Page:Baladhuri-Hitti1916.djvu/471

 post-road which became a thicket was called Âjâm al-Barîd; and the other part was called Âjâm Aghmarbathi in which the great thickets lie. The canal is now seen in the al-Jâmidah [solid] lands that have recently been reclaimed and rendered fit for use.

. Abu-Masʿûd al-Kûfi from his sheikhs:—Al-Baṭâʾiḥ was formed after the "flight" of the Prophet and during the reign of Abarwîz over the Persians. Many great fissures were formed which Kisra was unable to block, thus making the rivers overflow and producing al-Baṭâʾiḥ. At the time of the Moslem wars with the Persians, the water overflowed and no one took the trouble to block the fissures. This enlarged the Baṭîḥah and made it wider. The banu-Umaiyah had reclaimed a part of the Baṭîḥah, which part was again sunk in the time of al-Ḥajjâj when new breaches appeared which al-Ḥajjâj did not care to block, trying thereby to injure the Persian feudal lords whom he suspected to be on the side of ibn-al-Ashʿath who had broken off his allegiance to al-Ḥajjâj. Ḥassân an-Nabaṭi reclaimed for Hishâm certain tracts of the Baṭîḥah land.

. Abu-l-Asad, from whom Nahr abu-l-Asad takes its name, was one of the generals of the caliph al-Manṣûr, and one of those sent to al-Baṣrah when ʿAdballâh ibn-ʿAli resided in it. It was this abu-l-Asad who made ʿAbdallâh ibn-ʿAli enter al-Kûfah.

I was told by ʿUmar ibn-Bukair that al-Manṣûr dispatched his freedman abu-l-Asad, who pitched his camp between al-Manṣûr and the army of ʿÎsa ibn-Mûsa as al-Manṣûr was fighting against Ibrâhîm ibn-ʿAbdallâh ibn-al-Ḥasan ibn-al-Ḥasan ibn-ʿAli ibn-abi-Ṭâlib. The same abu-l-Asad dug the canal near al-Baṭîḥah which bears his name.