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 . Muḥammad ibn-Khâlid ibn-ʿAbdallâh aṭ-Ṭaḥḥân from his sheikhs:—Khâlid ibn-ʿAbdallâh al-Ḳasri wrote to Hishâm ibn-ʿAbd-al-Malik asking for permission to make an arch over the Tigris. Hishâm wrote back, "If this were possible, the Persians would have done it." Khâlid wrote again; and Hishâm answered: "If thou art sure that it is feasible, thou mayst do it." Khâlid built the arch at a great expense; but it was soon destroyed by the water. Hishâm made Khâlid pay the expenses out of his own pocket.

. The canal known by the name of al-Bazzâḳ was an old one of which the Nabatean form is al-Bassâḳ, which means that which cuts the water off from what comes after it and takes it over to itself. In this canal the superfluous water from as-Sîb jungles and some water of the Euphrates gather. This name was corrupted into al-Bazzâḳ.

. As for al-Maimûn it was first dug out by Saʿîd ibn-Zaid, an agent of umm-Jaʿfar Zubaidah, daughter of Jaʿfar ibn-al-Manṣûr. The mouth of al-Maimûn was near a village called Maimûn. In the time of al-Wâthiḳ-Billah, the position of the mouth was shifted by ʿUmar ibn-Faraj ar-Rukhkhaji, but the river kept its old name al-Maimûn [the auspicious], lest the idea of auspiciousness be dissociated from it.

I was informed by Muḥammad ibn-Khâlid that by the order of caliph al-Mahdi, Nahr aṣ-Ṣilah was dug out and the lands around it were entrusted to farmers. The income thereof was used as stipends to the inhabitants of the sacred territories of Makkah and al-Madînah [ahl al-Ḥaramain] and for other expenses there. It was stipulated on the tenants who came to those lands that they should yield two