Maslamah order that all women should go on foot. So they did; and that ʿAḳabat was, therefore, called "ʿAḳabat an-Nisâʾ" [the women's ʿAḳabat]. Previous to this, al-Muʿtaṣim had built on the edge of that road a low stone wall.
The roads of Antioch cleared of lions by means of buffaloes. It was stated by abu-an-Nuʿmân al-Anṭâki that the road between Antioch and al-Maṣṣîṣah was frequented by lions which molested the passers-by. When al-Walîd ibn-ʿAbd-al-Malik came to rule, the complaint was made to him, and he sent 4,000 buffaloes by which the required result was attained through Allah's help.
Muḥammad ibn-al-Ḳâsim ath-Thaḳafi, the ʿâmil of al-Ḥajjâj over as-Sind, had sent from as-Sind thousands of buffaloes to al-Ḥajjâj, who gave al-Walîd 4,000 of them, and left the rest in the jungles of Kaskar.[1] When Yazîd ibn-al-Muhallab was deposed and killed, and the possessions of the banu-l-Muhallab were confiscated by Yazîd ibn-ʿAbd-al-Malik, the latter carried away 4,000 buffaloes, which were in the districts of Dijlah[2] and Kaskar. These, too, Yazîd sent to al-Maṣṣîṣah together with az-Zuṭṭ sent there. Thus the buffaloes at al-Maṣṣîṣah were originally 8,000. At the time of the insurrection of Marwân ibn-Muḥammad ibn-Marwân the people of Antioch and Ḳinnasrîn brought under their control and took possession of many of these animals; but when al-Manṣûr became caliph he ordered that they be restored to al-Maṣṣîṣah. As for the buffaloes of Antioch, they were first brought by az-Zuṭṭ, and so were the first ones of Bûḳa.
Jisr al-Walîd. According to abu-l-Khaṭṭâb, the bridge on the road of Adhanah [Adana] from al-Maṣṣîṣah lay nine
