The Battle of the Defile or Battle of the Pass (Arabic: وقعة الشعب‎‎ Waqʿat al-Shʿib) was fought in the Tashtakaracha Pass (in modern Uzbekistan) between a large Arab army of the Umayyad Caliphate and the Turkic Turgesh khaganate over three days in July 731 CE. The Turgesh had been besieging Samarkand, and its commander, Sawra ibn al-Hurr al-Abani, sent a request for relief to the newly appointed governor of Khurasan, Junayd ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Murri. Junayd's army was attacked by the Turgesh in the pass, and although the Umayyad army managed to extricate itself from the pass and reach Samarkand, it suffered enormous casualties (some 25,000–30,000 men), while Sawra's 12,000 men, who had been commanded to attack the Turgesh in the rear in a relief effort, were almost annihilated. The battl