# The Origins of the Islamic State/Part 10/Chapter 4

CHAPTER IV
The Conquest of Hamadhân
Jarîr reduces Hamadhân. In the year 23 A. H., al-Mughîrah ibn-Shuʿbah who, after the dismissal of ʿAmmâr ibn-Yâsir, was the ʿâmil of ʿUmar ibn-al-Khaṭṭâb over al-Kûfah, dispatched Jarîr ibn-ʿAbdallâh al-Bajali to Hamadhân. The inhabitants of Hamadhân offered resistance and repelled his attacks, in the course of which Jarîr received an arrow in his eye; and he remarked, "I give up my eye, seeking recompense from Allah who decorated with it my face and provided me by means of it with light, so long as he willed, and then deprived me of it as I was in his cause!" After that he reduced Hamadhân, which made terms similar to those of Nihâwand. This took place toward the close of the year 23. Its inhabitants, having later rebelled, drove Jarîr back; but he finally took their land by force.
Other versions. According to al-Wâḳidi, Jarîr reduced Nihâwand in the year 24, six months after the death of ʿUmar ibn-al-Khaṭṭâb.
It is reported by others that al-Mughîrah ibn-Shuʿbah, with Jarîr leading the vanguard, marched against Hamadhân and, after reducing it, put it in charge of Kathîr ibn-Shihâb al-Ḥârithi.
The terms with al-ʿAlâʾ. ʿAbbâs ibn-Hishâm from his grandfather and ʿAwânah ibn-al-Ḥakam:—When Saʿd ibn-​abi-Waḳḳâs ruled over al-Kûfah in behalf of ʿUthmân ibn-ʿAffân, he assigned over Mâh and Hamadhân al-ʿAlâʾ ibn-Wahb ibn-ʿAbd ibn-Wahbân of the banu-ʿÂmir ibn-Luʾai. The people of Hamadhân acted treacherously and violated the covenant, on account of which al-ʿAlâʾ fought against them until they surrendered. The terms he made with them stipulated that, on the one hand, they should pay kharâj on their land and tax on their person and deliver to him 100,000 dirhams for the Moslems; and that, on the other hand, he should not interfere with their possessions, inviolable rights and children.
Mâdharân.' According to ibn-al-Kalbi, the castle known by the name of Mâdharan was so called after as-Sari ibn-Nusair ibn-Thaur al-ʿIjli, who camped around it until he reduced it.
Sîsar. Ziyâd ibn-ʿAbd-ar-Rahmân al-Balkhi from certain sheikhs of Sîsar: Sîsar was so called because it lay in a depression surrounded by thirty hills. Hence its other name "Thalâthûn Raʾs" [thirty summits]. It was also called Sîsar Ṣadkhâniyah which means thirty summits and a hundred springs, because it has as many as one hundred springs.
Sîsar and the adjoining region were pasture-lands for the Kurds and others. It also had meadows for the beasts of burden and the cattle of caliph al-Mahdi, and was entrusted to a freedman of his called Sulaimân ibn-Ḳirâṭ—whose name Saḥrâʾ Ḳirâṭ in Madînat as-Salâm bears—and to a partner of his, Sallâm aṭ-Ṭaifûri, Ṭaifûr having been a freedman of abu-Jaʿfar al-Manṣûr and having been given by him as present to al-Mahdi. When in the caliphate of al-Mahdi the destitute [ṣaʿâlîk] and villain became numerous and spread over al-Jabal, they chose this region for their refuge and ​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 ​agreed to pay annually. In the caliphate of al-Maʾmûn, Sîsar was taken from the hand of ʿÂṣim ibn-Murrah and once more added to the crown-domains [ḍiyâʿ al-khilâfah].
Al-Mafâzah. I was told by certain sheikhs from al-Mafâzah, which is situated near Sîsar, that when al-Jurashi ruled over al-Jabal the inhabitants of al-Mafâzah evacuated their town. Al-Jurashi had a general, Hammâm ibn-Hâniʾ al-ʿAbdi, to whom most of the people of al-Mafâzah yielded their villages and held them as tenants in order to enjoy his protection. Hammâm appropriated the villages to himself and used to pay the treasury what was due on them until he died. His sons were too weak to hold them. After the death of Muḥammad ibn-Zubaidah, when al-Maʾmûn was on his way from Khurâsân to Madînat as-Salâm, he was met by certain sons of Hammâm and a man from al-Mafâzah named Muḥammad ibn-al-ʿAbbâs, who told him the story of the place and informed him of the desire of all the people to give up their lands to him and act as his tenants in it provided they be protected and strengthened against the destitute bands and others. Al-Maʾmûn accepted their offer and ordered that they be reinforced and strengthened in order to cultivate the lands and repair them. Thus these lands were added to the crown-domains.
Laila-l-Akhyalîyah. According to a tradition communicated to me by al-Madâʾini, Laila-l-Akhyalîyah paid a visit to al-Ḥajjâj. He gave her a present, and she requested him to write and recommend her to his ʿâmil at ar-Rai. On her way back, Laila died at Sâwah, where she was buried.
* ↑ Ecbatana. See Meynard, pp. 597–608.
* ↑ Cf. Yâḳût, vol. iv, p. 981; Athîr, vol. iii, p. 16.
* ↑ Cf. Marâṣid, vol. iii, p. 27.
* ↑ Khurdâdhbih, p. 120. Hamadhâni, p. 240: "Mâyanmaraj".
* ↑ ? perhaps rustâḳ; cf. Yâḳût, vol. iii, p. 216.
* ↑ Hamadhâni, pp. 239–240.
* ↑ According to Hamadhâni, p. 240, he failed in that, too.
* ↑ Ar. muḳâṭaʿah; M. V. Berchem, La Propriété Territoriale et l'Impôt Foncier sous les Premiers Califes, p. 45.
* ↑ Cf. "al-Ḥarashi" in Yâʿḳûbi, p. 253.