AD 662

Muslim conquest of Sistan

Resumption of Umayyad reconquest in eastern Iran

The year filed as a fresh conquest was a return to towns Arab armies had already taken once — and then lost in a civil war.

Nothing isolated in 662

No securely isolated conquest event sits in the calendar year 662. The best scholarly chronology puts the reopening of eastern campaigns in 41 AH — 661 — when Muawiya reappointed Abd Allah ibn Amir over Basra and its eastern dependencies.

During the First Fitna, Muslim garrisons and tax officials had lost control across much of Iran. Muawiya's victory allowed him to reappoint eastern commanders and begin suppressing revolts and restoring tribute.

Later historical traditions sometimes duplicate Ibn Amir's Uthman-era and Muawiya-era campaigns, which tangles the chronology further.

Sistan, then Kabul

Ibn Amir sent Abd al-Rahman ibn Samura to reconquer Sistan. His forces retook Zarang, Bost and al-Rukhkhaj, and entered Kabul after a siege.

Other lieutenants pacified eastern Khurasan and retook Balkh, where a commander is reported to have destroyed the Buddhist Nawbahar sanctuary.

Herat, Pushang and Badghis were paying tribute again by 43 AH / 663.

Recovered ground, not new ground

This was reconquest and suppression of revolt rather than the capture of untouched Persian territory. Local Iranian, Hephthalite and Zunbil rulers kept considerable power, and alternately resisted, negotiated tribute or accepted renewed Arab authority.

The Oxus still marked the limit. Encyclopaedia Iranica's chronology puts the start of raids across the river in 674.

Even the office-holders are unsettled: Iranica dates Abd Allah ibn Khazim's second governorship to 663–664 rather than 662.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at ~0662.

What the sources leave uncertain

The year 662 falls between the documented reopening of campaigns in 661 and the renewed tribute reported in 663; no source consulted identifies a single decisive operation in 662.
Later historical traditions sometimes duplicate Ibn Amir's Uthman-era and Muawiya-era campaigns, obscuring the chronology.
Some sources assign commanders and governorships to different years; for example, Encyclopaedia Iranica dates Abd Allah ibn Khazim's second governorship to 663–664 rather than 662.