The Basra Dar al-Imara Saga

أخبار دار الإمارة بالبصرة

Utba built the dar al-imara below the mosque on al-Dahna' square holding prison and diwan; Abu Musa rebuilt it in mud-brick, Ziyad moved it to the qibla wall. Al-Hajjaj, meaning to erase Ziyad's name, resolved to raze and rebuild — told it was permanence he wanted, he demolished it and left it, its clay and doors going into the surrounding houses, and Basra had no governor's palace till Sulayman's kharaj-agent Salih ibn Abd al-Rahman rebuilt it on its foundations, raised and roofed it. Adi ibn Artat's upper rooms drew Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz's letter 'your mother lose you, son of Umm Adi — does a house that held Ziyad and Ziyad's folk fail you?'; Sulayman ibn Ali topped the walls in clay then moved to the Mirbad, and under al-Rashid the palace was swallowed into the mosque — Basra's governors have no dar al-imara today.

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The Arabization of Iraq's Kharaj Diwan

In al-Baladhuri via al-Mada'ini from Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Sayf's shaykhs: the diwan of the Sawad's kharaj and all Iraq remained in Persian until al-Hajjaj governed Iraq and took as scribe Zadhanfarrukh ibn Biri, who had with him Salih ibn Abd al-Rahman — mawla of Banu Tamim whose father was among Sijistan's captives — writing before him in Arabic and Persian. Zadhanfarrukh presented Salih to al-Hajjaj who took to him, then confided his fear of displacement — Salih answering that the amir needed him more since none could keep his accounts but himself, and offering: by God, if you wished I could turn the accounts to Arabic. He converted half for display, then feigned illness; al-Hajjaj's physician found nothing wrong and Zadhanfarrukh ordered him to appear. When Zadhanfarrukh was killed in Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath's days, al-Hajjaj made Salih his scribe; told of the earlier exchange he resolved to make the diwan Arabic and charged Salih with it. Mardanshah ibn Zadhanfarrukh challenged: what will you do for dahwiya and shashwiya? — I write ushr and half-ushr; and wid? — likewise, the surplus being increased; whereupon: may God cut your root from this world as you have cut Persian's root. A hundred thousand dirhams were offered him to feign inability and desist — he refused and translated it. Abd al-Hamid ibn Yahya, Marwan ibn Muhammad's scribe, would say: God reward Salih — how great his favor to the scribes; and Sahl ibn Abi al-Salt said al-Hajjaj gave Salih a deadline until he turned the diwan over.

The Basra Dar al-Imara Saga

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The Arabization of Iraq's Kharaj Diwan