Relief of Qasr al-Bahili

Relief of Qasr al-Bahili
Part of the Umayyad-Turgesh Wars and the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana
Map of Khurasan and Transoxiana in the 8th century
Date 720/721 CE Location Unknown location, near Samarkand Result Arab victory; successful evacuation of Qasr al-Bahili
Belligerents
Umayyad Caliphate	Turgesh Khaganate
Commanders and leaders
Sa'id al-Khudhayna al-Musayyab al-Riyahi	Kursul
Strength
100 families in the fort, ca. 1000 men in the relief force

The Relief of Qasr al-Bahili was the successful relief of the small fortress of Qasr al-Bahili and its Arab garrison from the siege by the Turkic Turgesh Khaganate. Sent by the Umayyad governor of Khurasan, an Arab relief force under al-Musayyab ibn Bishr al-Riyahi managed to break the siege and escort the garrison to safety in Samarkand. Although celebrated in the Arabic sources, this exploit also marked the beginning of the Turgesh invasion of Transoxiana, which the Arabs had only recently subdued, and which became a battleground between the two empires until 737.

Sources

• Blankinship, Khalid Yahya (1994). The End of the Jihâd State: The Reign of Hishām ibn ʻAbd al-Malik and the Collapse of the Umayyads. Albany, NY: 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. London: The Royal Asiatic Society. p. 61. OCLC 499987512. http://www.archive.org/details/arabconquestsinc00gibbuoft. 
• Kennedy, Hugh N. (2007). The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In. Philadelphia, PA: Da Capo Press. pp. 278–279. ISBN 978-0-306-81740-3. 
• Powers, David Stephan, ed (1989). The History of Al-Tabari, Vol. XXIV, The Empire in Transition: The Caliphates of Sulayman, 'Umar, & Yazid, A.D. 715–724/A.H. 96–105. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. pp. 152ff.. ISBN 0-7914-0072-7.