Battle of Badr the Umayyad Caliphate. In later days, the battle of Badr became so significant that Ibn Ishaq included a complete name-by-name roster of the Muslim army in his biography of Muhammad. In many hadiths, veterans who fought at Badr are identified as such as a formality, and they may have even received a stipend in later years. The death of the last of the Badr veterans occurred during the First Islamic civil war. As Paul K. Davis sums up, "Mohammed's victory confirmed his authority as leader of Islam; by impressing local tribes that joined him, the expansion of Islam began." The
Battle of the Defile the Turgesh army withdrew north towards Samarkand. The Muslim army followed, and scored a victory in a battle fought near the city. Junayd then retired with his troops to winter in Merv. During the winter, rebellions broke out south of the Oxus, in Tokharistan, which had hitherto been quiescent to Muslim rule. Junayd was forced to set out for Balkh and there dispersed 28,000 of his men to quell the revolt. This left him seriously weakened when, in early 731, the Turgesh laid siege to Samarkand and appeals for aid arrived from the city's governor, Sawra ibn al-Hurr al-Abani. Despite