ADMINISTRATIONof Kaskar.201 In 687 an 'amil and treasury (Ar. bayt mal) were at
Kaskar,202 and the city became a mint for post-reform dirhams.^203
Several important changes in the province of Kaskar under al-I:Iajjaj
were associated with the foundation of Was it across the Tigris from
the city of Kaskar in about 702. AI-I:Iajjaj is said to have taken the
doors or gates (Ar. abwab) from Zandaward and several other places
for the citadel and congregational masjid of Wasit.^204 Because of this,
Zandaward is said to have been ruined by the creation of Wasit.205
However, the decline of Zandaward and of the region served by the
late Sasanian canal system between Babil and Kaskar is likely to have
been related to al-I:Iajjaj's refusal to repair the breaches in the canals
because he suspected that the local dahaqtn had supported the rebellion
of Ibn al-Ash'ath.^206 It is also likely to be related to the digging of
the Nil canal by al-I:Iajjaj, which reoriented what was left of the older
irrigation system northwards towards the Tigris.^207
Although the district of Wasit was roughly equivalent to that of
Kaskar as a local administrative division,208 the city of Was it also
served as the administrative capital for the territory of Kufa and Basra,
which were combined to form the province of Iraq under the MarwanIs
from the time of that city's foundation by al-I:Iajjaj. Was it was a mint
city for both post-reform dirhams and bronze coins.209 In addition,
since the dependencies of both Kufa and Basra in Iran and Arabia
were included in the territory under the authority of al-I:Iajjaj, Wasit
was actually the administrative capital of the eastern half of the Islamic
empire in the early eighth century. After the foundation of Baghdad
as the imperial capital by the 'Abbasls, Wasit reverted to the position
of local administrative center, as Kaskar had been.
There is very little to say about the subdistricts of KaskarfWasit.
Apart from the use of administrative terminology in stray references
to particular places being rasattq or a'mal, there is almost no confir-
mation in the form of the appointment or presence of officials at the
subdistrict level. Although Zandaward may have actually been a sub-
201 Dinawari, Akhbiir at·tiwiil, p. 163.
202 Tabari, Ta'Ttkh, 11, 775.
203 Walker, Arab-Sassanian Coins, pp. cxxxiii-cxxxiv, cxli.
204 Baladhuri, FutU~, p. 290; Tabari, Ta'rtkh, 11, 1125-26; Yaqiit, Buldiin, IV, 884.
205 Yaqiit, Buldiin, Il, 951.
206 Baladhuri, Futu~, p. 293.
207 Ibid., p. 290; Gibson, Kish, pp. 46, 53, 57.
208 AI-'AI!, "Min~aqat al-Wasi~," (1) p. 243; (2) p. 159.
209 Lavoix, Monnaies musulmanes, pp. 69-70, 93-94, 405-6.