accompanied by players on the tambourines and singers. They agreed to terms similar to those made with the people of Ḥamâh. Abu-ʿUbaidah's horsemen reached as far as az-Zarrâʿah and al-Ḳasṭal. He then passed through Maʿarrat Ḥimṣ [Maʿarrat an-Nuʿmân] which was named after an-Nuʿmân ibn-Bashîr.[1] Its people came out playing on tambourines and singing before him. Thence he came to Fâmiyah whose people met him in the same way and consented to pay poll-tax and kharâj. Thus was the question of Ḥimṣ brought to an end, and Ḥimṣ and Ḳinnasrîn became parts of one whole.[2]
The "Junds" and "ʿAwâṣim." There is a disagreement regarding the name "Jund"[3] [as applied to the military districts of Syria]. According to some, Palestine was called "Jund" by the Moslems because it was a collection of many provinces, and so was each of Damascus, Jordan, Ḥimṣ and Ḳinnasrîn. According to others, each district which had an army that received its monthly allowance in it was called "Jund." Thus Mesopotamia belonged to Ḳinnasrîn; but ʿAbd-al-Malik ibn-Marwân made it a separate "Jund," that is, made its army take its allowance from its kharâj. ʿAbd-al-Malik was asked to do so by Muḥammad ibn-Marwân. own to the time of Yazîd ibn-Muʿâwiyah, Ḳinnasrîn and its districts were included in the province of Ḥimṣ; but Yazîd constituted Kinnasrîn, Antioch, Manbij and their districts as one "Jund." When ar-Rashîd Hârûn ibn-al-Mahdi was made caliph, he set Ḳinnasrîn apart and made of it and its districts one "Jund." He also separated Manbij, Dulûk, Raʿbân, Ḳûrus, Antioch and Tîzîn and called them "al-ʿAwâṣim"[4] because these were
