erected Wâsiṭ, al-Ḥajjâj had the idea of taking up his abode in aṣ-Ṣîn of Kaskar. He, therefore, dug Nahr [canal] aṣ-Ṣîn and ordered that the workmen be chained together so that none of them might run away as a deserter. After that it occurred to him to establish Wâsiṭ[1] which he later occupied, then he dug out an-Nîl[2] and az-Zâbi canals. The latter was so called because it branched off from the old Zâbi. He thus reclaimed the land around these two canals and erected the city called an-Nîl[3] and populated it. He then turned his attention to certain crown-domains which ʿAbdallâh ibn-Darrâj, a freedman of Muʿâwiyah ibn-abi-Sufyân, had reclaimed (when with al-Mughîrah ibn-Shuʿbah he had charge of the kharâj of al-Kûfah) for Muʿâwiyah. These domains included waste lands, swamps, ditches and thickets. Al-Ḥajjâj built dams[4] in these domains; uprooted the reeds in them and added them to the domains of ʿAbd-al-Malik ibn-Marwân after populating them.
To his castle and the cathedral mosque in Wâsiṭ, al-Ḥajjâj brought doors from Zandaward,[5] ad-Dauḳarah, Dârûsâṭ, Dair Mâsirjasân[6] and Sharabîṭ, whose people protested, saying, "We have been guaranteed the security of our cities and possessions;" but he did not mind what they said.
Al-Mubarak. Al-Mubarak[7] canal was dug by Khâlid ibn-ʿAbdallâh-l-Ḳasri al-Mubarak and commemorated by al-Farazdaḳ in certain verses.
