dern Khiva),
even Kabul and Kandahar had been subdued; but in the time of the civil
war a great deal had been lost again. Now at last the task of recovering
the lost districts could be resumed. When, in 697, Hajjaj gave the
government of Khorasan to Mohallab, he committed that of Sijistan
(Seistan) to Obaidallah b. Abi Bakra, a cousin of Ziyad. This prefect
allowed himself to be enticed by Zanbil, prince of Zabulistan, to
penetrate into the country far from his base, and escaped narrowly, not
without severe losses. The command over Sijistan was now given to
Abdarrahman b. Ash'ath, a descendant of the old royal family of Kinda,
and a numerous army was entrusted to him, so magnificently equipped that
it was called "the peacock army." Not long after his arrival in
Sijistan, Ibn Ash'ath, exasperated by the masterful tone of Hajjaj, the
plebeian, towards himself, the high-born, decided to revolt. The
soldiers of Irak, who did not love the governor, and disliked the
prospect of a long and difficult war far from home, eagerly accepted the
proposition of returning to Irak, and even proclaimed the dethronement
of Abdalmalik, in favour of Ibn Ash'ath. The new pretender entered Fars
and Ahwaz (Susiana), and it was in this last province near Tostar
(Shuster) that Hajjaj came up with him, after receiving from Syria the
reinforcements which he had demanded in all haste from the caliph. Ibn
Ash'ath drove him back to Basra, entered the city, and then turned his
arms against Kufa, of which he took possession with aid from within.
Hajjaj, afraid lest his communications with Syria should be cut off,
pitched his camp at Dair Qorra, eighteen miles west from Kufa towards
the desert, where Mahommed, the brother of the caliph, and Abdallah, his
son, brought him fresh troops. Ibn Ash'ath encamped not far from him at
Dair al-Jamajim with a far more numerous army. In great alarm Abdalmalik
endeavoured to stifle the revolt by offering to dismiss Hajjaj from his
post. The insurgents rejected this offer, and hostilities recommenced.
At the end of three months and a half, in July 702, a decisive action
took place. Victory declared for Hajjaj. Ibn Ash'ath fled to Basra,
where he managed to collect fresh troops; but having been again beaten
in a furious battle that took place at Maskin near the Dojail, he took
refuge at Ahwaz, from which he was soon driven by the troops of Hajjaj
under 'Omara b. Tamim. The rebel then retired to Sijistan, and
afterwards