The Building of Madinat al-Hadath

بناء مدينة الحدث

between 778 and 785 CE · c. 162 AH

al-Hadath (al-Mahdiyya)

In al-Baladhuri: al-Hadath was among the conquests of Umar's days, taken by Habib ibn Maslama at Iyad ibn Ghanm's direction, and Mu'awiya kept it up thereafter; Banu Umayya called the Darb al-Hadath 'al-Salama' out of omen, for the Muslims had been smitten there — that calamity being 'the event' as some say — while others say a Byzantine youth (ghulam hadath) fought them on the pass so it was named Darb al-Hadath; in Marwan ibn Muhammad's civil war the Romans demolished Madinat al-Hadath and evacuated its people as they had Malatya; then in year 161 Michael came out to Amq Mar'ash, and al-Mahdi sent al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba ranging Byzantine lands — in this expedition were Mandal al-Anzi the Kufan and Mu'tayyir ibn Sulayman al-Basri — who chose his city-site there, and on return spoke to al-Mahdi of building it and Tarsus; al-Mahdi ordered al-Hadath built first, and Ali ibn Sulayman ibn Ali founded it while over the Jazira and Qinnasrin — it was named al-Muhammadiyya — and al-Mahdi died just as they finished, so it is called al-Mahdiyya and al-Hamadiyya; it was built of mud brick, his death falling in year 169, when his son Musa al-Hadi succeeded, removed Ali ibn Sulayman and gave the Jazira and Qinnasrin to Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Ali; Ali had finished the city, and Muhammad levied for it a contingent of Syrians, Jazirans and Khurasanis at forty dinars' pay, granted them house-lots and gave each man three hundred dirhams — completed in year 169; Abu al-Khattab says Ali ibn Sulayman levied four thousand for the city, settled them in it and transferred two thousand men from Malatya, Shimshat, Sumaysat, Kaysum, Duluk and Ra'ban; when built, winter struck with snows and heavy rain — its building not sound — and the city collapsed in ruin, the Romans occupied it and its garrison scattered; word reached Musa, who dispatched columns with al-Musayyab ibn Zuhayr, Rawh ibn Hatim and Hamza ibn Malik, but died before they could march; al-Rashid then ordered it rebuilt, fortified, garrisoned and its fighters granted houses and estates — another than al-Waqidi says a patrikios grandee camped on the city with a dense host just as it was built, the stacked mud brick ruined by snow, its governor and people fleeing while the enemy burned its mosque, wrecked it and carried off the people's goods — al-Rashid rebuilt it at his accession.