ʿUbaydullah’s successor, Aslam b. Zurʿa, remained inactive, but in 56/676 Saʿīd b. ʿOthmān, who had obtained the governorship of Khurāsān by importuning Muʿāwiya, carried the Arab arms more deeply into Transoxania, defeated the _S_ughdians in the open field and reduced their city. Taking fifty young nobles as hostages, he retired from _S_ughd and subsequently occupied Tirmidh, an important fortress on the Oxus controlling the main North and South trade route, having presumably marched through the Iron Gate. The conquest of _S_ughd was thus definitely co-ordinated with that of Chaghāniān. _T_abarī’s narrative is strangely vague and abrupt; it contains no mention of Bukhārā nor any definite reference to Samarqand, except for the statement that it was the objective of Saʿīd’s expedition. Using this narrative alone, one would be inclined to suspect that the city captured by Saʿīd was not Samarqand but Kish (since it has been established by Marquart that Kish was formerly called _S_ughd), and that the reference to Samarqand was due to a later misunderstanding of the name[28]. On the other hand, both the local tradition and Abū ʿUbayda speak of a siege of Samarqand by Saʿīd, though their narratives are far from being in agreement in detail, and there are other indications of confusion between Saʿīd and Salm b. Ziyād. All accounts except Narshakhī’s, however, agree that the hostages who were carried by Saʿīd to Madīna and there murdered him were _S_ughdians[29]. Balādhurī’s tradition of Saʿīd’s expedition is as follows. On his crossing the river, Khātūn at first renewed her allegiance, only to withdraw it again on the approach of an army of Turks, _S_ughdians, and men of Kish and Nasaf, 120,000 strong. Saʿīd, however, completely defeated the enemy and after a triumphal entry into Bukhārā, marched on Samarqand, his forces swelled by Khātūn’s army, besieged it for three days and made it tributary. On his return he captured Tirmidh and while there received the tribute due from Khātūn and the allegiance of Khuttal. Narshakhī’s account is the same in essentials, adding only a number of imaginative details.