OTHER ETHNIC GROUPSthe Church of the Apostles in Edessa, and it is no surprise to find
bathhouses across the border at the Nestorian school in Nasibin. Sig-
nificantly, it was Abraham of Beth Rabban who had two bathhouses
built there in the sixth century: one for the use of the monks at the
school, the other for the general public to provide income for the
hospice.2o
Royal patronage by the Sasanians is presented as one of the main
reasons for the introduction of baths. This was also a source of conflict
between the monarchy and the Magian priests who objected to heating
water. Vologeses (Balash, 484-88) seems to have been the first Sasa-
nian ruler to provoke opposition from the Magian priests, who accused
him of trying to abolish their laws because he wanted to build baths
in the cities of his empire. When Qubadh I took Amid in 503, he went
to its public bath himself and enjoyed it so much that he ordered such
baths to be built throughout his empire. Although there is no evidence
that the wishes of either monarch were ever carried out, Khusraw
Anushirvan had baths built at Rumiyya for the use of the captives
from Antioch. There are remains of Sasanian baths at Kish and possibly
at Mada'in, but these belonged to palace complexes and probably
were not public baths.^21
The Islamic conquest removed the Magian objections to public bath-
ing, at least in Iraq, and the second half of the seventh century saw
an increase in bath building in and around the new urban centers of
lower Iraq. The main incentive was economic. Baths were an attractive
investment because, as with the bathhouse of the school of Nasibin,
they were a lucrative source of income. The f:lammam A 'yan was
probably the oldest bath at Kufa. Before the conquest, it had belonged
to an 'Ibadi of Hira called jabir. Afterwards, jabir's heirs sold the
bath to a mawlii of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqa~ called A'yan, after whom
it: was then named.^22 The involvement of the household of Sa'd in
founding baths at Kufa is also indicated by the baths named after
'Umar ibn Sa'd called f:lammam 'Umar, located at the village of Bitri
20 Voobus, School of Nisibis, p. 146; Wright, Joshua the Stylite, p. 33.
21 E. Kiihnel and F. Wachtsmuth, Die Ausgrabungen der zweiten Ktesiphon-Expe-
dition (Winter 1931132) (Berlin, 1933), p. 33; V. Strika, and J. Kham, "Preliminary
Report of the Survey of Islamic Monuments in Baghdad," Mesopotamia 8-9 (1973-
74), 266; J. Upton, "The Expedition to Ctesiphon 1931-32," Bulletin of the Metro-
politan Museum of Art 27 (1932), 193; Wright, Joshua the Stylite, pp. 12, 60-61.
22 Baliidhuri, Futu~, p. 281; Ibn al-Faqih, Buldiin, pp. 181-82; Tabari, Ta'Tlkh, 11,
- See also El-'Ali, "Minraqat al-Kiifa," p. 239.