 From his camp outside Kish, he often dispatched contingents commanded by his sons against neighboring areas, though their gains were negligible.After news of his son al-Mughira's death in Merv in 701, he secured a tributary arrangement with Kish's defenders and withdrew toward the provincial capital.While the traditional Muslim sources generally attribute his withdrawal to heartbreak over al-Mughira's death, al-Mada'ini notes that a conspiracy by troops of the Mudar (the alliance of the Tamim and Qays factions of the Basran and Khurasani armies) in his camp prompted him to abandon the war effort.