ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY AND PRACTICELater literary tradition made the White Palace the prototype for the
palaces of Sa'd and Ziyad at Kufa.^171 However, except for an ante-
room connected to a domed audience chamber,172 of which a fifth-
century example survives at nearby Kish (see fig. 4a), it is difficult to
tell what features they were supposed to have in common. It is natural
to suppose that the administrative compound composed of residence
and treasury that Riizbih built for Sa' d reproduced the local style, but
the key issue was over the wooden gate and fence of reeds with which
Sa'd enclosed his compound. The creation of such a barrier (Sa'd is
said to have desired relief from the noise of the adjoining marketplace)
made the compound a stronghold (Ar. qa$r) that resembled a Sasanian
palace to the extent that the gate became a symbol of the conflict
between security and accessibility. Disapproval of such seclusion was
expressed in the famous story of how 'Umar I sent Mu!).ammad ibn
Maslama to burn the gate and the fence because it deprived the people
of Kufa of their rights by preventing them from entering Sa'd's pres-
ence.m This attitude also seems to be reflected in the claims that al-
Walid ibn 'Uqba never put a gate on his compound or had a cham-
berlain when he was governor of Kufa (646-47) for 'Uthman,174 and
that 'Ali refused to settle in the qa$r because 'Umar had disliked it
and settled in the public square instead.175
Although Ziyad is said to have "restored" Sa'd's palace at Kufa,
he was probably responsible for the first real citadels at Basra and
Kufa that enclosed the governor's residence, treasury, and prison be-
hind defensible walls and a monumental gateway from which the
governor's guards could defy the unruly population. The qa$r at Kufa
also had a public audience hall (Ar. majlis) with inscriptions in its four
corners.^176 The creation of such a complex at Kufa was partly a re-
action to the need for security. It might also be suggested, however,
that a feature such as the audience hall may have been a competitive
re~ction to the use of the White Palace at Mada'in by al-l:Iasan as
well as a requirement for more formal audience procedures used by
171 Zotenberg, Chronique, III, 423-24.
172 L'Orange, Cosmic Kingship, pp. 23-24.
173 Baladhuri, tutub, p. 278; Dinawari, Akhbiir at-tiwiii, p. 131; Tabari, Ta'rfkh, I,- This issue seems to be related to other complaints made by the Kufans about
Sa'd. See footnote 21.
174 Tabari, Ta'rfkh, I, 2812, 2846.
175 DinawarI, Akhbiir at-tiwiil, p. 162.
176 Abii Yiisuf, Khariij, p. 90; Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi, 'Iqd, V, 7; Ibn Qutayba, 'Uyun,
Il, 211; Tabarl, Ta'rfkh, 11, 114.