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THE ORIGINS OF THE ISLAMIC STATE

wall which begins at the Tigris and ends at aṣ-Ṣarât [canal].

It was in this al-Hâshimîyah that al-Manṣûr imprisoned ʿAbdallâh ibn-Ḥasan ibn-Ḥasan ibn-ʿAli ibn-abi-Ṭâlib because of his two sons Muḥammad and Ibrâhîm; and it was here that he was buried.

Ar-Ruṣâfah. Al-Manṣûr built in al-Kûfah ar-Ruṣâfah [causeway] and by his orders, his freedman abu-l-Khaṣîb Marzûḳ built for him on an old foundation the castle that bears his name: abu-l-Khaṣîb. Others say "that abu-l-Khaṣîb built the castle for himself; and al-Manṣûr used to visit him in it.

Al-Khawarnaḳ. As for al-Khawarnaḳ, it was an old Persian castle built by an-Nuʿmân ibn-Amruʾi-l-Ḳais (whose mother was ash-Shaḳîḳah, daughter of abu-Rabîʿah ibn-Dhuhl ibn-Shaibân) for Bahrâm Jûr ibn-Yazdajird ibn-Bahram ibn-Sâbîr dhu-l-Aktâf , who was brought up in the home of an-Nuʿmân.[1] It was this same an-Nuʿmân who left his kingdom and traveled around, as mentioned by ʿAdi ibn-Zaid al-ʿIbâdi in his poem. When the "blessed dynasty" appeared, al-Khawarnaḳ was given as fief to Ibrâhîm ibn-Salamah, one of their propagandists in Khurâsân and a grandfather of ʿAbd-ar-Raḥmân ibn-Isḥâḳ al-Ḳâḍi. During the caliphate of al-Maʾmûn and al-Muʿtaṣim, Ibrâhîm lived in Madînat as-Salâm and was a freedman of ar-Ribâb. In the caliphate of abu-l-ʿAbbâs, he erected the dome of al-Khawarnaḳ which did not exist before.

Bâb al-Fîl. Abu-Masʿûd al-Kûfi from certain sheikhs of al-Kûfah:—When the Moslems conquered al-Madâʾin, they captured an elephant; all the other elephants they came across before having been killed by them. They wrote to

  1. Thaʿâlibi, Mulûk al-Furs,' pp. 530–540 (ed. Zotenberg); Hamadhâni, pp. 178–179.