The Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, faced…

Hasan of Basra represents a growing reaction among the pious to worldliness and loose morals in ruling Umayyad circles.

He urges the Muslim community to heed the Koranic call to fear God, its warnings for Judgment Day, and its reminders of the transitoriness of life in this world.

He dies in 728.

The patrician Eutychius, sent by Leo to take control of the situation in Italy, lands in Naples, where he calls upon loyal citizens to assassinate Pope Gregory II.

When the citizens respond by pledging to defend the Pope and to die in his defense, Eutychius turns his attention to the Lombards, offering King Liutprand and the Lombard dukes bribes if they will abandon Pope Gregory.

Despite all of this, according to Jeffrey Richards, Pope Gregory persists in his efforts to preserve imperial rule in Italy.

Liutprand, having just overwhelmed the imperial forces (though it will be left to his heirs to make the final vestige of the Exarchate of Ravenna Lombard at last), advances towards Rome along the Via Cassia; he is met at the ancient city of Sutri by Pope Gregory II.

Here, the two reach an agreement, by which Sutri and some hill towns in Latium are given to the Papacy, "as a gift to the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul" according to the Liber Pontificalis.

This expression has been erroneously interpreted to mean that in this gift the beginning of the States of the Church is to be recognized.

This is incorrect, inasmuch as the popes will continue to acknowledge the imperial Government, and Greek officials will appear in Rome for some time longer.

The Jaziran general Ashras ibn Abdallah al-Sulami, in order to confront the Turgesh, assembles the forces of Khurasan, and leads them to Amul on the Oxus River.

A vanguard under Qatan, son of Qutayba ibn Muslim, is sent over the river and establishes a fortified camp, but with the arrival of the combined native Sogdian and Turgesh armies, the bulk of the Arab force is unable to cross for three months.

During this period, Qatan's force is beleaguered by the Turgesh, who at the same time cross the Oxus in small raiding parties.

Ashras gives command of his cavalry to Thabit Qutnah, who manages to rout the raiders and drive them to Amul.

There the Arabs defeat the Turgesh, although a decisive victory eludes them as Turgesh reinforcements cross the river and allow the raiders to escape to safety back over the Oxus.

At length, Ashras gets his forces across, links up with Qatan ibn Qutayba, and begins to advance on Bukhara.

The Arabs beat off attacks to reach the trading town of Baykand, some five farsakhs—roughly thirty kilometers (nineteen miles)—south of Bukhara itself and outside the oasis that surrounds the latter.

After the Arab army encamps at Baykand, the Turgesh and Sogdians cut off the water supply from the oasis.

The Arab army, threatened with thirst, leaves Baykand and heads for Bukhara, with Qatan in the vanguard.

When the Turgesh and Sohdian forces attack the vanguard, some six thousand men, is cut off from the main body under Ashras, and Ashras and Qatan give each other up for lost until they meet again two days later.

The king of Samarkand, Ghurak, who had unto this moment remained ostensibly loyal to the Arabs—although, ever careful to hedge his bets, he had sent his son Mukhtar to the khagan—now switches sides.

Exhausted by thirst, the Arab vanguard is almost cut down by their enemies, losing seven hundred men.

At this point, according to the account preserved by al-Tabari, the Tamimi warrior al-Harith ibn Surayj, who is later to lead a widespread revolt in Khurasan, urges the Arabs forward, crying that "being killed by the sword is nobler in (this) world and greater in reward with God than death by thirst".

Encouraged by his example, the Tamimi and Qaysi cavalry under al-Harith and Qatan break through the Turgesh lines and reach the water sources, narrowly staving off a second "Day of Thirst" and allowing Ashras to continue his advance towards Bukhara.

The Turgesh, following the series of battles around Baykand, retire north to Samarkand, where they assault the fortress of Kamarja, while ...

…Ashras with his troops besiege Bukhara and winters in its oasis.

Warfare does not die down, however, and the Arabs' situation remains precarious.

A revolt against iconoclasm by the people of the Exarchate of Ravenna results in Emperor Leo's dispatch of a fleet from Constantinople to capture the city.

The imperial fleet, partly wrecked in a storm along the way, is repulsed by a force of Italians, raised by Pope Gregory II in defense of image worship.

After a severe struggle, the Greeks are routed; thousands are killed in flight to their ships.

The waters of the Po River are so infected with blood, it is said, that for six years the inhabitants of Ravenna will not eat fish from the river.

The Exarchate becomes effectively detached from the Empire.

Emperor Xuanzong has four palace walls in the northeast sector of the capital city Chang'an torn down and reassembled to construct a new Taoist abbey, the grounds of which were formerly a large garden for the governmental Bureau of Agriculture.

The Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, in the hope of reversing the situation, had in early 730 appointed a new governor in Khurasan, the experienced Junayd ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Murri, who had been recently engaged in the pacification of Sindh.

The difficult security situation at the time is illustrated by the fact that Junayd needed an escort of seven thousand cavalry after crossing the Oxus, and that he was attacked by the Turgesh khagan while riding to link up with the army of his predecessor, Ashras al-Sulami, who was besieging Bukhara.

Junayd had been able to repel the attack and assume command of al-Sulami's forces.

Bukhara and most of Sogdiana are recovered soon after, as the Turgesh army withdraws north towards Samarkand.

The Muslim army follows, and scores a victory in a battle fought near the city.

Junayd then retires with his troops to winter in Merv.