ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY AND PRACTICEthe time of Ziyad. The earliest level of the plan of the dar al-imara
excavated at Kufa included a squarish columned hall opening off the
central courtyard and connecting to an adjacent domed chamber be-
hind it (see fig. 4b). Although it has been ascribed to the time of al-
I:Iajjaj,177 it may belong to the time of Ziyad or even earlier. The
example set by Ziyad was followed by his son, 'Ubaydullah, who
built a red brick palace in Basra and culminated in the masjid-palace
complex and its celestial green dome which al-I:Iajjaj built at Wasit
in about 702.17^8
Thus, it seems that the use of the Iwan Kisra and of building ma-
terials from Hira by the Muslims immediately after the conquest had
both practical and symbolic aspects. Their choices symbolized the fact
that they had replaced the Sasanians as rulers, and that the property
of the former dynasty was theirs to use as they pleased. By the time
of Ziyad, if not earlier, Islamic governors in Iraq had also begun to
identify themselves with Sasanian royal traditions by appropriating
their architectural symbolism for themselves. This is indicated best by
the emergence of urban citadels and by the kind of architectural com-
plexes they were. Walls and gates controlled access to the governor
imd protected him from rebellious subjects while an audience hall
provided the location for particular kinds of ceremonies. But, although
both features responded to practical needs, they also revealed their
ideological necessity as well as the growing distance between Islamic
rulers and Muslim subjects in Sufyani Iraq.
The !:fajib
The purpose of the kind of palace and citadel architecture designed
to limit and to regulate access in the interests of security is intimately
connected to the office of doorkeeper or chamberlain (Ar. ~ajib). There
177 O. Grabar, The Formation of Islamic Art (New Haven and London, 1973), p.- 'Abd al-Malik is supposed to have held an audience at the palace of "Sa'd" in
Kufa in 691 (Zotenberg, Chronique, IV, 110). The citadel at Istakhr with its reception
hall where Ziyad fortified himself against Mu'awiya in 662 (Tabari, Ta'rikh, II, 24)
may have been one of the sources of inspiration for the day al-imara at Kufa. The
outline of a massive, squarish, unexcavated fortification with round towers at the corners
may be seen south-east of the Sasanian city of Istakhr and aligned with it. See
D. Whitcomb, "The City of Istakhr and the Marvdasht Plain," Akten des VII inter-
nationalen Kongresses fur iranische Kunst & Archiiologie, 7-10 Sept. 1976, pp. 364,
366-67.
178 Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture, pp. 132-38; Sprengling, "Persian to Arabic,"
p. 203; C. Wendell, "Baghdad: Imago Mundi, and Other Foundation Lore," IJMES 2
(1971), 119.