FRONTIER WITH THE HOUSE OF GOLDBaladhuri highlight the scarcity of resources in Sind and condemn
needless expeditions which ended at the frontier-again an indication
of 'Abbasid policies rather than Umayyad history. Baladhuri records
that the early Umayyad regime mounted a number of campaigns to
subdue rebellious contingents in Sind's neighboring region of Makran,
yet with no real benefit. The list of armies and commanders in the
seventh century given by Baladhuri illustrated the continual pressure
exerted on the eastern Iranian front with a paucity of attention toward
Sind.^38 Baladhuri sums up the Umayyad attitude toward Sind in the
words of the poet Hamdani, who lamented:
You are setting off to Makran
how far is that, from you
I have no use for Makran
there lies neither battle nor trade
they asked me to go
I refused
I refuse to even hear its name
such is that place
if too many, they die of want
if too little, of waste.^39Baladhuri describes that it was during the reign of 'Abd al-Malik
(685-705) that Umayyad attention shifted to quelling the eastern fron-
tier, which had emerged as a safe haven for Kharajite and 'Alawi (a
proto-Shi'a group that advocated 'Ali's caliphate b~fore 'Uthman) rebels.
In 694, 'Abdal Malik appointed Hajjaj bin Yusuf Thaqafi to the gover-
norship of Iraq, which administratively included the entire eastern
frontier of the Umayyads. Hajjaj launched an effort to take out strong-
holds against the Muslim military in Makran (largely the Zunbil people
and the 'Alawi rebels) and push farther into the region. However, the
first commander he dispatched was almost immediately killed.^40 In
696, Hajjaj sent another commander, Numri, who managed to govern
Makran for a few years. Baladhuri narrated an event during his tenure
that emerged in later historiography as the casus belli of the Muslim
conquest of Sind:Then J:Iajjaj, after the death of Mujjah, made Muhammad bin Hamn
Numri the governor. During his reign, the king of fazirat Yaqut (Sri