PERSIANSperity and importance of Mada'in would appear to have been the
Khariji sack of the city in 687 when men, women, and children were
indiscriminately slaughtered, but which was probably restricted to the
Muslim population.^127 Thereafter, Mada'in survived asa small city
until the foundation of the 'Abbasi capital at Baghdad.us Hulwan,
Saymara, and Sirawan along the northeast border of Iraq continued
to have Persian populations mixed with Arabs and Kurds.^129 In the
agricultural districts along the Nahrawan canal east of the Tigris, the
town of Dayr 'A qui continued to be inhabited by noble landowners,
although this town was smaller in the Islamic period than it had been
under the Sasanians.130 Likewise Jarjaraya, the administrative seat of
the lower Nahrawan district, continued to be inhabited by the de-
scendents of Persian nobles,131 as did Madharaya on the Tigris below
it.m There were dahaqtn at Baghdad in 659,133 and the rural nobility
continued to live in town at Kaskar even after the founding of Wasit
across the river. 134 In the Sawad of Kufa, the lowest grade of dahaqtn
continued to reside in villages and estates in the countryside.l3S
Persian peasants also survived into the Islamic period in Iraq, al-
though in decreasing numbers. The small villages in the countryside
around Basra continued to be inhabited by Persians,136 but they were
only an extension of the Persian population of Khuzistan, because the
Islamic state did not settle any new Persian peasants in the Sawad.
Those Persians who survived the conquest maintained their cultural
heritage among themselves. The festivals of Nawriiz, Mihrijan, and
the Kawsaj continued to be observed by Persians in Iraq. Nawriiz,
which was supposed to coincide with the vernal equinox and fell on
the first day of Farvardin, the first month of the year, had served as
the beginning of the fiscal year under the Sasanians. It was the moment
at which administrative appointments took effect, and a time for pre-
senting gifts to the sovereign, minting new coins, purifying the fire
temples by ceremonial ablutions and sacrifices, and issuing procla-
127 Tabari, Ta'rfkh, n, 755.
128 Ibn f::Iawqal, $urat aI-art!, n, 244; IgakhrI, Masiilik, I, 86.
129 Ya'qiibi, Les pays, pp. 65-68.
130 Adams, Land Behind Baghdad, p. 91; Ya'qiibi, Les pays, p. 164.
13l Ya'qiibi, Les pays, p. 164.
132 Ibid.
133 D1nawari, Akhbiir at-tiwiil, p. 219.
134 Ya'qiibi, Les pays, pp. 165-66.
I3S Tabari, Ta'rfkh, I, 3423; Ya'qiibi, Les pays, p. 140.
136 Ibn f::Iawqal, $urat aI-art!, p. 238; l~rakhri, Masiilik, p. 81.