Page:Baladhuri-Hitti1916.djvu/479

 certain men he called, the earth and soil were removed, the course was opened and the water issued as before. The spring then passed to the hands of ʿÎsâ ibn-ʿAli, who bought it from a son of Ḥasan ibn-Ḥasan ibn-ʿAli ibn-abi-Ṭâlib. One of ʿÎsa's wives was umm-Kalthûm, daughter of Ḥasan ibn-Ḥasan. Muʿâwiyah in exchange for the caliphate, assigned, together with other things, ʿAin aṣ-Ṣaid as fief to al-Ḥasan ibn-ʿAli.

. ʿAin ar-Raḥbah was also one of the springs buried of old. A pilgrim from Karmân once saw it leaking; and when he returned from his pilgrimage, he advised ʿÎsa ibn-Mûsa regarding it and pointed it out to him. This Karmân man took it as fief with its land and dug it out. He cultivated the lands around it and planted the palm-trees which stand on al-ʿUdhaib road.

. A few parasangs from Hît lie certain springs called al-ʿIrḳ which are similar to ʿUyûn aṭ-Ṭaff, and whose tithes are taken by the chief of Hît.

. Al-Athram from abu-ʿAmr ibn-al-ʿAlâʾ:—When the Arabs saw the great number of villages, palm and other trees, they exclaimed, "Never did we see a greater number of sawâd!" i. e., objects. Hence the name of the country as-Sawâd.

. Al-Ḳâsim ibn-Sallâm from Muḥammad ibn-abi-Mûsa:—One day ʿAli went out to the market and saw that his relatives had secured special places, upon which he remarked, "That can not be. For the Moslems, the market is similar to the place of worship: he who arrives first can hold his seat all day until he leaves it."

Abu-ʿUbaid from ʿAbd-ar-Raḥmân ibn-ʿUbaid's father:—The latter said, "In the time of al-Mughîrah ibn-Shuʿbah, we used to go early into the market; and when one sat in a place, he had claim on it until the nightfall. But when