ADMINISTRATIONtury.60 By the late Sasanian period, the administrative districts be-
longing to this province were reduced to those in the region of the
Diyala river and the Nahrawan canal system.^61 The evidence of seal
impressions suggests the existence of a single district called Khusraw
Shadh Qubadh in this part of Iraq, which had Ctesiphon as its district
capital and which included Jalula'.
The subdivision of this province into districts appears to have begun
in the reign of Khusraw Aniishirvan, who created a kura called Khus-
rawmah in Jukha consisting of the six tasiistj of Tisfun or Mada'in,
Jazir, Kalwadha, Nahr Buq, Jalula', and Nahr al-Malik.^62 With the
exception of Jalula', which became the center of its own district, and
Nahr al-Malik between the Tigris and Euphrates, which does not really
belong to this configuration of subdistricts, this kura of Khusrawmah
appears to be the core of the kura of Shadh Hurmuz. The latter was
probably created by Hurmizd IV (579-90) and consisted of the seven
tasiistj of Buzurjsabur, Nahr Buq, Kalwadha and Nahr Bin, Jazir,
Madinat al-'Atiqa (Ctesiphon), and Upper and Lower Radhan.^63 The
administrative center of this district appears to have been Ctesiphon,
the oldest part of the Sasanian metropolis called Mada'in by the Arabs.
The old royal residence called the White Palace (Ar. Qa~r al-abyad)
was at Ctesiphon which was called "the old city" (Ar. al-madtnat al-
'Atzqa) by the Arabs.^64 The Shatroiha-i Eranshahr lists Ctesiphon as
a provincial capital,65 and Madinat al-'Atiqa was a mint city for post-
reform dirhams.^66 The subdistrict of Buzurjsabur, reputedly estab-
lished by Shapiir I, with 'Ukbara as its main town, lay on the east
60 Mas'iidi, Muruj, I, 120; idem, Tanbih, p. 40.
61 Ibn Khurradadhbih, Masiilik, p. 6; Ya'qiihi, Ta'rtkh, I, 202. For the association
ofJukha with the Diyala region, see Obermeyer, Die Landschaft Babylonien im Zeitalter
des Talmuds und des Gaonats (Frankfurt a.M., 1929), pp. 79-81. In the middle Sasanian
period, Gokha appears to have been identified with Radhan and was considered part
of Beth Garme (Hoffmann, Persischer Miirtyrer, p. 259). For the extension of Jukha
to the region northeast of Kaskar and Wasit, see S. A. al-'Ali, "Min!aqat Wiisi!," Sumer
27 (1971), 174-77.
62 Dinawari, Akhbiir at-tiwiil, p. 75.
63 Ibn Khurradiidhbih, Masiilik, p. 6; Yaqiit, Buldiin, Ill, 228.
64 S. A. al-'Ali, "al-Mada'in fi 'l-ma~adir al-'arabiyya," Sumer 23 (1967), 53-55;
idem, "Al-Madii'in and Its Surrounding Area in Arabic Literary Sources," Mesopotamia
3-4 (1968-69),424-25.
65 Markwart, Eriinshahr, p. 13.
66 H. Lavoix, Catalogue des monnaies musulmanes de la Bibliotheque nationale:
Khalifes orientaux (Paris, 1887), p. 102; Walker, Arab-Sassanian Coins, pp. cxxxii,
cxli.