al-Ramla

الرملة

The city of al-Ramla in the Filastin jund; it did not exist before Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik — its site was a sandy tract — he founded it while governing the district for his brother al-Walid and made it an amsar, building his palace and the house of the dyers with its central cistern, then the congregational mosque, granting people leave to build and digging the Barada canal and wells; Dar al-Sabbaghin passed to the heirs of Salih ibn Ali ibn Abdullah ibn al-Abbas, seized with Umayyad wealth; Filastin holds fiefs under separate caliphal registers distinct from the common kharaj — the takhafif and rudud categories arising when al-Rashid had Harthama ibn A'yan restore estates abandoned in his reign, bringing back their people on lightened kharaj.