The Battle of the Defile (731)

In 731 the Türgesh khagan Suluk besieged Samarkand. The city's Arab commander, Sawra ibn al-Hurr, asked the new governor of Khorasan, Junayd ibn Abd al-Rahman, for help, and Junayd set out from Kesh towards Samarkand with about 28,000 men.

In July, as the army entered the Takhtakaracha pass between the two cities, the Türgesh attacked. The fighting lasted three days. Junayd's army reached Samarkand with heavy losses, while Sawra's force of 12,000, sent to strike the Türgesh from behind, was almost wiped out.

The historian al-Tabari left one of the most detailed accounts of any battle of the Umayyad era. The Arabs kept Samarkand, but their losses halted their advance in Central Asia for a decade, and the troops brought from Iraq to Khorasan later helped weaken Umayyad rule from within.