PEOPLEin return for a poll tax of four dirhams per person: Farrukh ibn
Andarzaghar for Barusma, Farwandiidh for Nahr Jawbar, and the
dihqiin of Zawabi for this district.^119
But the validity of these agreements seems to have been seriously
compromised in the course of the Persian counterattack, especially
after the Battle of the ,Bridge. The Persians may have forced some of
the people in lower Iraq to violate their agreements with the Mus-
lims,120 but, on the whole, the dahiiqtn appear to have tried to ac-
commodate the side which seemed to be winning at the moment, and
Ziidh ibn Buhaysh commanded the Persian infantry at the Battle of
Qadisiyya.^121
After the Muslim victory at Qadisiyya, the dahiiqtn of the Sawad
were offered the option of protection and inviolability in return for
paying taxes, and they accepted. Even those who had fled were allowed
to return, although they were subjected to heavier taxes. The people
in the White Palace at Mada'in were allowed to pay taxes in return
for protection when that city fell. These terms were extended to the
rest of the population of the city who returned after the fighting was
over.122 Similar terms were also made for the people of Takrit,123
Ba~danikan, 124 and at Mahrudh.^125 In the final settlement after the
Battle of Jalula', those dahiiqtn who survived were left with their lands
but were made responsible to the Muslim regime for the taxes.^126
Consequently, apart from the new concentration of Persians in Basra
and Kufa following the conquest, the Sasanian pattern of settlement
in Iraq tended to be preserved by the pre-Islamic class of notables
living in towns as absentee landlords or on their estates in the coun-
tryside. Although Mada'in was no longer the capital of an empire and
Kufa overshadowed it in size and importance, it continued to be an
important center for local administration. The real blow to the pros-
119 Baliidhuri, Futub, p. 251; Tabari, Ta'rlkh, I, 2170.
120 Tabari, Ta'rlkh, I, 2369.
121 Ibid., I, 2061, 2258, 2472.
122 Ibid., 1,2435,2440.
123 Ibid., 1,2477. When Tirhan and Takrit were conquered by 'Utba ibn Farqad, he
made peace with the people in the fortress of Takrit, the terms of which granted security
for rheir persons and their property. According to a local shaykh, rhe people of Takrit
had a treaty (Ar. kitiib iimiin) until the raids of the Khiiriji al-Jurashi, who tore it up
when he laid waste to the villages of Mawsil (Baliidhuri, FutUb, p. 333).
124 The people of Bandanikan made peace wirh Hiishim b. 'Utba for the payment of
iizya and khariij (Baliidhuri, FutUh, p. 265).
125 Baliidhuri, Futub, p. 265; TabarI, Ta'rlkh, I, 2461.
126 TabarI, Ta'rlkh, I, 2467-68; YalJyii ibn A.dam, Khariij, pp. 26-27, 52.