ADMINISTRATIONof the districts in the western Jabal into two groups, one subordinate
to Kufa and the other subordinate to Basra. When the pursuit of the
retreating Persians was halted in 638, the territory conquered by Sa'd's
army included the two districts of Masabadhan and Mihrajanqadhaq.
Both districts appear to have existed in the late Sasanian period, and
after the conquest these districts were attached to the territory gov-
erned from Kufa. In 638, when Qirar ibn al-Khanab returned to Kufa,
he left Ibn al-Hudhayl in charge of Masabadhan as one of the frontier
posts of Kufa.^90 In 643 the frontier district in the western Jabal under
the authority of the governor of Kufa was called Mihrajanqadhaq and
its land (Ar. arq,).91 After the Battle of Nihawand in the previous year,
the districts of Baradhan and Nihawand were ,also included, forming
an enclave in the western Jabal subject to Kufa (Mah of Kufa).92 As
in the case of Hulwan, the administration of these districts appears to
have been detached from Kufa in the caliph ate of 'Uthman. When he
died in 656, Malik ibn l:Iablb was governor of Mah (Jabal) and a
certain Hablsh was in charge of Masabadhan.^93 The khariij of Mah
of Kufa was still assigned for the support of the Muslims in Kufa
under Mu'awiya (661-80), who assigned Dinawar, which the Basrans
had conquered, to the Kufans and compensated the Basrans by as-
signing Nihawand to them.^94 About the same time, Hulwan seems to
have become the administrative center for Mah of Kufa. In the events
of 677, it was called a kura between the capital and the border of
Rayy.95 When al-Mukhtar appointed Sa'd ibn l:Iudhayfa as governor
of Hulwan in 685, he instructed his financial officers ('ummiil) in the
Jabal to turn over the revenue of their districts (kuwar) to Sa'd.^96 The
geographers knew better than to consider Hulwan as part of Iraq.
Ya'qubl explains that it was one of the districts of the Jabal, but that
its land tax (khariij) was incorporated into that of the districts of the
Sawad.^97
90 Ibid., I, 2478.
91 Ibid., I, 2637.
92 Baladhuri, FutU/J, p. 306; Tabari, Ta'nkh, I, 2632-34, 2647, 2672; 11, 941.
93 Ibid., I, 3058. According to Dinawari (Akhbiir at-tiwiil, p. 165), ]arir ibn 'Abdulliih
al-Bajali was 'Uthman's 'iimil in 656.
94 Baladhuri, FutU/J, p. 306.
9S Tabari, Ta'rlkh, 11, 182.
96 Ibid., 11, 635. AI-Mukhtar is also said to have appointed Ibn Malik al-Bakrawi
governor of Hulwan and Masabadhan while he appointed 'Abdulliih ibn al-l:Iarith
governor of Mahayn (Dinawar and Nihawand) and Hamadan (Dinawari, Akhbiir at-
tiwiil, p. 300).
97 Ya'qiibi, Les pays, p. 68.