Ziyad's Rebuilding of Basra's Mosque

عمارة زياد لجامع البصرة

When Mu'awiya made Ziyad governor of Basra he greatly enlarged the mosque — fired brick, gypsum, teak roof — moved the dar al-imara from al-Dahna' to the qibla wall so the imam no longer crossed the worshippers, gave the minbar five steps, built a stone minaret and made the first maqsura; touring the work he asked Basra's notables 'do you see a flaw?' — 'none sounder' — 'yes: these four-load columns should have been thicker', yet none of those columns ever cracked or flawed. Haritha ibn Badr — or al-Ba'ith al-Mujashi'i — sang: 'Ziyad built for God's remembrance a fabric of stone, not of clay; but for the hands of men upholding it, we had called it the work of demons'.

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Conquest of al-Ubulla and al-Furat

Utba ibn Ghazwan stormed al-Ubulla and wrote Umar — borne by Nafi' ibn al-Harith — that it was the port of Bahrain, Uman, India and China; crossing to al-Furat its folk came out with their spades and were beaten, Mujashi' ibn Mas'ud taking the town by force; at al-Madhar its marzban came out, was routed with most of his men drowned, taken alive and beheaded; at Dastumaysan Utba struck pre-emptively 'to weaken their sides and embolden hearts', killing their dehqans; then Abar Qubadh fell — the tract from al-Fahraj to al-Furat being treaty-land, the rest of Ubulla by force. Utba's wife Arda bint al-Harith goaded the men 'if they rout you, you'll enter us uncircumcised', and the forelocked boy Ziyad divided the spoils at two dirhams a day.

Ziyad's Rebuilding of Basra's Mosque

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Conquest of al-Ubulla and al-Furat