Page:Baladhuri-Hitti1916.djvu/274

 ibn-ʿAbd-al-Malik who entrusted the work to Ḥassân ibn-Mâhawaih al-Anṭâki. As the moat was being dug, a leg-bone of extraordinary length was found and sent to Hishâm.

. Hishâm also had Ḳaṭarghâsh fort built by ʿAbd-al-ʿAzîz ibn-Ḥaiyân al-Anṭâki. He also had Mûrah fort erected by a man from Antioch. This last fort was built because the Greeks had interfered with one of his messengers at Darb al-Lukâm near al-ʿAḳabah-l-Baiḍa. In this fort, he stationed forty men and a body of al-Jarâjimah. In Baghrâs [Pagrae]. he established a garrison of fifty men and built a fort for it. Hishâm, moreover, built the Bûḳa fort in the province of Antioch, which was recently renewed and repaired.

After the Greeks had made a raid on the littoral of the province of Antioch in the caliphate of al-Muʿtaṣim-Billâh, a fort was built on that littoral by Muḥammad ibn-Yûsuf al-Marwazi, surnamed abu-Saʿîd.

. Dâʾûd ibn-ʿAbd-al-Ḥamîd, the ḳâḍi of ar-Raḳḳah, from a grandfather of his:—ʿUmar ibn-ʿAbd-al-ʿAzîz intended to destroy al-Maṣṣîṣah and move its inhabitants because they suffered so much from the Greeks; but he died before he could accomplish it.

. I was informed by certain men from Antioch and Baghrâs that when Maslamah ibn-ʿAbd-al-Malik invaded ʿAmmûriyah, he took his wives with him; and other men in his army did the same. The banu-Umaiyah used to do that in order to infuse enthusiasm in the army by making them jealous for their harem. As Maslamah was passing through ʿAkabat Baghrâs on a narrow road that bordered on a valley, a stretcher in which a woman was carried fell down to the foot of the mountain. This made