ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY AND PRACTICEThis method of joining columns was part of Persian building tech-
niques. In addition, Arabic literary tradition consciously associates
Sasanian influences with public construction at Kufa. The masjid,
palace, and treasury are said to have been built for Sa'd by a Persian
from Hamadan called Riizbih ibn Buzurjmihr ibn Sasan-(possibly a
disgraced member of the royal family)-who had taken advantage of
the fall of the dynasty to return from exile in the Byzantine empire.
He is at least a convenient figure to personify the combination of
Mediterranean, Mesopotamian, and Iranian building traditions at Kufa.
Ziyad is also said to have employed builders from the pre-Islamic
period when he rebuilt Sa'd's masjid at Kufa. One of them, who had
worked for the Sasanians, gave him the technique for making columns
as described above.^165
The building projects of Ziyad seem to mark a turning point in the
introduction of the architectural forms of authoritarian rule among
Muslims in Iraq that were quite in line with Sasanian precedents. This
was at least true to the extent that imposing public buildings reflect
a greater control over resources. Such buildings also reflect the treat-
ment of the Muslim populations of Basra and Kufa more as subjects
than before, and Ziyad's intention to eclipse neighborhood tribal mas-
jids and tribal meeting places (Ar. sg. majlis) with the central congre-
gational masjid and the palace of the governor. The main requirements
of such buildings were magnificence and security. Thr,eats of assassi-
nation and attacks on rulers and governors in the masjid provided
suffi,?ient practical reasons for the introduction of a protective chamber
(Ar. maq#lra) in the masjid at Damascus by Mu'awiya and by Ziyad
at Basra and Kufa. Ziyad introduced other elements into masjid ar-
chitecture that were associated with the need for security. At Basra,
Abii Miisa had set the pulpit (Ar. minbar) in the center of the masjid,
which made it necessary for the governor to pass through the con-
gregation on his way to the pulpit to lead Friday worship. Ziyad's
claim that it was not only dangerous but inappropriate for the imiim
to pass among the people appears to reflect pre-Islamic attitudes to-
wards the elevation and seclusion of rulers which, in Iraq, had been
most immediately associated with the Sasanians. Consequently, the
minbar was moved to the south side of the masjid faced by Muslims
during worship and a door was cut into its wall. The governor's palace,
the stone bridge with leaden joints of Sasanian construction at the village of Haruniyya
near Jalula' should be noted (see G. Le Strange, Lands of the Eastern Caliphate [Cam-
bridge, 1930], p. 62.)
165 Tabari, Ta'rikh,), 2491-92, 2494.