ADMINISTRATIONsecond fitna resulted in the administrative unification of the Jazira and
Ard Mawsil into a single large governorship, together with their ex-
tensions along the line of conquest: Armenia and Azerbayjan. After
the defeat of 'Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad at the Khazir in 686, al-Mukhtar
made Ibrahim ibn Malik al-Ashtar his wall for Mawsil, Armenia, and
Azerbayjan. Ibrahim returned to Mawsil, put his brother, 'Abd ar-
Ra~man, in charge of Nasibin and then set about conquering Sinjar,
Dara, and adjacent parts of Ard Jazira. He appointed governors over
Amid, Mayyafariqin, Kafartutha, Qarqisiya, Harran, Ruha, and Su-
maysat.^54
After the fall of al-Mukhtar in the same year, the Jazira continued
to be joined to Mawsil, Armenia, and Azerbayjan in the appointments
of Mu~'ab ibn az-Zubayr and in those of 'Abd al-Malik. Under Mu-
~ammad ibn Marwan the town of Mawsil developed into a real mi~r.
His sa~ib shurta (sic) paved it with stones,55 and post-reform copper
coins began to be struck there.^56
Based on the evidence so far, it would seem that administrative
continuity is most eviderit at the district level, but that it is difficult
to prove in the case of several subdistricts. At the same time, it is
"impossible to prove that there was no continuity when so little is
known about administration at the subdistrict level.
As far as the formation of Ard Mawsil itself is concerned, we are
left with conflicting possibilities. If it was really based on a late Sa-
sanian configuration, the location of its pre-Islamic capital remains
elusive. On the other hand, it is possible that it was really created by
the Islamic conquest and that the impression of its existence in the
late Sasanian period is only an anachronous projection of early Islamic
conditions into the recent past. Perhaps it is best to think in terms of
a process of consolidation extending from the late Sasanian to the
early Islamic period. It is also possible at this point to note the emer-
gence of a trend, exemplified by the provinces of Arbayestan and Ard
Mawsil, both of which were separated from Iraq during the seventh
century. According to this trend late Sasanian administrative divisions
54 Dinawari, Akhbiir at-tiwiil, p. 304; Tabari, Ta'rtkh, II, 635; Ya'qiibi, Ta'rikh, Il,
308-9. It is therefore no surprise to find Nasibin located in art/. al-Jazira in 686 (Tabari,
Ta'rtkh, II, 716).
55 Baladhuri, Ansiib, V, 186; idem, Futu~, p. 332; Tabari, Ta'rikh, II, 750, 765.
According to Tabari (Ta'rtkh, II, 1073, 1096), Mul:tammad ibn Marwan was governor
of Ard Mawsil for 'Abd al-Malik until 701 and again in 702.
56 Walker, Arab-Sassanian Coins, pp. cxxxiv-cxxv. Baladhuri also credits Sa'id ibn
'Abd al-Malik with building the wall and paving the town as governor of Mawsil.