Qutayba ibn Muslim was born in 669 CE in Basra, where his family was influential.

His father, Muslim ibn ʿAmr, had enjoyed the favor of the Umayyads, and fell at the Battle of Maskin at the close of the Second Islamic Civil War.

Qutayba had risen at first as the protégé of Anbasa ibn Sa'id, but had been noticed by the powerful governor of Iraq and the East, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, during the suppression of the revolt of Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath in 700/701.

Under al-Hajjaj's patronage, he had taken Rayy from the rebel Umar ibn Abi'l-Salt in 701, and became the city's governor.

Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan appoints Qutayba as governor of Khurasan in late 704 or early 705.

The choice of Qutayba, who hails from the relatively weak Bahila tribe, is intended by al-Hajjaj to heal the destructive feud between the South Arab or "Yemeni" (Azd and Rabi'ah) and North Arab (Qaysi) tribal confederations in Khurasan by providing a governor who belongs to neither faction.

The Bahila are neutral between the two groups, but generally ally themselves to the Qays, thus furthering al-Hajjaj's policy of emasculating Azdi power, which had been dominant in Khurasan during the governorship of Yazid ibn al-Muhallab.

Furthermore, as Qutayba lacks a strong tribal base of his own, he could be expected to remain firmly attached to his patron.

Qutayba will spend the next ten years of his life in Central Asia, consolidating and expanding Muslim rule there.

In this endeavor, both his military and diplomatic and organizational abilities stand him in good stead; most importantly, he is able to enlist the support of the local Iranian population and the powerful dihqan (the Iranian "gentry") class.

The Arabs had reached Central Asia in the decade after their decisive victory in the Battle of Nahavand in 642, when they completed their conquest of the former Sassanid Empire by seizing Sistan and Khurasan.

The first Arab attacks across the Oxus had ranged as far as Shash (Tashkent) and Khwarizm, but they had been little more than raids aiming at seizing booty and extracting tribute, and had been interrupted by the intertribal warfare that had broken out in Khurasan during the Second Islamic Civil War (683–692).

Subsequent governors, most notably Sa'id ibn Uthman and al-Muhallab ibn Abi Suffrah, had made attempts to conquer territory across the river, but they had failed.

The native princes, for their part, have tried to exploit the Arabs' rivalries, and with the aid of the Arab renegade Musa ibn Abdallah ibn Khazim, who in 689 seized the fortress of Tirmidh for his own domain, they managed to eject the Arabs from their holdings.

Nevertheless, the Transoxianian princes remain riven by their own feuds, and fail to unite in the face of the Arab conquest, a fact that Qutayba will suitably exploit after 705.

Justinian, restored to the imperial throne, presides over the public humiliation of his predecessors Leontios and Tiberios III and their chief associates in the Hippodrome of Constantinople, after which they are executed.

Patriarch Callinicus I is also deposed, blinded and exiled; he is succeeded by Cyrus.

The Bulgar kingdom has been ruled since 700/01 by Tervel (Terbelis), the son of Asparukh, who had presumably been killed in a battle with the Khazars.

The deposed and mutilated emperor, gaining the help of Tervel and his army, …

Justinian awards Tervel the marriage of his daughter, together with the title of Caesar, making the khan second only to the emperor and the first foreigner in Eastern Roman history to receive such a title.

Moreover, to show his gratitude, …

…Justinian gives the Bulgarians an enormous quantity of gold, silver and silk as well as the strategic and fertile "Zagore" area, located in eastern Thrace between Stara Zagora, Sliven and the Black Sea.

Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan has pursued an extensive and successful policy of Arabization of the administration of the Umayyad empire, making Arabic the official state language.

The financial administration of the empire has been reorganized, with Arabs replacing Persian and Greek officials; and a new Arabic coinage has replaced the former imitations of Eastern Roman and Sassanian coins.

Communications have also improved with the introduction of a regular post service from Damascus to the provincial capitals, and architecture flourishes.

Shortly before 'Abd al-Malik's death, the question of succession becomes acute.

His brother, 'Abd al-'Aziz, governor of Egypt, had been designated by their father to succeed 'Abd al-Malik.

Against the advice of his courtiers, 'Abd al-Malik has begun to take steps to exclude his brother from succession in favor of his own children.

He has tried to pressure 'Abd al-'Aziz to renounce his claims but without success.

Luckily for 'Abd al-Malik, 'Abd al-'Aziz dies in May 705, leaving 'Abd al-Malik free to name three of his own children to succeed him, al-Walid, Sulayman, and Yazid.

'Abd al-Malik dies in Damascus shortly thereafter and is succeeded without difficulty by his eldest son, al-Walid.

Under 'Abd al-Malik and his sons, the Umayyad caliphate will reach its peak.

Muhammad ibn Marwan has suppressed the Armenian revolt, capturing and deporting Smbat VI Bagratuni and other leading princes.

He further secures Muslim control by organizing a large-scale massacre of the Armenian princely nakharar families in 705, when many of the captured nakharar are gathered into churches and burned alive at Nakhchevan.

The Alupas of South Canara, who are loyal to the Chalukyas and led by Alupa Chitravahana, brother-in-law of Vijayaditya, defeat a Pandyan invasion of Mangalore in 705.

The constant minor warfare in North Africa between the Muslim caliphate and the Empire, endemic since the peace of 679, had broken out into full-scale war after the defeat of Kihinah and her Jewish-Berber alliance in 698.

The late Hasan ibn al-Nu'man, having occupied and destroyed Carthage, the center of imperial administration in Tunisia, had begun …

…the construction of the town of Tunis nearby.

These successes and Arab naval supremacy in the Mediterranean force the imperial forces to evacuate their remaining positions on the Maghribi coast, including …