CHAPTER IX
The Floods in Makkah
Umm-Nahshal flood. Al-ʿAbbâs ibn-Hishâm from ibn-Kharrabûdh al-Makki and others:—Makkah was visited by four floods. One was umm-Nahshal flood which took place in the days of ʿUmar ibn-al-Khaṭṭâb.[1] This flood rose so high that it penetrated into the Mosque from the highest part of Makkah. ʿUmar therefore made two dams, the higher of which extended between the house of Babbah (so called by its occupants, the house being that of ʿAbdallâh ibn-al-Ḥârith ibn-ʿAbd-al-Muṭṭalib ibn-ʿAbd-Manâf who ruled al-Baṣrah at the time of the insurrection of ibn-az-Zubair) and the house of Abân ibn-ʿUthmân ibn-ʿAffân. The lower dam lay at al-Ḥammârîn; and it is the one known as Âl-Âsîd dam. Thus was the flood kept back from the Ḥaram mosque. According to the same tradition umm-Nahshal, the daughter of ʿUbaidah[2] ibn-Saʿîd ibn-al-ʿÂṣi ibn-Umaiyah, was carried away by the flood from the higher part of Makkah and therefore was the flood named after her.
Al-Juḥâf w-al-Jurâf. Another flood was that of al-Juḥâf w-al-Jurâf which took place in the year 80 in the time of ʿAbd-al-Malik ibn-Marwân. It overtook the pilgrims on a Monday morning and carried them away together with their baggage, and surrounded the Kaʿbah. About this the poet said:
82
