Factionalism and Islamisation
83
him. This he did and was led away to prison with his sons. He was to
remain in prison for about eighteen months, undergoing torture as
Yusuf b. ‘Umar attempted to extract the fruits of his long period of
office from him. This is the most celebrated example of a fate that
was common for deposed governors in the Marwanid period.
Eventually Khalid was released and made his way first to the
caliph’s court at Rusafa (Hisham choosing not to reside in
Damascus) and then to Damascus. Here he lived on for a few years
until Hisham’s successor as caliph in effect
sold him back to Yusuf
b. ‘Umar who again subjected him to torture, and Khalid died as a
consequence of it.
20
Under Yusuf b. ‘Umar, a Thaqafi like al-Hajjaj, the tables were
turned again and a period of Mudari domination of the east began. On
the northern frontier the struggle with Byzantium was renewed under
Hisham, having lapsed after the abortive attack on Constantinople in
716–17. The struggle took the form of constant raids and counter raids
along the border between the two territories, and one of the participants
on
the Arab side, known as al-Battal, became the focus of a number of
legends which were developed into something like an Arab Muslim
saga. The traffic was not all in one direction and in 740 the Arabs
suffered a serious defeat losing a large number of men, including
according to tradition, al-Battal, on the field of Akroinos,
possibly
identifiable as modern Afium Karahisar.
21
At the same time slightly
further east, on the western side of the Caspian, there was frequent
conflict with the Khazar power of the north Caucasus which threatened
the Arab possessions in Armenia, Azerbayjan and even Mesopotamia.
On this front the campaign was led at first by Hisham’s brother
Maslama, but, after a major defeat at the hands of the Khazars in 730,
the region was placed under the command of another Marwanid,
Marwan b. Muhammad b. Marwan, the future caliph. He recruited a
large army from the region and in 737 secured an important victory
which ended the Khazar threat.
22
The participation
of members of the
Umayyad family as commanders in these operations on the northern
front was important in that it helped to transform the caliphs from
civilian into military figures, like the provincial governors. Thus far,
although the caliphs had occasionally participated in campaigns before
their accession, they had remained essentially apart from military
affairs.
In the west, the best-known event of Hisham’s reign is, of course, the
Arab defeat at the hands of Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer) at
Poitiers (also known as the battle of Tours) in 732. This came to be seen
84
Factionalism and Islamisation
as the turning of the tide of the Arab advance
into Europe and inspired
Edward Gibbon to a colourful passage in which he speculated on the
possible consequences (muezzins in Oxford, Arab fleets on the Thames
and Rhine), had the battle gone the other way.
23
At the time, though, a
Berber revolt which broke out in 739 was more momentous for the
Umayyad state. Having originally thrown in their lot with the Arabs,
accepted Islam, and played a major part in the conquests in the west, the
Berbers came, nevertheless, to be subjected to some of the
disadvantages experienced by non-Arab Muslims elsewhere. Thus it is
reported that ‘Umar II found it necessary
to suppress tribute demands
which continued to be made upon the Berbers in spite of their
acceptance of Islam. Possibly ‘Umar had limited success for, under the
caliph Yazid II, the Berbers murdered the governor Yazid b. Abi Muslim
and installed a candidate of their own whom the caliph accepted. In
739, apparently again provoked by policies which denied them equality
of status with the Arabs, and inspired by the egalitarian Kharijite
teaching which had been brought from Iraq, they rose in revolt all over
North Africa. Hisham had to send Syrian forces
in an attempt to regain
control, but when they arrived in Morocco in 741 they were severely
defeated in battle on the river Sebu and the survivors had to flee to
Spain for safety. In the next year the situation was retrieved somewhat
when the governor of Egypt reestablished Umayyad authority at
Qayrawan, but the tensions between Arabs and Berbers remained.
24
But it was in the east, in the lands east of Khurasan, that the major
military problems of Hisham’s caliphate occurred, so much so that it is
reported that when he was brought news of
a victory he was unable to
believe it, so used was he to receiving tidings of defeat. The area in
question consisted of two territories: to the south and centring on Balkh,
the province of Tukharistan (ancient Bactria); to the north Transoxania
(in Arabic
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
