ADMINISTRATIONcourse of the Dujayl, southeast of Maskin and west of the Sarat branch.^125
There is no information about the administration of either Maskin or
Qatrabbul in the seventh century. The subdistrict of Baduraya was
the territory irrigated by the eastern end of the Sarat canal from Mu-
hawwal to the Tigris at Baghdad.^126 Its center was probably the for-
tified town of Mahoza dhe Badarun, with its nearby market at the
village of Baghdad on the west bank of the Tigris.^127 The denial by
Sayf ibn Hani in 687 that he had been given the kharaj of Baduraya
in return for his support of Mu~'ab ibn az-Zubayr would indicate
that Baduraya existed as an administrative jurisdiction by at least the
time of the second fitna.^128
The third district formed out of Ard Babillay along the Zab canal
system (Zawabi) parallel to the Tigris. It was included in the land
irrigated by the Euphrates, although in the Sasanian period the lower
part of this system appears to have been partly fed from the Tigris.^129
This district seems to have been in existence by the fifth century when
a certain Yazdgushnasp is called the padhghOsban of Zawabi.130 Al-
though Ibn Khurradadhbih lists three sub districts of Upper, Middle,
and Lower Zab, only two can be confirmed: the Upper Zab with its
administrative center at the town of Nu'maniyya, founded by an-
Nu'man ibn al-Mundhir during the Lakhmi ascendency in the late
sixth century, and the Lower Zab (or Nahr Sabus) with its main town
called Nahr Sabus located where it flowed into the Tigris.l31
Zawabi survived the conquest as an administrative district because
the people there came to terms with the conquerors. After the Battle
of Kaskar, Abii 'Ubayd and al-Muthanna ibn J:laritha gave the same
terms of a tribute of four dirhams per person to Zawabi that they had
given to Nahr Jawbar.^132 Peace terms were renewed following the
Battle of Qadisiyya by the dihqan of Zawabi with 'Urwa ibn Zayd
125 Musil, Middle Euphrates, pp. 135,269; M. Streck, Die alte Landschaft Babylonien
nach den arabischen Geographen (Leiden, 1900-1901), p. 24; Yaqiit, Buldiin, IV, 133.
126 Yaqiit, Buldiin, Ill, 378; IV, 133.
127 Chabot, "Chastete," pp. 46, 263; Di:nawari, Akhbiir a{-{iwiil, pp. 366, 379; Tabad,
Ta'rlkh, I, 2077; Ya<qiibi, Les pays, p. 6.
128 Tabari, Ta'rlkh, 11, 772.- Gibson, Kish, p. 64; Ibn Khurradadhbih, Masiilik, p. 8.
130 Di:nawari, Akhbiir a{-{iwal, p. 57.
131 Qazwini, Athiir al-bilad, 11, 314; Ya<qiibi, Les pays, p. 164; Yaqiit, Buldiin, II,
132 Tabari, Ta'rlkh, I, 2170.