CHAPTER III
The Fortifications of the Mesopotamian Frontier
Shimshâṭ. When ʿUthmân ibn-ʿAffân became caliph, he wrote to Muʿâwiyah conferring on him the governorship of Syria, and assigned ʿUmair ibn-Saʿd al-Anṣâri as governor of Mesopotamia. Later he dismissed the latter and combined both Syria and Mesopotamia, including their frontier fortifications [thughûr] under Muʿâwiyah, in the meantime ordering Muʿâwiyah to invade or send someone to invade Shimshâṭ,[1] i. e., Armenia IV. Accordingly, Muʿâwiyah sent thereto Ḥabîb ibn-Maslamah-l-Fihri and Ṣafwân ibn-Muʿaṭṭal as-Sulami who, after a few days of camping around it, reduced it and made terms similar to those of ar-Ruha. Ṣafwân took up his abode in Armenia until his death towards the end of Muʿâwiyah's caliphate. It is held by others that Muʿâwiyah himself led the invasion with these two in his company, that he then conferred its governorship on Ṣafwân, who lived in it until his death. After stopping in Malaṭyah in the year 133, Constantine the "tyrant" camped around Shimshâṭ with hostile intentions, but effected nothing. After making a raid on the surrounding places, he departed. Shimshâṭ was included in the kharâj-land until the time of al-Mutawakkil who changed it into a tithe-land, putting it on the same level with the other frontier fortresses.
Kamkh. After the conquest of Shimshâṭ, Ḥabîb ibn-
- ↑ Yâḳût, vol. iii, p. 319.
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