6 - The Coming of Islam to Bukhara

Summary

The Muslim invasions of Iran and Turkistan in the seventh century have been discussed several times in the modern literature (Gibb 1923; Bartold 1968; Daniel 1979; Kennedy 2007). The purpose of this chapter is to attempt to penetrate beyond the political narrative to examine the impact of the Muslim conquest on the topography and social structure of the city. It will consider the geography of Muslim occupation and settlement, the reactions of the local people to the invaders and the impact of the coming of Islam on the topography and built environment of the city.

The course of the military campaigns by which the Arabs achieved control over Bukhara and the rest of Soghdia is fairly well established. Although the Muslims had raided Transoxania from their base at Merv as early as the governorate of Salim b. Ziyad (681–3), they made no permanent conquests until the time of Qutayba b. Muslim (705–15). The exact chronology of the conquest is not clear and it seems as if Qutayba made a number of expeditions to the Bukhara oasis. In 710, he arrived and installed the young Tughshada as Bukhara Khudah, lord of Bukhara, the title held by the kings of the local dynasty. Each time the Muslim armies came to the city, the people made peace and agreed to accept Islamic rule but when the Arab troops left in the winter they reverted to their old ways.