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 (modern Uzbekistan or Tajikistan) 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 Unknown

Muslim conquest of Transoxiana Campaigns of Qutayba b. Muslim (705–715) Aksu (717) Umayyad–Turgesh Wars Qasr al-Bahili (720/1) Day of Thirst (724) Baykand (729) Kamarja (729) The Defile (731) The Baggage (737) Kharistan (737) Other Revolt of al-Harith b. Surayj (734–736) Reconquests of Nasr b. Sayyar (738–741) Talas (751)

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. 
• Gibb, H. A. R. (1923). The Arab Conquests in Central Asia. London: The Royal Asiatic Society. p. 61. OCLC 499987512. 
• 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-Ṭabarī, Volume XXIV: The Empire in Transition. The Caliphates of Sulaymān, ʿUmar, and Yazīd, A.D. 715–724/A.H. 96–105. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. pp. 152ff. ISBN 0-7914-0072-7.