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Concept
Nasr ibn Sayyar
Summary
Naṣr ibn Sayyār al-Lāythi al-Kināni (نصر بن سيار الليثي الكناني; 663 – 9 December 748) was an Arab general and the last Umayyad governor of Khurasan in 738–748. Nasr played a distinguished role in the wars against the Turgesh, although he failed to decisively confront the rebellion of al-Harith ibn Surayj in its early stages. Although respected as a soldier and a statesman, he owed his appointment as governor more to his obscure tribal background, which rendered him dependent on the caliph. His tenure was nevertheless successful, as Nasr introduced long-overdue tax reforms that alleviated social tension and largely restored and stabilized Umayyad control in Transoxiana, which had been greatly reduced under the Turgesh onslaught. His last years were occupied by inter-tribal rivalries and uprisings, however, as the Umayyad Caliphate itself descended into a period of civil war. In 746 Nasr was driven from his capital by Ibn Surayj and Juday al-Kirmani, but returned after the latter fell out among themselves, resulting in Ibn Surayj's death. Preoccupied with this conflict, Nasr was unable to stop the outbreak and spread of the Abbasid Revolution, whose leader, Abu Muslim, exploited the situation to his advantage. Evicted from his province in early 748, he fled to Persia pursued by the Abbasid forces, where he died on 9 December 748.
Nasr was a military leader with long service and experience in Khurasan. As early as 705 he participated in a campaign along the upper Oxus River, led by Salih, the brother of Qutayba ibn Muslim, the general who had been tasked with subduing Transoxiana. For his service during this campaign, Nasr was awarded an entire village in this region. Despite the successes of Qutayba, much of Central Asia east of the Oxus remained outside effective Arab control; while garrisons had been established in places like Samarkand, Balkh, or Bukhara, the Umayyad Caliphate largely relied on cliental relationships with the multitude of local rulers, who became tributary to the Umayyads.
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