Iraq after the Muslim Conquest - Michael G. Morony

ADMINISTRATIVE GEOGRAPHY

district and the tassiij called Ustan is likely to have been the subdistrict

of the city of Kaskar itself, there appears to be no record of local

officials in these subdistricts. Badhibin and Mubarak may have been

sub districts in the early Islamic period, but the rustiiq of Sin probably

only dates from the time of al-I:Iajjaj.

ARD MAYSAN

The remainder of the region of Mesene downstream from Kaskar
formed the province called Meshan in the Sasanian period. Charax,
the former capital of Characene, at the confluence of the Tigris and
the Karun survived as Karkh Maysan.210 The change in the course of
the lower Tigris and the spread of the swamps due to flooding that
began in the late fifth century and was repeated in the early seventh
century turned northern and western Maysan, respectively, into desert
or swamp. It effectively reduced the remainder of Ard Maysan to the
territory along the lowest part of the old course of the Tigris (the Blind
Tigris), which still carried water provided by tributaries from about
Madhar to the estuary.211
In the reorganization of the late Sasanian period, Maysan appears
to have been included in the Quarter of the South,212 and the city of
Furat may have become the provincial capital. The Arabic tradition
provides the information that the city of Furat Maysan on the Tigris
estuary opposite Ubulla was called Bahman Ardashir, and that Furat
Basra and Bahman Ardashir were also designations for the same kiira
extending from Was it to Basra and including, Maysan and Madhar.213
Although it is natural to suppose that Furat was renamed Bahman
Ardashir by Ardashir I, there is no evidence so far of the use of this
name before the late Sasanian period. Shadh Bahman appears to have
been the real title of this kiira.^214
The subdivisions of this kiira at the time of the conquest and in
early Islamic administration were Bahman Ardashir or Furat, Maysan,

210 Fiey, Assyrie chritienne, Ill, 273; Nodelman, "Characene," pp. 102, 106, 114.
2ll Ibn Rustah, A'liiq, p. 95. Mas'iidi (Tanbfh, p. 52) says that the Persians called
Bahmanshir the stretch of the lower Tigris from Maftah to Ubulla and 'Abbadan.
212 Hewsen, "Armenian Historical Geography," p. 296; Marquart, Eriinsahr, pp. 8,
16,40.
213!:1amza, Ta'rfkh, p. 43; Yaqiit, Buldiin, I, 770; Ill, 861-62.
214 Ibn Khurradadhbih, Masiilik, p. 7; Yaqiit, Buldiin, Ill, 227. This is similar to the
use of Shadh Firuz for the district of which Firuz Shapur (Anbar) was the capital, since
there was no Sasani'an monarch called Bahman.