Results of the conquest and the popular uprisings

The causes of the uprisings were plunder, heavy taxes and the forced introduction of the Arabic language and Arab ways. The caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz (717–720) stopped new conquests and issued a decree on financial reform, but when the jizya was reinstated many people left Islam and returned to their old faiths. In 720 an uprising broke out in Sogdiana under the ikhshid Ghurak and Divashtich, ruler of Panjakent, with Turkic soldiers coming from Zhetysu to help. The governor of Khorasan Nasr ibn Sayyar (738–748) freed new converts from the jizya and made all Muslims equal in rights. According to the book, in 769–783 (some sources date its start to 776) the “White-robed” uprising was led by the craftsman Hashim ibn Hakim, nicknamed Muqanna (“the veiled one”), with his base at Som fortress near Kesh. He was defeated after a siege in 783; the revolt failed for lack of organization and because landowners went over to the Arabs. In 806 Rafi ibn Layth rose in Samarkand and was put down with the help of the grandsons of Samankhudat. Information on Muqanna comes mostly from sources written by his opponents, so it should be judged with care.