Kutayba's Fall and Death

The realm of Arabic literature contains no more vivid picture of contemporary life and manners than that given us by Tabari in his account of Kutayba’s fall. ¹ Many circumstances conspired to effect his ruin. The unbounded arrogance arising from uniform success, and the many acts of perfidy of which he was guilty, had weakened the attachment of his followers, which was based rather on greed for booty than devotion to a cause. His friend and constant patron Hajjāj had died in a.d. 94. The new Caliph, Sulaymān, had never forgotten that Kutayba had supported his predecessor Welīd in an attempt to exclude him from the succession ; and his principal adviser was Yezīd ibn Muhallab, whom Kutayba had ousted from the government of Khorāsān. But tribal hatred was the most telling factor in Kutayba’s fall. It raged with intense fury among the Arabs during the Caliphate, and was at the root of every revolution of that stirring period.