Page:Baladhuri-Hitti1916.djvu/312

 . Ḥiṣn al-Ḥadath was one of the places reduced in the days of ʿUmar by Ḥabîb ibn-Maslamah who was sent by ʿÎyad ibn-Ghanm. After that, Muʿâwiyah used to pay frequent attention to it. Darb al-Ḥadath was ominously called by the banu-Umaiyah "as-Salâmah" [safety] because they suffered a great calamity in it, the calamity being, according to some, the occurrence implied in the term Ḥadath [which means occurrence]. Others assert that the Moslems met on the way a youth who fought against them with his companions, hence the name Darb al-Ḥadath.

At the time of the insurrection of Marwân ibn-Muḥammad, the Greeks went and destroyed the city of al-Ḥadath and drove its people out as they had done in the case of Malaṭyah.

In the year 161, Michael went out to ʿAmḳ Marʿash, and al-Mahdi directed al-Ḥasan ibn-Ḳaḥṭabah to make a tour in the Byzantine Empire. Al-Ḥasan's hand lay so heavily upon the people that they put his picture in their churches. His entrance to the land of the Greeks [Asia Minor] was through Darb al-Ḥadath where he examined the site of its city [al-Ḥadath] which he was told was evacuated by Michael. Al-Hasan chose that site for his city, and when he departed he spoke to al-Mahdi regarding the reconstruction of this city as well as that of Ṭarsûs. Al-Mahdi gave orders that al-Ḥadath be built first. Among the companions of al-Ḥasan in this campaign were Mandal al-ʿAnazi —the Kufite traditionist, and Muʿtamir ibn-Sulaimân al-Baṣri. Al-Ḥadath was rebuilt by ʿAli ibn-Sulaimân ibn-ʿAli, the governor of Mesopotamia and Ḳinnasrîn, and was called al-Muḥammadîyah. The death of al-Mahdi