Iraq after the Muslim Conquest - Michael G. Morony

ARAMAEANS

in the case of Qayyoma bar Mershabor.19 A further indication of the

kind of mixture existing at Nippur is provided by a Syriac bowl text

that contains Judaic references but was written for a certain Mihr-

Hormizd bar Mamay and his wife Bahroe bath Bath Siihde, whose

mother's name is Christian and means "daughter of the martyrs."20

A similar mixture is evident in the case of a certain Timotheos bar

Mamay.21

Such conditions lie behind Mas'iid"i's picture of the assimilation of

the Anbiil with the Persians in the Sasanian period and the complaint

he records by a "modern" poet that even villagers claimed descent

from Kisrii, son of Qubiidh.^22 The bowl texts also indicate there was

a religious dimension to assimilation between Aramaeans and Persians.

Aramaeans were pagans, Mandaeans, Jews, and Christians, so it is

well to remember that the religious issues and developments to be

discussed under these headings largely concern this population.

ARAMAEANS IN EARLY ISLAMIC IRAQ

Since Aramaeans were the majority of the agricultural population,
it was they who paid the land tax and kept up the irrigation system.
Consequently, they were the people most directly affected by the rise
in tax rates under the Muslims in the Sawad and by changes in the
irrigation system in both periods.
Otherwise; the immediate effects of the Islamic conquest on the
Aramaean population of Iraq amounted to a surface disruption during
the fighting, followed by a settlement that reproduced the general
situation under the Sasanians. The first Muslim raids, those of Khiilid
and Muthannii ibn l;Iiiritha, took captives from among the settled
population, particularly in Maysan, and carried them off to Madina.^23
However, ~aliibii or his son Bu~buhrii preserved the people of Baniqya
and Barusma from attack in return for the payment of one thousand
dirhams, a taylasiin, (N.P., stole) and an agreement to aid the Muslims

19 Yamauchi, Incantation Texts, pp. 187,231,233. Dade should be compared with
the Persian Diidhoe or Dadoes Gusti, Namenbuch, pp. 75-76, 81-82). Mershabor is
an abbreviation of Mithra-Shiipiir and should be compared with Mihrshiibhor Gusti,.
Namenbuch, p. 206). Mahlapta, Ahata, and Qayyoma are Aramaic.
20 Montgomery, Incantation Texts, pp. 231-35. For Mihr-Hormizd and Mamay, see
justi, Namenbuch, p. 189. Bahroe is probably a diminutive form of Bahriim. Several
women on these bowls have male names.
21 Yamauchi, Incantation Texts, pp. 223, 225.
22 Mas'iidi, Tanbih, p. 38.
23 Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqiit, VII, 92, 114.