CHAPTER VIII
The Founding of al-Kûfah
Al-Kûfah chosen. Muḥammad ibn-Saʿd from ʿAbd-al-Ḥamîd ibn-Jaʿfar and others:—ʿUmar ibn-al-Khaṭṭâb wrote to Saʿd ibn-abi-Waḳḳâṣ ordering him to adopt for the Moslems a place to which they could emigrate, and which they could use as a meeting place [ḳairawân], provided that between him [ʿUmar] and the Moslems, no sea should intervene. Accordingly, Saʿd came to al-Anbâr[1] with the idea of occupying it. Here, however, flies were so numerous, that Saʿd had to move to another place, which proved to be unsatisfactory, and therefore he moved to al-Kûfah which he divided into lots, giving the houses as fiefs and settling the different tribes in their quarters. He also erected its mosque. All this took place in the year 17.
Sûḳ Ḥakamah. The following was communicated to me by ʿAli ibn-al-Mughîrah-l-Athram, on the authority of sheikhs from al-Kûfah:—When Saʿd ibn-abi-Waḳḳâṣ was through with the battle of al-Ḳâdisîyah, he went to al-Madâʾin, made terms with the inhabitants of ar-Rûmîyah and Bahurasîr, reduced al-Madâʾin,[2] Asbanbur[2] and Kurdbandâdh[3] and settled his troops in them. The troops occupied these places. Subsequently, Saʿd was ordered [by ʿUmar] to remove them; and so he removed them to Sûḳ Ḥakamah, others say to Kuwaifah on this side of al-Kûfah. Ac-
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