FRONTIER WITH THE HOUSE OF GOLDThey circumambulated it and shaved their heads and beards. They
claim that the idol (sanam) inside is in the likeness of the prophet
Job, may Allah bless him.so4I
The description of a populous and lively sacral traffic to Multan is
significant, as are the clear equivalences drawn by Baladhuri: the pil-
grimage is explained with a ritual akin to the Muslim ritual of Hajj
(circumambulation). The notice that the idol bears the face of the
prophet Job makes another theological commingling. These small tex-
tual markers of translation across sacral regimes are important to
note, for they will be greatly enhanced in the thirteenth-century ac-
count in Chachnama.
Baladhuri narrates the death of Muhammad bin Qasim after the fall
of Multan and after the change in the Umayyad regime in Damascus.
As the campaign is proceeding, the caliph in Damascus, Walid bin
'A.bdal Malik dies, and his successor, Sulaiman bin 'A.bd al-Malik, holds
no quarter for Hajjaj and his family. So he orders that Qasim be ar-
rested, put in chains, and brought back to Syria, where he is impris-
oned and killed. Baladhuri quotes Qasim's lament and eulogizes him
as a great Muslim commander:
Muhammad recited this verse: "They wasted me, ,and a precious
thing they wasted/On the day of struggle and defense of the frontier."
The people of Hind cried at his arrest and erected an idol of him in
Kiraj. Salih imprisoned him at Wasit, and Muhammad said, "Though
I am imprisoned in Wasit and its land/in irons, twisted/I fought many
youths of Persia/ And many a brave I slaughtered." And he said, "If I
had decided to stay /Many a horse was prepared for battles/ and mares.
And the horsemen of Saksak would not have entered our land/ And
no Aki would rule over me/ And I would 'not under an ordinary
slave/Curse you, 0 Time, who destroys the world of the nobility"
Along with the members of the family of Abu 'Akil, Salih tortured
and killed Muhammad. Hajjaj had killed Salih's brother, Adam, who
shared the opinions of the Kharajites. Hamza bin Baiz Hanafi said,
"Gratitu't!e, forgiveness, and generosity /Were in Muhammad bin
Qasim bin Muhammad/Commanding armies at the age of seven-
teen/How close was his command to hi~ birth." And he further said,
"He commanded at the age of seventeen/ When his contemporaries
were busy playing."5^1