necessity was to appoint a governor who could be trusted to repress both forms of anarchy and in Muhallab such a man was available. His tribe of Azd was not yet strong enough in Khurāsān to cause the risk of opening a new channel for factional strife, and his military reputation fitted him for carrying out _H_ajjāj’s policy of active campaigning as an antidote to internal dissension. It is possible that _H_ajjāj had in mind from the first a definite conquest of Transoxania, but for a few years nothing more than sporadic raids took place. Muhallab’s first care, however, was to encourage the settlement of Azd in Khurāsān, until he was supported by a division equal in size to any other. After securing the crossing at Zamm in 80/699 he marched into the district of Kish and there established his headquarters for two years, besieging the city and sending out minor expeditions under his sons in various directions[37]. Yazīd was sent with a force into Khuttal, nominally to co-operate with a pretender to the throne, but met with little success; _H_abīb, sent against Rabinjān, found himself countered by the forces of Bukhārā. Balādhurī’s account of Muhallab’s campaigns is ludicrously exaggerated; _T_abarī quotes Muhallab himself as discouraging any attempts at effecting a conquest. On the death of his son al-Mughīra in Rajab 82, he came to terms with Kish and abandoned his expeditions, but died in the following Dhuʾl-_H_ijja (Jan. 702) near Merv Rūdh, and was succeeded by his son Yazīd.