ADMINISTRATIVE GEOGRAPHYwest because of the increased importance of the region around Kufa
and the shift of the main course of the Euphrates to that channel.
Sometime after the caliphate of 'All, Bihqubadhat was divided into
the three districts (kuwar) of Upper, Middle, and Lower Bihqubadh.
The earliest evidence for this division is provided in 685, when al-
Mukhtar appointed Qudama ibn Abl 'Isa to Upper Bihqubadh, Ka'b
ibn Qarafa to Middle Bihqubadh, and I;Iabib ibn Munqidh ath-Thawrl
to Lower Bihqubadh.^161
HIRA
The reduced territory of Ard Babil or Bihqubadhat was also called
the Sawad of Hira. In the account of Khalid's settlement following his
raid in Iraq, Baniqya, Basma, Nahrayn, and Rudhmistan are described
as being in the Sawad of Hira.^162 Such usage was the result of Lakhml
control in the late sixth century, when the territory under an-Nu'man
ibn al-Mundhir reached from Anbar to Bahrayn and across the Sawad
to Nu'maniyya near the Tigris. But this was at the height of Lakhmi
power. Normally the territory of the Lakhml kingdom consisted of
the region west of the middle Euphrates from Hira to Anbar, Baqqa,
and Hit and including 'Ayn Tamr and Qutqutana on the edge of the
desert.^163 After the execution of an-Nu'man ibn al-Mundhir, the last
of the Banii Lakhm, by Khusraw Parvlz in about 602, the general
Hurmuzan was sent to Hira but was defeated by the Banii Shayban
at Dhu Qar in about 604. Afterwards, the desert border was restored
by Riizbl ibn Marziiq, the marzban of Hira.^164
For the rest of the Sasanian period, Hira was the administrative
center of a frontier district. For seven or nine years, Hira was governed
for Khusraw Parvlz by Iyas ibn Qabl~a at-Ta'i along with a finance
official called Nakhirjan.^165 At the time of Khalid's attack, Azadh-
bih ibn Baniyan ibn Mihrbundadh had been marzbiin of Hira for
161 Tabari, Ta'rzkh, 1I, 635. This text does not specify how the subdistricts were
distributed among these divisions.
162 Tabari, Ta'rlkh, I, 2057.
163 I:Iamza, Ta'rlkh, p. 84; Yiiqiit, Bu/diin, 1I, 379. I:Iamza says Raqqa instead of
Baqqa.
164 Fiey, Assyrie chretienne, Ill, 221; I:Iamza, Ta'rzkh, p. 53; Mas'iidi, Muruj, I, 320;
Noldeke, Perser und Araber, pp. 346-47; G. Rothstein, Die Dynastie der Lalzmiden in
a/·l:lira (Berlin, 1899), pp. 71, 123; Scher, "Histoire nestorienne," 1I(2), 546, 549;
Tabari, Ta'rlkh, I, 1038.
165 Baiadhuri, Futul?, p. 243; I:Iamza, Ta'rlkh, p. 96; Mas'iidi, MUrUj, 1I, 229; Roth·
stein, Lalzmiden, p. 123; Tabari, Ta'rlkh, 1,1029,1038,2017; Yiiqiit, Buidiin, IV, 770.