تأسيس واسط

تأسيس واسط

واسط

In al-Baladhuri: al-Hajjaj founded the city of Wasit in year 83 or 84, building its mosque, palace and Green Dome — it was reed-land, whence 'Wasit al-Qasab', equidistant from al-Ahwaz, Basra and Kufa; Ibn al-Qirriyya quipped 'he built it in a land not his own and will leave it to sons not his own.' A Wasit shaykh related that when finished al-Hajjaj wrote Abd al-Malik: 'I have founded a city in a karsh of land between the mountain and the two garrison towns and named it Wasit' — hence the Wasitis are called al-Karshiyyin. Before founding it he had meant to move al-Sin's people from Kaskar and dug Nahr al-Sin, then reconsidered, founded Wasit, dug the Nil and Zabi canals, revived their lands and founded the city called al-Nil. He seized Abdallah ibn Darraj's estates — reclaimed deadland, stagnant waters, springs and reed-beds marked with milestones under his Kufa kharaj office with al-Mughira — cleared their reeds and took them for Abd al-Malik, cultivating them; and he stripped doors from Zantaward, al-Dawqara, Dar Awsat, Dayr Masarjasan and Sharabit for his palace and Wasit's congregational mosque — those cities protested 'you have preferred us over our own cities and wealth,' and he paid them no heed.