22 ARAB CONQUEST OF SIND capital. Ghassan deputed Musa ibn Yahya ibn Khalid to the charge of the frontier. Musa killed Bala, King of ash-Sharki, although the latter had given him five hundred thousand dirhams to preserve his life. Bala was faithful to Ghassan and wrote to him in the pres- ence of his army through the princes who were with him, but his request was rejected. Musa died in 221 A. H. (836 A. D.), leaving a high reputation, and appointed his son Amran as his successor. The Caliph Mu'tasim bi- Allah wrote to him confirming him in the government of the frontier. He marched to Kikan against the Jats, whom he defeated and subjugated. He built a city there, which he called al-Baiza (the white), and posted a military force there. He proceeded thence to Multan and then to Kanda- bil, which stands upon a hill. Mohammad ibn Khalil was reigning there, but Amran slew him, conquered the town, and carried its inhabitants to Kusdar. He then made war upon the Meds, and killed three thousand of them. There he constructed a band, or dike, called Sakr-al-Med, " Band of the Meds." He encamped on the river at Alrur, and summoned the Jats, who came to his presence, whereupon he sealed their hands, took from them the jizya (the poll-tax levied on all who are not Mussulmans), and ordered that every man of them should bring a dog with him when he came to wait upon him, so that the price of a dog rose to fifty dirhams. He again attacked the Meds, having with him the chief men of the Jats. He dug a canal from the sea to their tank, so that their water
