Name: Sasanian Empire
Address: Sasanian Empire, Persia & Central Asia

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The Formation of the Bata'ih (Great Swamp)

In al-Baladhuri: the Persians used to foretell their kingdom's end, relating earthquakes and floods among its signs; the Tigris had flowed into Basra's Tigris called al-Mawra' in branching channels. Under Qubad ibn Fayruz a great breach opened in lower Kaskar and was neglected until its waters drowned many cultivated lands — Qubad being weak and little attentive — until his son Anushirwan had it dammed with embankments and some lands returned to cultivation. Then in the year the Prophet sent Abdallah ibn Hudhayfa al-Sahmi to Khosrow Aparviz — year 7, some say 6 — the Euphrates and Tigris rose in a flood unseen before or after; great breaches burst. Aparviz strained to dam them but the water defeated him, spread to the Bata'ih's site, covered buildings and crops and drowned several tasasij. Khosrow rode out himself to plug the breaches, scattered money over the execution-hides, worked the laborers to death and crucified — it is said — forty diggers on one breach in a day; yet he found no device against the water. Then the Arabs entered Iraq, the Persians were consumed by war, the breaches burst unattended and the dihqans proved too weak to dam the greatest — so the Batayih widened and grew.

Sasanian Empire

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The Formation of the Bata'ih (Great Swamp)