Battle of Kamarjah Then Khāqān besieged Kamarjah, and it is one of the greatest lands of Khurāsān, and in it was a group of Muslims, and with Khāqān were the people of Farghānah, Afshīnah, Nasaf, and groups from the people of Bukhārā. The Muslims closed the gate and cut the bridge that was over the trench. Ibn Khisraw b. Yazdajird came to them and said: "O assembly of Arabs, why do you kill yourselves? I am the one who brought Khāqān to restore my kingdom to me, and I will secure safety for you." They insulted him. Bāzaghrā came to them with two hundred, and he was a shrewd man, and Khāqān did not oppose him. He drew near to the Muslims with a pledge of safety and said: "Let a man from among you come down to me so that I may tell him what Khāqān sent me with." They lowered Yazīd b. Saʿīd al-Bāhilī, and he understood a little Turkic. He said to him: "Khāqān sent me, and he says: I will make those of you whose stipend is six hundred thousand, and those whose stipend is three hundred, six hundred, and he will treat you well." Yazīd said to him: "How can the Arabs, who are wolves, be with the Turks, who are sheep? There will be no peace between us and them." Bāzaghrā became angry, and with him were two Turks, and they said: "Will you not strike his neck?" He said: "He came down under a pledge of safety." Yazīd understood what they said and became afraid, so he said: "Yes, but you would make us into two halves: half of us would stay with our baggage, and the other half would march with you. If you prevail, then we are with you; and if it is otherwise, we would be like the rest of the cities of Soghd." They were satisfied with that, and he said: "I will present this to my companions." He climbed up the rope, and when he was on the wall, he called out: "O people of Kamarjah, gather together, for people have come to you calling you to disbelief after faith. What do you think?" They said: "We will not answer and we will not be pleased." He said: "They call you to fight the Muslims alongside the polytheists." They said: "We will die before that." So Bāzaghrā was sent back. Then Khāqān ordered the cutting of the trench, and they began to throw wet firewood, and the Muslims threw dry firewood, until the trench was leveled. Then they set fires in it, and a strong wind blew, a making from God, and the firewood burned, which they had gathered in seven days, in a single hour. Then Khāqān distributed sheep to the Turks, and ordered them to eat their meat and stuff their skins with earth and fill up their trench with them. They did that, and God sent a cloud that rained heavily, and the flood carried away what was in the trench and cast it into the great river. The Muslims shot arrows at them, and an arrow struck Bāzaghrā in his navel, and he died that night, and his death caused a great matter to enter upon them. When the day stretched out, they brought the captives they had, and they were one hundred, among them Abū al-ʿAwjāʾ al-ʿAtakī and al-Ḥajjāj b. Ḥumayd al-Naḍrī, and they killed them and threw the head of al-Ḥajjāj. The Muslims had two hundred children of the polytheists as hostages, and they killed them and sought death, and the fighting intensified. The people of Kamarjah remained thus until the armies of the Arabs approached and encamped at Farghānah. Khāqān reproached the people of Soghd, Farghānah, al-Shāsh, and the dihqāns, and said: "You claimed that in this there were fifty donkeys, and that we would open it in five days, but the five became two months." He ordered them to depart and insulted them. They said: "We will not leave any effort. Present us tomorrow and see what we do." When it was the next day, Khāqān stood, and al-Ṭārband advanced and fought the Muslims, and killed eight of them. He came until he stood at a breach beside a house in which there was a sick man from Tamīm, and the Tamīmī threw a hook at him, and it caught his coat of mail. Then he called the women and children, and they pulled him, and he fell on his face. A man threw a stone at him, and it struck the base of his ear, and he was knocked down, and another stabbed him and killed him. His death was severe upon the Turks. Khāqān sent to the Muslims: "It is not our opinion to depart from a city we are besieging without opening it or their departing from it." They said to him: "It is not of our religion to give ourselves up until we are killed, so do what seems good to you." The Turks gave them a pledge of safety that Khāqān would depart from them and they would depart from it to Samarqand or al-Dabbūsiyyah. The people of Kamarjah saw what they were in of siege, so they agreed to that. They took hostages from the Turks that they would not oppose them, and they requested that Kūrṣūl the Turk be with them in a group to protect them to al-Dabbūsiyyah. They handed over the hostages to them, and they also took hostages from the Muslims, and Khāqān departed from them, then they departed after him. The Turks who were with Kūrṣūl said: "In al-Dabbūsiyyah there are ten thousand fighters, and we do not feel safe that they will come out against us." The Muslims said to them: "If they fight you, we will fight them with you." They marched, and when there was between them and al-Dabbūsiyyah a farsakh, its people looked at the horsemen and thought that Kamarjah had been opened and that Khāqān had aimed for them, so they prepared for war. The Muslims sent to them to inform them of their situation, and they met them and carried those who were too weak to walk and those who were wounded. When the Muslims reached al-Dabbūsiyyah, they sent to the one who had the hostages, informing him of their arrival and ordering him to release them. The Arabs began to release a man from the hostages and the Turks a man, until Sibāʿ b. al-Nuʿmān remained with the Turks, and a man from the Turks with the Arabs. Each party began to fear treachery from its companion. Sibāʿ said: "Release the Turkish hostage." They released him, and Sibāʿ remained with the Turks. Kūrṣūl said to him: "What made you do this?" He said: "I trusted you, and I said: You would raise yourself above treachery." Kūrṣūl rewarded him and gave him his weapons and a horse and released him. The duration of the siege of Kamarjah was fifty-eight days. It is said that they did not water their camels for thirty-five days.
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