ADMINISTRATIVE GEOGRAPHYUpper and Lower Falluja appear to have been along the ancient
Pallacotas canal west of the Lower Nahr Sura and not far from Ba-
niqya.^147 Bu~buhrii ibn Salubii was dihqan of these sub districts at the
time of the conquest, when Khiilid ibn al-Walid appointed 'Abdulliih
ibn Wathima an-Na~ri to collect the tribute (jizya) in Upper Falluja,148
After the conquest, JamIl ibn Bu~buhrii was dihqan of Falalij and
Nahrayn.^149 In 687 Tir-Gushnasp, the dihqan of Narsi, fled to 'Ayn
Tamr with the money of Falluja,15° Al-I;Iajjiij appointed 'Ubaydulliih
ibn Abi l-Mukhariq governor of Upper Falluja or of the two Fallujas,
and JamIl ibn Bu~buhrii is supposed to have given him advice.1s1 The
subdistrict of Nahrayn belongs to this group along the Lower Nahr
Sura and was probably the territory between two closely parallel ca-
nals. At the time of the conquest, Khiilid put Bashir ibn al-Kha~ii~iyya
in charge of Nahrayn. Bashir took up his residence at a place called
Kuwayfa in Banbura near Babil. Although the geographers include
Nahrayn among the sub districts of the Sawad, there does not seem to
be any information on its administration after the conquest.1S2
Although the remaining subdistricts of Veh-Kavat were in the region
southeast of the Lower Nahr Sura, their exact locations are still un-
known and it is impossible to identify the courses of the canals as-
sociated with them or to relate them to a single hydro graphic system.
This region may have originally been the downstream extension of
the Babylon branch of the Euphrates and its canals before they ran
into the marshes.
At ~he time of the conquest the subdistricts of this region, later
called Lower Bihqubadh, appear to have been Furat Sirya, Hurmuzjird,
Rudhmistan, and Nistar. Furat Sirya was east of Falalij and west of
Hurmuzjird. Its dihqiin, Ziidh ibn Buhaysh, who was called the lord
(Ar. saNb) of Furat Sirya, made peace with Khiilid in 633 in return
for tribute but led the Persian infantry at the Battle of Qadisiyya.^153
147 Baladhuri, Futu~, p. 245; Musil, Middle Euphrates, pp. 276, 279; Suhrab, 'Ajii'ib
al-aqiillm, pp. 124-25; Ya'qubi, Les pays (Cairo, 1937), p. 140.
148 Tabari, Ta'rlkh, I, 2051-52; Ya'qubi, Ta'rlkh, Il, 176.
149 Baladhuri, Futu~, p. 457.
150 Tabari, Ta'rlkh, Il, 773. The Nahr Nars, which branched off from the Lower
Nahr Sura at Naresh (modern HilIa), was probably an administrative subdistrict in this
period (Berliner, Geographie, p. 54; Musil, Middle Euphrates, p. 275; Obermeyer,
Landschaft Babylonien, pp. 306-10; Suhrab, 'Ajii'ib al-aqiillm, p. 125).
151 Ja~i~, Rasii'i/, Il, 32. Jahshiyari (Wuzarii', p. 36) calls him 'UbayduIlahibn al-
Mukharib.
152 Tabari, Ta'rlkh, I, 2052; Yaqut, Buldiin, I, 482.
153 Tabari, Ta'rlkh, I, 2050, 2258.