ADMINISTRATIONperiod or at the time of the conquest. However, in 696, there is a
reference to an 'amil of Sura for al-J:Iajjaj in charge of collecting the
kharaj whose treasury (Ar. dar al-kharaj) and tax collectors were
located at Samarraja.^139 The sub districts of Baniqya and Barusma
appear to have been more important at the time of the conquest, when
they were both controlled by the local notable, Saliiba, or by his son
Bu~buhra. These sub districts seem to have been west of Sura in the
region between the two branches of the Euphrates. Bu~buhra ibn Sal-
uba arranged peace terms for Baniqya and Barusma in 633 with Khalid
or with Jarir ibn 'Abdullah, whom Khalid put in charge of Baniqya
and Bisma. The following year Abu 'Ubayd made a local notable
called Farrukh responsible for the tribute of Barusma,14o
Downstream from these subdistricts, the stretch of the Euphrates
called the Lower Nahr Sura in the Islamic period irrigated the sub-
districts of Babil, Khutarniyya, Upper and Lower Falluja, and Nah-
rayn.^141 Babil appears to have been an administrative center of some
importance in the late Sasanian period. Dinawari calls Sabur ar-Razi,
who was ispahbadh of the Sawad in the reign of Qubadh I, the 'amil
of Babil and Khutarniyya.^142 Later, in the reign of Khusraw Parviz,
Mardanshah is called the marzban of Babil and Khutarniyya.^143 There
is also a seal impression of the mobadh of Babil in Veh-Kavat.^144
Bistam, the dihqan of Burs, who tied the floating bridges for Zuhra
ibn al-J:Iawiyya and who received Khalid ibn 'Urfuta hospitably when
the latter was pursuing the Persians after the Battle of Qadisiyya, is
probably the Bistam ibn Narsi who, as dihqan of Babil and Khutar-
niyya, was granted a stipend of one or two thousand dirhams by 'Umar
I,145 In 697 al-JarraQ ibn 'Abdullah al-Hakmi was at Babil and al-
Fallujatayn under al-J:Iajjaj.146
139 Tabari, Ta'rfkh, n, 955.
140 Baliidhuri, Futii~, pp. 244-45; Tabari, Ta'rfkh, I, 2017, 2019,1049-50,2052,
2170; Yiiqiit, Buldiin, I, 483-84.
141 Musil, Middle Euphrates, p. 275; Streck, Landschaft Baby/onien, p. 30; Suhriib,
'A;ii'ib al-aqiilfm, p. 125. Yiiqiit (Buldiin, n, 453) calls Khutarniyya a niihiya of Babil.
142 Browne, "Nihiiyat," p. 226; Dinawari, Akhbiir at-tiwiil, p. 66.
143 Browne, "Nihiiyat," p. 254; Dinawari, Akhbiir at-tiwiil, p. 115.
144 R. Frye, "Sassanian Clay Sealings in the Baghdad Museum," Sumer 27 (1970),
338-39, fig. 3.
145 Baliidhuri, Futii~, pp. 259, 265, 457; Tabari, Ta'rfkh, I, 2421; Ya'qiibi, Ta'rikh,
n, 176. The canal that went by Burs at the time of the conquest was called the Nahr
Bistam (Baliidhurl, Futii~, p. 259).
146 Baliidhuri, Ansiib al-ashriif, MS Siileymaniye Kiitiiphanesi (no. S98), fol. SOb.
However, this text does not actually say that al-Jarrii.l was governor or that al-l;Iajjiij
had appointed him.