ADMINISTRATIVE GEOGRAPHYMaysan as Ubulla, this subdistrict appears actually to have been lo-
cated along the old course of the Tigris above Madhar and in the plain
(N.P. dasht) stretching to the border of Khuzistan.^226 According to
Ibn Rustah, 'Abdasi, on the old Tigris above Madhar, was one of the
kuwar of Dast-i Maysan.^227 At the time of the conquest, Dast-i Maysan
was defended by a marzbiin and after defeating him 'Utba left his
own lieutenant there.^228 Shortly afterwards, Jaz' ibn Mu'awiya was
responsible for collecting tribute in Manadhir and Dast-i Maysan in
the time of 'Umar 1.229 The DShT mint mark, which occurs on Arab-
Sasanian coins from 672 to 686 without any known Sasanian pre-
cedents, is likely to stand for Dasht-i Maysan since the coins were
struck by Ziyad, 'Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad, and Mu~'ab ibn az-Zu-
bayr.^230 Dasht-i Maysan appears as a mint for post-reform dirhams
only in 699-700, followed by Manadhir from 700 to 714.231 If Dast-
i Maysan was really located where it seems to have been, this evidence
for its administration in the first century after the conquest suggests
that this region was not entirely or immediately ruined and abandoned
by the shift in the course of the lower Tigris in the late Sasanian period.
This configuration of subdistricts survived in the early Islamic period
as the Kura (or Kuwar) Dijla along the Blind Tigris. It is identified as
the kura of Shadh Bahman by Ibn Khurradadhbih and yaqiit. Abii
Miisa is supposed to have established the districts of Kuwar Dijla
when he was governor of Basra (637-38), ordered a cadestral survey,
and levied taxes there.^232 Kuwar Dijla was a distinct administrative
unit for listing tax returns in the caliphate of Mu'awiya, and in 684
al-Muhallab provisioned his forces by collecting the taxes of Kuwar
Dijla.^233
Ubulla, on the right bank of the Tigris estuary opposite Furat, was
the major port for the Indian trade in both the Sasanian and Islamic
periods, as well as the anchor for the southeastern end of the Sasanian
desert frontier. In the late sixth century, Ubulla was part of the Lakhmi
226 Streck, "Maisan," EI(I), Ill, 148.
227 Ibn Rustah, A'liiq, p. 94.
228 DinawarI, Akhbiir at-tiwiil, p. 124; Tabarl, Ta'rlkh, I, 2385.
229 Abii Yiisuf, Kharii;, p. 199. Manadhir appears to have been east of Dast-i Maysan
on the border of Khuzistan (Yaqiit, Buldiin, IV, 644).
230 Gaube, Arabosasanidische Numismatik, p. 94; Walker, Arab-Sassanian Coins, pp.
xlv, xlviii, lvi, cxvii-cxviii, cxl-cxli, 69-70, 104.
231 Lavoix, Monnaies musulmanes, p. 68-69, 91; Miles, "Rare Islamic Coins," pp.
24-25.
232 BaladhurI, Futu!;, p. 345.
233 Tabarl, Ta'rlkh, n, 591; Ya'qiibI, Ta'rlkh, n, 277.