turned towards al-Baṭâiʾḥ[1] and overflowed the buildings and plants, drowning many cantons that were there. Kisra[2] rode out in person to block the breaches; he scattered money right and left, put many workmen to death and, according to a report, crucified on certain breaches forty dam builders in one day; but all that was of no avail against the force of water.[3]
With the advent of the Arabs into al-ʿIrâḳ, the Persians were kept too busy fighting to mind the breaches which would burst and no one would mind them; and the feudal lords [dihḳâns] failed to block them. Consequently, al-Baṭîḥah was made wider and more extensive.[4]
ʿAbdallâh ibn-Darrâj. When Muʿâwiyah ibn-abi-Sufyân became ruler, he appointed ʿAbdallâh ibn-Darrâj, his freedman, over the kharâj of al-ʿIrâḳ. ʿAbdallâh, by cutting down the reeds and stopping the water by dams, reclaimed for his master lands in al-Baṭâʾiḥ, the income of which amounted to 5,000,000 [dirhams].
Ḥassân an-Nabaṭi. Then came Ḥassân an-Nabaṭi, the freedman of the banu-Ḍabbah, the builder of Ḥauḍ [reservoir] Ḥassân in al-Baṣrah and the one after whom Manârat [light-house] Ḥassân in al-Baṭâʾiḥ is named. Ḥassân reclaimed certain lands in al-Baṭâʾiḥ for al-Ḥajjâj in the days of al-Walîd and for Hishâm ibn-ʿAbd-al-Malik.[5]
Al-Janb canal. Before al-Baṭâʾiḥ was formed, there was at Kaskar a canal called al-Janb, along the south bank of which ran the post-road to Maisân, Dastumaisân and al-Ahwâz. When al-Baṭâʾiḥ was formed, that part of the
