The first people known to have occupied Central Asia were Iranian nomads who arrived from the northern grasslands of what is now Uzbekistan sometime in the first millennium BCE.

These nomads, who speak Iranian dialects, settle in Central Asia and begin to build an extensive irrigation system along the rivers of the region.

Cities such as Bukhara and ...

Apa Khagan once again escapes west and settles in the Paykend near Bukhara.

However, in his new territory, the former alliance breaks up and he loses the support of Tardush because of the disagreement over control of the Silk Road.

Arab invaders cross the Oxus River in what later will be Uzbekistan.

Nomadic Turkic tribes continue to control Central Asia.

Qutayba’s campaign of 708 had also been a failure, which had drawn the ire of al-Hajjaj.

For 709, al-Hajjaj draws up a new plan for his subordinate: the Arabs launch a direct attack on Bukhara, which catches the alliance—possibly weakened by the death of its leader, the Wardan Khudah—by surprise.

The city is taken by storm, a tribute of two hundred thousand dirhams imposed, and an Arab garrison installed.

In its direct aftermath, Tarkhun, the ruler of Samarkand, sends envoys to Qutayba and becomes a tributary vassal to the Caliphate.

The Hephthalite princes of Tokharistan rebel against the Arabs later in the year, but are swiftly subdued by Qutayba.

Abd al-Rahman is able to reestablish Muslim control over Tokharistan almost without bloodshed in spring 710.

Most of the rebel rulers flee or capitulate, and finally, Nizak is captured and executed on al-Hajjaj's orders, despite promises of pardon, while the Yabghu is exiled to Damascus and kept there as a hostage.

Tokharistan is more firmly incorporated into the Caliphate, as Arab district representatives are appointed alongside the local princes, who are gradually relegated to secondary positions.

Qutayba's brother Abd al-Rahman ibn Muslim is installed with a garrison near Balkh to oversee the affairs of the province.

Despite the swift end of Nizak's revolt, the king of Shuman and Akharun decides to rebel as well.

Qutayba leads his forces against him, besieges his citadel and takes it.

The king falls in battle, and his supporters are executed.

Qutayba then marches west over the Iron Gate, taking Kish and Nasaf and visiting Bukhara, where he settles relations between the Arabs and the locals, installed the young Sogdian prince Tughshada in the position of Bukhar Khudah and establishes an Arab military colony in the city.

Qutayba builds a mosque in Bukhara’s citadel in 712/713, but although the Arab authorities encourage the conversion of the native population by paying them to attend prayers, Islamization proceeds slowly.

At the same time, Qutayba begins to adopt a measure that marked a radical departure from previous practice in the East: he orders the raising of native Khurasani auxiliary levies, usually some ten to twenty thousand strong and mostly composed of non-converts, to supplement the Arab tribal army, the muqatila.

This measure will later be expanded to include the newly conquered territories in Sogdiaand Khwarizm.

Gibb suggests that this move may be seen as an answer to the need for more troops to control the conquered territories and continue Muslim expansion, as well as a means of placing the local manpower in Arab service and depleting it at the same time, reducing the risk of anti-Arab revolts.

Gibb also suggests that the creation of an indigenous force may have been an attempt by Qutayba to establish a power base of his own. (Gibb, H. A. R. (1923). The Arab Conquests in Central Asia. London: The Royal Asiatic Society.)

From around 712, Qutayba also appears to have recruited a special corps, known as the "Archers", from among the Khurasani, Tokharian and Sogdian nobility.

Their skill is such that they are known as rumāt al-buduq ("archers who pierce the pupils of the eyes"), and they apparently serve as a bodyguard.

Among the local Khurasani converts, Hayyan an-Nabati emerges as the foremost leader, and appears frequently in Tabari's account both as the main military leader of the Khurasani conscripts and as chief negotiator with the Sogdians.

Qutayba's victories, parallel with the conquests of Muhammad ibn Qasim in northwestern India, awake such enthusiasm and hopes among the Muslims that al-Hajjaj is reputed to have offered the governorship of China to whomever of the two first reaches it.

…Bukhara are soon to become major centers for the dissemination of Islamic culture and learning among the Asian peoples of Central Asia.

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

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

The Turgesh meanwhile make for Bukhara, which they besiege.

Junayd again resolves to meet them in battle, and manages to inflict some defeats on the Turgesh in early November and raise the siege of Bukhara.

Suluk, who in 728 had taken Bukhara and later on still had inflicted painful defeats such as the Battle of the Defile upon the Arabs, has discredited Umayyad rule and perhaps laid the foundations for the Abbasid Revolt.

The Turgesh state is at its apex of glory, controlling Sogdiana, the Ferghana Valley.

It is only in 732 that two powerful Arab expeditions to Samarkand manage, if with heavy losses, to reestablish Caliphal authority in the area; Suluk renounces his ambitions over Samarkand and abandons Bukhara, withdrawing north.