the Bata'ih (Great Swamp)

البطائح

A vast marshland in lower Iraq; in al-Baladhuri it formed after the Hijra when great breaches burst that Khosrow Aparviz could not dam, then widened during the Muslim-Persian wars. Abdallah ibn Darraj reclaimed lands there for Mu'awiya yielding five million, and Hassan al-Nabati reclaimed lands for al-Hajjaj and Hisham. Before it formed, Kaskar had the Jubb river and the barid road to Maysan — when swamped, its flooded tracts were named the Barid marshes and Aghmar Bithi marshes. Muhammad ibn al-Qasim's gift elephant to al-Hajjaj crossed it by ship, whence the landing called Musharra'at al-Fil. Al-Hajjaj let breaches drown it to spite the dihqans he accused of favoring Ibn al-Ash'ath.