Before Sulaimân there was no such city as ar-Ramlah, and its site was sand [Ar. raml].
The Dâr aṣ-Ṣabbâghîn passed to the hands of the heirs of Ṣâliḥ ibn-ʿAli ibn-ʿAbdallâh ibn-al-Abbâs, because it was confiscated with the possessions of the banu-Umaiyah.
The expenses of the wells and canal of ar-Ramlah, after the time of Sulaimân ibn-ʿAbd-al-Malik, were met by the banu-Umaiyah. But when the banu-l-Abbâs assumed the caliphate, they paid the expenses. The order for these expenses was issued yearly by every caliph; but when al-Muʿtaṣim became caliph, he gave a permanent decree for these expenses, thereby doing away with the necessity of issuing an order every time by the caliph. It became thereafter a current expense which the ʿâmils paid and kept an account of.
"Reduction" and "restoration" in the kharâj. There are in Palestine special places containing documents from the caliphs, set aside from the records of the kharâj of the common people and containing a statement of the "reduction" and "restoration", the explanation of which is the following:—Certain estates having been abandoned in the caliphate of ar-Rashîd and deserted by their occupants, ar-Rashîd sent Harthamah ibn-Aʿyan to cultivate them. Harthamah asked some of their old tenants and farmers to go back to them with the understanding that he would reduce their kharâj and would deal with them more leniently. Those who went back are those to whom the "reductions" were made. Others came after that and their old lands were restored to them. These are the ones to whom the "restorations" were made.
Fiefs in ʿAsḳalân. The following tradition was related to me by Bakr ibn-al-Haitham:—"I met a man of the Arabs in ʿAsḳalân who said that his grandfather was one of those settled in ʿAsḳalân by ʿAbd-al-Malik and was given
