Page:Baladhuri-Hitti1916.djvu/451

 to al-Athram, the word takauwuf means "the reunion of people". Others say that circular places when sandy are called kûfah; and still others call the land rich in pebbles, mud and sand, kûfah.

. It is stated that when the Moslems in al-Madâʾin were attacked by the mosquitoes, Saʿd wrote to ʿUmar telling him that they were badly affected by them; in answer to which ʿUmar wrote back, "Arabs are like camels; whatever is good for the camels is good for them. Choose for them, therefore, a habitable place; and let no sea intervene between them and me." The determining of the dwelling-place was entrusted to abu-l-Haiyâj al-Asadi ʿAmr ibn-Mâlik ibn-Junâdah.

. Then ʿAbd al-Masîḥ ibn-Buḳailah presented himself before Saʿd and said to him, " I can point out to thee a site which is outside the waterless desert, and higher than the muddy places where mosquitoes abound." Saying this, he pointed out the site of al-Kûfah which was then called Sûristân. When Saʿd arrived on the spot destined to be the site of the mosque, a man shot, by his orders, an arrow towards the ḳiblah, another towards the north, another to the south, a fourth to the east, and marked the spots where the arrows fell. Saʿd then established the mosque and the governor's residence on the spot where the man who shot the arrows had stood, fencing in all the space around that spot. He then drew lots with two arrows between the tribe of Nizâr and the tribes of al-Yaman, promising the left side, which was the better of the two, to the one whose arrow was drawn first. The people of al-Yaman had theirs first ; and they were, therefore, allotted the pieces on the east side. The pieces allotted to the Nizâr fell on