The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c12.72

v1.c12.72

though “ the *‘āmils* of al-Mahdī (775-85 A.D.) and ar-Rashīd (786-80 A.D.) continued to collect tribute from Ratbīl as well as they could, and kept appointing their agents to rule over the regions to which Islam had reached.” The same authority tells us that when al-Ma’mūn, son of ar-Rashīd, was in Khurāsān (*c.* 808-818 A.D.), “double tribute was paid to him, and he subdued Kābul, whose king professed Islam, and promised obedience.”¹ That these expeditions of Ma’mūn had no lasting effect is proved by the fact that Ratbīl was still ruling in Kābul in *c.* 253 A.H. (A.D. 867) when the sons of Darhim, Naṣr and Ṣāliḥ, fled to him after the conquest of Sijistān by Ya‘qūb ibn Layth.² Ya‘qūb captured Herat in the same year, and in A H. 256 (A.D. 870), turning against Ratbīl, marched to Kābul and conquered it.³ But the Ṣaffārids were soon displaced by the Persian Samanids; and the latter, as we shall see further on, do not appear to have made any vigorous effort to extend their authority in the Kābul valley.