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 stronghold, to which they resorted after acting as highwaymen, and from which they could not be called back, because it was a boundary line between Hamadhân, ad-Dînawar and Adharbaijân. Sulaimân and his colleague wrote to al-Mahdi, reporting the case of those who interfered with their beasts and cattle. Thereupon, al-Mahdi directed against them a great army and wrote to Sulaimân and Sallâm, ordering them to build a city and occupy it with their associates and shepherds and use it as a refuge for their beasts and cattle against those who threatened them. Accordingly, they built the city of Sisar, fortified it, and made people settle in it. The district [rustâḳ] of Mâyanharaj in ad-Dînawar, and that of al-Jûdhamah in Adharbaijân which is a part of the province of Barzah, together with Rusṭuf and Khâbanjar were added to Sîsar; and the whole was made into one district that was put under one ʿâmil to whom its kharâj was paid.

Later, in the caliphate of ar-Rashîd, this band of destitute multiplied and badly damaged Sîsar. Ar-Rashîd ordered that it be repaired and fortified, stationing in it 1,000 of the men of Khâḳân al-Khâdim as-Sughdi, whose descendants are still in it. Towards the end of his caliphate, ar-Rashîd appointed Murrah ibn-abi-Murrah ar-Rudaini-l-ʿIjli over Sîsar. ʿUthmân al-Audi attempted to wrest it from his hands, but failed, succeeding only in wresting all or most of what Murrah already held at Adharbaijân. Until the time of the insurrection, Murrah ibn-ar-Rudaini did not cease in the days of Muḥḥammad ibn-ar-Rashîd to pay the fixed kharâj of Sîsar which he had