Editing Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (section)

====From 8th century====

Qutayba b. Muslim, the conqueror of Transoxiana, called Sijistan an "ill-omened front",<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pNGq6sU-xbgC&pg=PA129|title=The End of the Jihad State: The Reign of Hisham Ibn 'Abd al-Malik and the Collapse of the Umayyads|author=Khalid Yahya Blankinship|year=1994|publisher=SUNY Press|page=129|isbn=9780791418284}}</ref> and forced the Zunbils to pay tribute.<ref name="JLL167"/> [[Khalid al-Qasri]] in Iraq appointed Yazid b. al Ghurayf al-Hamdani as Sistan's governor, a Syrian from [[Jund al-Urdunn]], in 725. Yazid resumed the campaign by sending an army under the command of Balal b. Abi Kabsha. They however did not obtain anything from the Zunbils.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zjP0i6FSfLwC&pg=PA130|title=The End of the Jihad State: The Reign of Hisham Ibn 'Abd al-Malik and the Collapse of the Umayyads|publisher=[[SUNY Press]]|page=130|author=Khalid Yahya Blankinship|date=28 June 1994 |isbn=9780791496831}}</ref>

The new governor of Sistan, al-Asfah b. 'Abd Allah al-Kalbi, a [[Syrian]], embarked on an ambitious policy of campaigning against the Zunbils. The first one was carried out in 726. During the second one in late 727–728, he was warned by the Sijistanis who were with him to not campaign in winter, especially in the mountain defiles. Per [[Ya'qubi]], his army was completely annihilated by the Zunbils. Per ''Tarikh al-Sistani'', al-Asfah managed to get back to Sistan where he died. The next two governors did not undertake any campaigns. The Zunbil was unable to take advantage of the annihilation of al-Asfah's army, but the defeat was a heavy one. It would become one in a series of blows for the caliphate.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zjP0i6FSfLwC&pg=PA147|title=The End of the Jihad State: The Reign of Hisham Ibn 'Abd al-Malik and the Collapse of the Umayyads|publisher=[[SUNY Press]]|page=147|author=Khalid Yahya Blankinship|date=28 June 1994 |isbn=9780791496831}}</ref>

The Sistan front remained quiet in the latter part of Abd al-Malik's reign except perhaps the Kharjite activity, with long tenures and blank records of 'Abd Allah b. Abi Baruda and Ibrahim b. 'Asim al-'Uqayli suggesting that the instability in the region had been controlled to an extent. It appears this was only possible because no more campaigns were undertaken against the Zunbils.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zjP0i6FSfLwC&pg=PA186|title=The End of the Jihad State: The Reign of Hisham Ibn 'Abd al-Malik and the Collapse of the Umayyads|publisher=[[SUNY Press]]|pages=185–186|author=Khalid Yahya Blankinship|date=January 1994 |isbn=9780791496831}}</ref>

[[Al-Mansur]] sent Ma'n b. Zaida ash-Shabani to Sistan in response to the disturbances there. Ma'n along with his nephew Yazid b. Ziyad undertook an expedition against the Zunbil for making him obedient and restoring the tribute not paid since the time of al-Hajjaj. It is especially well-documented by al-Baladhuri. He ordered the Zunbil to pay the tribute and was offered camels, Turkish tents and slaves, but this did not placate him.<ref name=Bosworth82>{{cite book|title=Sīstān Under the Arabs: From the Islamic Conquest to the Rise of the Ṣaffārids (30-250/651-864)|publisher=Indiana University|author=Clifford Edmund Bosworth|pages=82–83|author-link=Clifford Edmund Bosworth}}</ref> Per al-Baldahuri, under the reign of al-Mansur, Hisham b. 'Amr al-Taghlibi after conquering Kandahar, destroyed its idol-temple and built a mosque in its place.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Israel Oriental Studies|volume=2|title= A note on early Muslim attitudes to idolatry|publisher=Faculty of Humanities, [[Tel Aviv University]]|author=Yohanan Friedmann|page=177|year=1972|author-link=Yohanan Friedmann}}</ref>

Ma'n and Yazid advanced into Zamindawar but the Zunbil had fled to Zabulistan. They nonetheless pursued and defeated him, taking 30,000 as captives, including Faraj al-Rukhkhaji, who would later become a secretary of the department of private estates of the Caliph under [[al-Ma'mun]]. Zunbil's deputy Mawand (who is recorded as his son-in-law Mawld in ''Tarikh-e-Sistan'') offered submission, which was requested, and was sent with 5,000 of their soldiers to [[Baghdad]], where he was treated kindly and given pensions along with his chieftains per Baladhuri.<ref name=Majumdar1>{{cite book|title=Readings in Political History of India, Ancient, Mediaeval, and Modern|publisher=B.R. Publishing Corporation|author=Ramesh Chandra Majumdar|page=223|author-link=Ramesh Chandra Majumdar}}</ref><ref name=Bosworth82/>

The tribute was paid by the Zunbils to ''amils'' of caliphs [[al-Mahdi]] and [[Harun al-Rashid|ar-Rashid]], though rather irregularly.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress|volume=59|title=Sistan's transition to Islam in historical perspective|page=917|publisher=[[Indian History Congress]]|first=Hamiddulah|last=Marazi}}</ref> When the Caliph [[Al-Ma'mun]] (r. 813–833 AD) visited Khorasan, he was paid double the tribute by Rutbil, but was evidently left unmolested and the Arabs later subdued Kabul.<ref name=Majumdar1/>