Maslama b. ʿAbd al-Malik and his nephew ʿAbbās launched military expeditions (ghazā) into the Byzantine lands. They killed many people and conquered fortresses. Some of the fortresses they captured were: Sūriyya, ʿAmūriya, Hīrakla, and Kāmu-diyya. They obtained a great amount of booty and took many captives.
Qutayba b. Muslim conducted a ghazā into the regions of Sughḍ, Nasaf, and Kash. There, he encountered many Turks, fought them, defeated them, and killed them. Then he marched against Bukhara. He faced many Turks defending Bukhara. In a place called Harkan, he fought them for two days and nights and overcame them. Nahar b. Tawsia said regarding this:
"We spent a night at Harkan on the front against them; the night we spent at Harkan was very long." Afterwards, Qutayba marched against the king of Bukhara, Vardan Khuzāhī. Vardan fought him fiercely. Qutayba could not defeat him and returned to Merv. While in Merv, a letter from Ḥajjāj reached him. In the letter, Ḥajjāj reproached him for fleeing and for retreating before the enemy. He also ordered him to send a drawing of Bukhara. Qutayba made a drawing (map) of Bukhara and sent it to Ḥajjāj. Ḥajjāj then wrote to him, commanding him to turn to Allah, to perform tawba (repentance) for his sin, and to march against Bukhara from a certain place. He instructed him to drive back Vardan Khuzāhī, to beware of treachery, and not to take crooked paths.
Al-Walīd b. ʿAbd al-Malik appointed Khālid b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Qusarī as governor of Mecca. At al-Walīd's command, he dug wells near Saniyyat Tuwa and Saniyyat Hajun. Sweet water came from the well, and people benefited from it.
Al-Wāqidī narrated from Nāfiʿ, the freedman of Banū Makhzūm, as follows:
"I heard Khālid b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Qusarī addressing the people from the pulpit of Mecca, saying: 'O people! Tell me, which of these two is superior: the deputy a man leaves in charge of his family, or the messenger he sends to them? By Allah, if you do not know the superiority of the caliph, let me tell you: Khalīl al-Raḥmān Ibrāhīm asked his Lord for water, and He gave him salty and bitter water. On the other hand, the caliph asked Allah for water, and He gave him sweet and pleasant water to drink.' Khālid meant by the salty water Zamzam, and by the sweet water, the water he had caused to be drawn at the hill of Hajun and the hill of Tuwa. The water there was sweet. This water was collected and poured into a pool next to the Zamzam well to demonstrate its superiority. However, later the well dried up and its water disappeared. Its whereabouts are now unknown."
The chain of this narration is strange. If the narrator truly said this, the statement contains kufr (disbelief). In my opinion, Khālid b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Qusarī did not say such a thing. If he did, then he is an enemy of Allah. There is a weak report that Ḥajjāj b. Yūsuf said something similar, allegedly considering the caliph superior to the Messenger (i.e., the Messenger of God, peace be upon him). All such statements indicate that their author is a kāfir (disbeliever).
In this year, Qutayba b. Muslim launched a ghazā into the Turkish lands and reached Bāb al-Abwāb near Azerbaijan. He conquered many fortresses and cities.
ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz led the people in the ḥajj (pilgrimage).
Our shaykh al-Dhahabī said: In this year, the islands of Sicily and Mallorca were conquered.
Mūsā b. Nuṣayr sent his son against the Frankish ruler Nikris. He conquered many towns.
In this year, among the prominent and famous figures, ʿAbd Allāh b. Thāliba b. Zuʾayr passed away. He was one of the tābiʿūn (successors) and a poet.
It is reported that he met the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in his lifetime, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) stroked his head with his hand. Al-Zuhrī used to learn genealogy from him.
The governors in this year were those whose names were mentioned in previous years.