Yezīd now returned to Merv, and sent a highly coloured report of his successes to his master the Caliph. His career, however, was not destined to be a long one, for in the following year, A.H. 99 (717), Sulaymān died, and was succeeded by `Omar ibn `Abd ul-`Azīz. Yezīd received at the hands of the new Caliph treatment very similar to that meted out to Kutayba by Sulaymān. He was summoned to appear at Basra, and after a brief interview with the sovereign he was thrown into prison. The government of Khorāsān was at the same time transferred to Jarrāh, son of `Abdullah. The ostensible reason alleged for Yezīd’s disgrace was his retention of the immense booty of which, in his report to the preceding Caliph, he had boasted as the fruit of the Jurjān campaign. `Omar’s real motive was more creditable to him. Yezīd had been accused by Mohammedan converts from Khorāsān of harshness and caprice, and `Omar stood alone among the Eastern Caliphs in pursuing a policy of moderation in propagating his creed.[145] This wise monarch died in A.H. 101 (719), and was succeeded by Yezīd ibn `Abd el-Melik. On his accession Yezīd ibn Muhallab effected his escape from prison, raised the flag of revolt against the new Caliph, one of his bitterest enemies, and made himself master of Basra. The movement spread over most of the Eastern provinces, and was not crushed until the end of the following year, A.H. 102 (720), when Maslama, who held the viceroyalty of the two `Irāks,[146] defeated and slew Yezīd in a fierce battle fought near Kūfa on the banks of the Euphrates. In the same year Maslama appointed a new governor of Khorāsān in the person of Sa`īd ibn `Abd ul-`Azīz. This step was followed by a general rising of the inhabitants of Khojend and Farghāna. The tributary Soghdians, being thus threatened on their eastern frontier, asked help from Merv, but the new governor, who was of a weak and vacillating disposition, delayed so long in sending reinforcements that the Soghdians made overtures to the Turks. When at length the Arabs arrived they were joined by the former; but disputes arose, which ended in the slaughter of the Soghdians to the number of 3000. Throughout the reign of Yezīd II. the Moslem Far East was plunged in continual warfare, with no very marked results; for the army of `Irāk was fully occupied with operations against the Khazar and Kipchāk tribes occupying Armenia, which were, for the most part, attended by ill-success. In A.H. 102 (720) Yezīd II. dismissed Maslama from his post, on the ground that his leniency had led to a serious falling off in the revenues from `Irāk and Khorāsān. `Omar ibn Hobayra replaced him. In the following year Sa`īd, “the Effeminate,”[147] while fighting beneath the walls of Samarkand, received the news of his dismissal. He was superseded in the governorship by a namesake, Sa`īd ibn `Amr el-Harashī.[148] El-Harashī at once set out for Farghāna by way of Bokhārā and Samarkand,[149] and