“Asad b. ?Abdull?h al-Qasr?: the Restorer of Umayyad Khur?s?n” The Umayyads in Khur?s?n encountered a variety of challenges over an eighty-year period. Toward the end of Umayyad power, in 117/725, when Asad b. ?Abdull?h al- Qasr? arrived in Khur?s?n for the second time, Umayyad authority extended only over Marw and N?sh?p?r due to the rebellion of ??rith b. Surayj. It was only because of Asad’s superior abilities as a commander and administrator that Umayyad authority was restored throughout Khur?s?n. H.A.R. Gibb in his Arab Conquests in Central Asia credits Asad with re-establishing Umayyad authority and reorganizing the province so that order could be restored. The thesis of this paper is that Umayyad Khur?s?n needed to be governed by a neutral outside administrator in tune with its people and willing to commit to the region. The crisis in Khur?s?n inherited by Asad was caused by a combination of reasons: its severed administrative links with Iraq, the rapid turnover of a series of weak outsider governors with no knowledge of Khur?s?n who installed their own sets of provincial officials, no attempt to maintain balanced governance by addressing the grievances of all Khur?s?n?s, Arab and non-Arab, and a costly and continual policy of expansion that did nothing to benefit the Khur?s?n?s. This paper will briefly describe previous successful patterns of governance in Khur?s?n and then explain how the situation had deteriorated to the point that it had prior to Asad’s governorships (106-109/724-727 and 117-120/735-738). The paper discusses the special conditions that existed in Khur?s?n before and during Asad’s rule and the problems that Asad had to be overcome in order to restore Umayyad authority. Attention will be paid to why Asad’s actions were successful by demonstrating his approach to the above mentioned shortcomings, enabling him to re-establish firm Umayyad authority in Khur?s?n. Additionally, it will be shown that after Asad died in Khur?s?n in 120/738, that the lack of tribal impartiality in governance and the lack of administrative support from Iraq, accelerated political dissention within the Khur?s?n? Muslim community and led to the erosion of authority and the loss of control there. The paper utilizes all available original sources and takes into consideration the entire period of Umayyad governance in Khur?s?n.