smoke, dust, and flames. In the end, the Umayyad army lost its cohesion, scattered, and was destroyed piecemeal by the Türgesh cavalry. All but a thousand of Sawra's force perished, including Sawra himself. Junayd used the diversion to break through to Samarkand, but as his army exited the defile, his officers persuaded him to make camp and spend the night there instead of making for the city. The advice proved sound, as the Türgesh caught up with them and would likely have annihilated Junayd's army on open ground. As it was, the camp's fortifications could not be completed before the next day, when the Türgesh renewed their attack. At this point, the Arabs were so hard-pressed that Junayd promised the army's slaves their freedom if they would fight. Many did so, using saddle blankets as armour. The Türgesh attacks were repelled, and despite its heavy casualties the Umayyad army reached Samarkand after almost three days of battle. Aftermath Junayd remained in Samarkand for about four months, until October 731, allowing his army to recover. The Türgesh meanwhile made for Bukhara, which they besieged. Junayd again resolved to meet them in battle and managed to inflict some defeats on the Türgesh in early November and raise the siege of Bukhara, which he entered on the day of Mihragan. Junayd then returned to Merv, leaving a token garrison of 800 men behind in Samarkand. Once the Türgesh had withdrawn north for the winter, he evacuated the city of its Muslim inhabitants. Although Samarkand was relieved and the Umayyad army escaped annihilation, the battle "was not wholly an Arab victory", according to the historian M. A. Shaban. According to Khalid Yahya Blankinship, it was "a Pyrrhic victory at best", due to the high casualties suffered by the Muslims; indeed, the sources record both Junayd and the Caliph Hisham publicly equating it with the disastrous defeat suffered at the hands of the Khazars in the Battle of Marj Ardabil a year before. The 10th-century historian Ibn A'tham al-Kufi gives the Muslim casualties as at least 20,000 out of a total of 43,000 or 48,000, while poets of the time raise the number to 50,000. Judging by the numbers of replacements ordered sent to or levied in Khurasan in the aftermath of the battle, Blankinship estimates the Arab losses at between 25,000 and 30,000, and that "probably not more than fifteen thousand Khurasani troops were