Battle of Baykand

Battle of Baykand
Part of the Umayyad-Turgesh Wars and the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana
Map of Khurasan and Transoxiana in the 8th century
Date 729 CE Location Baykand and Bukhara Result Narrow Arab victory
Belligerents
Umayyad Caliphate	Turgesh Khaganate and Transoxianian allies
Commanders and leaders
Ashras ibn Abdallah al-Sulami Qatan ibn Qutayba	Suluk

The Battle of Baykand was fought in 729 between the between the Turkic Turgesh khaganate and its Sogdian allies and the Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate at Baykand, a town near Bukhara in Transoxiana. The Arab army, under the governor of Khurasan Ashras ibn Abdallah al-Sulami, campaigned across the Oxus River to suppress a large-scale rebellion of the subject Sogdian princes, that had broken out the previous year and received Turgesh support. As the Arab army advanced on Bukhara, it was encircled by the Turgesh and cut off from water. A series of engagements followed that almost ended in a disaster for the Arabs like the "Day of Thirst" five years earlier, but in the end, through the inspirational bravery of a few Arab leaders and the actions of the vanguard under Qatan ibn Qutayba, the Arabs broke through and reached Bukhara, which they laid siege to.

Sources

• Al-Tabari (1989). "The History of Al-Tabari, Vol. XXV, The End of Expansion: The Caliphate of Hisham A.D. 724–738/A.H. 105–120". Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. pp. 51–54. ISBN 0-88706-569-4. 
• Blankinship, Khalid Yahya (1994). "The end of the jihâd state: the reign of Hishām ibn ʻAbd al-Malik and the collapse of the Umayyads". State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-1827-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=Jz0Yy053WS4C. 
• Gibb, H. A. R. (1923). "The Arab Conquests in Central Asia". The Royal Asiatic Society. http://www.archive.org/details/arabconquestsinc00gibbuoft.