Battle of the Baggage

The Battle of the Baggage was fought between the forces of the Umayyad Caliphate and the Turkic Turgesh tribes in September/October 737 CE. The Umayyads under the governor of Khurasan, Asad ibn Abdallah al-Qasri, had invaded the principality of Khuttal in Transoxiana, and the local ruler called upon the Turgesh for aid. The Umayyad army retreated in haste before the Turgesh arrived, managing to cross the Oxus river just in time, while their rearguard engaged the pursuing Turgesh. The Turgesh crossed immediately after, and attacked the exposed Muslim baggage train, which had been sent ahead, and captured it. The main Umayyad army came to the rescue of the baggage train's garrison, which suffered heavy casualties. The failure of the Umayyad campaign meant the complete collapse of the Arab control in the Upper Oxus valley, and opened Khurasan itself to the Turgesh.

Background
The region of Transoxiana (Arabic: Ma wara' al-nahr) had been conquered by the Muslims under Qutayba ibn Muslim in the reign of Al-Walid I (r. 705–715), following the Muslim conquest of Persia and of Khurasan in the mid-7th century. The loyalties of its native Iranian and Turkic inhabitants and autonomous local rulers remained volatile, and in 719, they sent a petition to the Chinese and their Turgesh vassals for military aid against the Muslims. In response, Turgesh attacks began in 720, and the native Sogdians launched uprisings against the Caliphate. These were suppressed with great brutality by the governor of Khurasan, Sa'id ibn Amr al-Harashi, and in 724 his successor, Muslim ibn Sa'id al-Kilabi, suffered a major disaster while trying to capture Ferghana (the so-called "Day of Thirst"). Half-hearted efforts to placate the local population and win their support were soon reversed, and heavy-handed Arab actions further alienated the local elites. In 728, a large-scale Transoxianan uprising, coupled with a Turgesh invasion, led to the Caliphate's forces' abandonment of most of Transoxiana except for the region around Samarkand.

The Muslims suffered another major defeat in the Battle of the Defile in 731, in which they lost some 20,000–30,000 men. The loss of a major portion of the native Khurasani Arab army necessitated the transfer of new troops from Iraq. In the years after the Defile, Samarkand too was lost and the Sogdians under Ghurak regained their independence, while Muslim military activity north of the Oxus was severely curtailed: what little campaigning is mentioned in the contemporary sources before 735 concerns operations to maintain the allegiance of the principalities of Tokharistan in the upper Oxus valley. In addition, the Umayyad authorities were preoccupied by the rebellion of al-Harith ibn Surayj, which broke out in early 734, spread quickly and gathered the support of a large portion of the indigenous Iranian population. At one point, the rebel army even threatened the provincial capital, Marw. Only the arrival of the experienced Asad ibn Abdallah al-Qasri, who had already served as governor of Khurasan in 725–727 and now brought with him twenty thousand veteran and loyal Syrian troops, managed to reverse the tide and suppress Harith's revolt, although the rebel leader himself managed to escape to Badakhshan. During the year 736, Asad devoted himself to administrative matters in his province, the most important of which was the rebuilding of Balkh, to which he transferred his seat. In the meantime, Asad sent Junayd al-Kirmani against the remnants of Harith's followers, whom Junayd succeeded in evicting from their strongholds in Upper Tokharistan and Badakhshan.

Battle
In 737, Asad launched a campaign into the principality of Khuttal, whose rulers had supported the Turgesh and Harith's rebellion. Asad was initially successful, but the Khuttalan regent, Ibn al-Sa'iji, called upon the Turgesh for aid. Within 17 days, the Turgesh khagan Sulu had descended with his army, allegedly 50,000 strong, from his capital Tokmok into Khuttal, while the Muslim army was scattered ravaging the principality. Ibn al-Sa'iji, who tried to play both sides off against each other, informed Asad of the Turgesh expedition only shortly before its arrival. Asad had time enough to send his baggage train, laden with the plunder from Khuttal, back south under the command of Ibrahim ibn Asim, and with the troops from the allied principality of Chaghaniyan; the arrival of the Turgesh host, however, provoked a headlong flight of the main Muslim army, which managed to reach the Oxus just ahead of the Turgesh. The crossing was a confused affair, as Asad ordered his soldiers to carry the sheep the army brought with it as provisions across. In the end, the sheep had to be abandoned as the Turgesh attacked the Arab rearguard left on the north bank, and Asad's army hurried to cross the river in panic.

Once south of the river, Asad, believing himself to be safe from pursuit, ordered his men to set up camp and sent orders to Ibrahim to halt the baggage train and likewise set up camp. The Turgesh crossed the Oxus themselves soon after, and laid siege to the Muslim camp. During the night they departed, and rode south to overtake the Arab baggage train. The khagan dispatched a portion of his men to attack the troops of Chaghaniyan from behind, while he attacked the Muslim escort. The Turgesh attack almost annihilated the defenders: the greater part of the troops of Chaghaniyan, along with their king, the Chaghan Khudah, fell, and the Turgesh seized most of the baggage train. Only the timely arrival of Asad with the main Arab army saved the baggage train escort from destruction. According to the account of al-Tabari, the Turgesh launched another unsuccessful attack on Asad's camp the following day, 1 October 737, and then departed.

Aftermath
While the Arab army returned to its base at Balkh, the Turgesh wintered in Tokharistan, where they were joined by Harith. The campaign had been a disaster for Asad and his now mainly Syrian army; Muslim control north of the Oxus had collapsed entirely, and while the Arab governor had been able to escape complete destruction, he had suffered considerable casualties. The losses suffered by the Syrians under Asad's command in the 737 campaign in Khuttal were of particularly grave importance in the long term, as the Syrian army was the main pillar of the Umayyad regime. Its numerical decline in Khurasan meant that the Khurasan-born Arabs could no longer be completely controlled by force; this opened the way for the appointment of a native Arab governor, Nasr ibn Sayyar, to succeed Asad, and, eventually, for the outbreak of the Abbasid Revolution that toppled the Umayyad regime.

As the Arabs did not campaign during winter, Asad demobilized his men, as was customary. On Harith's urging, the Turgesh khagan decided to launch a winter attack south of the Oxus, hoping to raise the local population in revolt against the Arabs. In this he was joined not only by Harith and his followers, but by the great majority of the native princes of Sogdiana and Tokharistan. Asad mobilized his forces and managed to catch the khagan himself with a small part of his army and defeat them at Kharistan. Although both the khagan and Harith escaped capture, the Battle of Kharistan struck a blow to the khagan's prestige, and Sulu's murder by his rivals a short while afterwards saved the Muslims from worse.

Under Asad's successor, Nasr ibn Sayyar, the Muslim armies recovered most of Transoxiana, and with the Battle of Talas in 751 and the turmoils of the An Shi Rebellion, which excluded Chinese influence from Central Asia, Muslim dominance in the region was secured.