Mu'awiya's Marsh Grant

قطيعة معاوية السبخة

Basra

The marsh between the rivers was a salt-flat Mu'awiya granted one of his nephews; when the lad came to inspect it Ziyad had water released into it — 'the Commander of the Faithful granted me a waterfowl-marsh I have no use for' — so Ziyad bought it for two hundred thousand dirhams, dug its canals and parceled grants from it.

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At a glance

Era
The Umayyad Period
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In space

Basra

Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph

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Had participant
زياد بن أبي سفيان
Occurred at
Basra

People and things also explored

Digging of the Ubulla Canal· Digging of the Ma'qil Canal· Nafi' ibn al-Harith's Walking Grant· Great Mosque of Basra· The Asawira's Settlement at Basra· The Basra Bathhouse Permissions· The Basrans' Cry to Abdallah ibn Ali· Building of al-Mughitha

Sources

  • Futuh al-Buldan — al-Baladhuri (Mu'assasat al-Ma'arif edition)
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Mu'awiya's Marsh Grant”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/muawiya-marsh-grant/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-13.

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Related

Digging of the Ubulla Canal

Dijlat al-Awra's tidal rain-channel ran a farsakh, its Basra-side basin called al-Ijana; Umar ordered Abu Musa to dig the Basrans a canal — he began at al-Ijana, led it three farsakhs to Basra, making the Ubulla canal four — then the reach toward al-Hayri silted up. Ziyad, on the diwan under Abdallah ibn Amir, urged completing the dig and was stalled till Ibn Amir left for Khurasan; he resumed Abu Musa's channel to Basra with Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakra in charge, who opened the water racing his horse as it nearly outran him. Ibn Amir returned angry — 'you meant to carry off the canal's fame' — and the estrangement held between their houses for life; before the canal, folk drank from Dayr Qawus on the Tigris, a spot the spirits haunted.