RESOURCES"Ma tubi'a 'an buldan al-'Iraq bi-I-Iughati-l-'arabiyyati," Sumer 10
(1954): 40-72.
Several works help to define the western borderlands during the
Sasanian period. For a late Roman perspective, see V. Chapot's La
Frontiere de l'Euphrate de Pompee Cl la conquete arabe (Paris, 1907).
The region along the upper Tigris river is treated in J. Markwart's
Sudarmenien und die Tigrisquellen nach griechischen und arabischen
Geographen (Vienna, 1930). For the Khandaq 5abur see H. Nyberg's,
"Die sassanidische Westgrenze und ihre Verteidigung," in Septentrio-
nalia et Orientalia (Stockholm, 1961), pp. 316-26, and R. Frye's "The
Sasanian System of Walls for Defense," in Studies in Memory of Gas-
ton Wiet Oerusalem, 1977), pp. 7-15.
The best treatment of the eastern Jazira, complete with topograph-
ical maps, is L. Dillemann's Haute Mesopotamie orientale et pays
adjacents (Paris, 1962). J. Piey's "Balad et le Beth 'Arab aye irakien,"
L'Orient Syrien 9 (1964): 189-232, should also be consulted. There
is still no adequate study of early Islamic Mawsil, but S. EI-Daywachi's
topographical article called "Khitat al-Maw~il fi-l-'ahd al-Umawi,"
Sumer 7 (1951): 222-36, and P. Forand's "The Governors of Mosul
According to al-Azdi's Ta'rikh al-Maw~il," JAOS 89 (1969): 88-105,
are useful starting points. Unfortunately the beginning of AzdI's history
has been lost, so his governors start in the early eighth century. Con-
cerning Takrit and its environs, see J. Kramers, "Takrit," E1(1), IV:
632, and J. Fiey, "Tagrit," L'Orient Syrien 8 (1963): 289-342, which
has a simple map. But Piey's theory that T akrit remained under By-
zantine rule in the 630s has no convincing evidence to support it; in
fact, there is a great deal of counterevidence.
Information on Baghdad in the late Sasanian and early Islamic pe-
riods may be found in the opening pages of the Ta'rtkh Baghdad
(Cairo, 1931) of Abu Bakr A~mad ibn 'All al-Khatib al-Baghdadi
(1002-71). Early descriptions of the Mada'in region are given by
M. Streck in "Seleucia und Ktesiphon," Der Alte Orient 16 (1917);
in his article on "al-Mada'in," E1(1), Ill: 75-81; and in E. Meyer's
"Seleukia und Ktesiphon," Mitteilungen der I)eutschen Orient Ge-
sellschaft 67 (April, 1929): 1-27. Although the actual site of Volo-
gesias has never been found, A. Mariq argued for an identification
with Sabat (Balash-Abad) in "Vologesias, l'emporium de Ctesiphon,"
Syria 36 (1959): 264-76, which was also published in his Classica et
Orientalia (1965), pp. 113-25. Most of what can be said about Mada'in
on the basis of literature is in the articles of S. EI-'Ali, "al-Mada'in
5'92