ADMINISTRATIONThe district ofVeh-Artakhshatr lay along the Nahr Malik and Kutha
canals where Ardashir I is said to have established Behrasir itself, with
Rumaqan, Nahr Durqit, Kutha, and Nahr Jawbar as its sub districts,
and appointed tax collectors ('ummiil) for them.107 Rumaqan was
probably between the city of Veh-Artakhshatr and Sabat,I08 but there
are no details of its administration in this period. Nor is there infor-
mation about the administration of Kutha in this period, although the
banks of the Nahr Kutha were densely settled and Kutha was an
important town in the sixth and early seventh centuries.^109 There is
better evidence for the existence of Nahr Jawbar and Nahr Durqit in
the seventh century. After the battle of Kaskar in 634, the Persian
Farwandadh came to terms with al-Muthanna ibn I:Iiiritha and Abil
'Ubayd for the subdistrict of Nahr Jawbar in return for collecting
four dirhams per person there,110 Two dihqiins among those respon-
sible for the khariij of Nahr Durqit are mentioned in the events of696.^111 The subdistrict of Nahr Malik along the canal of the same
name actually belongs to this configuration, as is suggested by a seal
impression of the mobadh of N ahr Malik in Veh-Artakhshatr .112 After
the conquest, the dihqiin of Nahr Malik and Kutha, Brilz ibn Yaz-
dagerd, was granted a stipend of one or two thousand dirhams by
'Umar in 641.^113
The evidence suggests that the district of Veh-Artakhshatr was dis-
solved as an immediate result of the Islamic conquest, although its
subdistricts survived as administrative units, in some cases with native
notables as officials, and were rejoined to Ard Babil. When 'Ali sent
Yazid ibn Abi Zayd al-An~iiri from Madina to administer the Eu-
phrates sub districts in 656, his jurisdiction was defined as Bihqubadhat
plus the rasiifiq of Nahr Malik, Kutha, Behrasir, Rumakan, Nahr
Jawbar, and Nahr Durkit.^114 It was only after 'All came to Kufa that
the ustiin of Behrasir was reconstituted as a separate administrative
jurisdiction.
The second district created out of the territory of Ard Babil was
formed around the city of Firuz Shapur, which was founded as a
107 Tabari, Ta'rlkh, I, 819; Ibn Khurradadhbih (p. 7) gives the same list of subdistricts.
108 Al-'Ali, "Mada'in," pp. 431-33.
109 Ibid., p. 438; M. Gibson, The City and Area of Kish (Miami, 1972), pp. 52, 57.
110 Tabid, Ta'rlkh, I, 2170.
111 Ibid., n, 941.
112 Bivar, Western Asiatic Seals, p. 39.
113 Baladhuri, Futii~, pp. 265,457-58; Ya'qubi, Ta'rlkh, n, 176.
114 Baladhuri, Futii~, p. 271.