coincided with the completion of its building, so it is really al-Mahdîyah as well as al-Muḥammadîyah. Brick was the material used in its construction. The death of al-Mahdi fell in the year 169.
Al-Mahdi was succeeded by his son Mûsa-l-Hâdi who dismissed ʿAli ibn-Sulaimân and conferred the governorship of Mesopotamia and Ḳinnasrîn upon Muḥammad ibn-Ibrâhim ibn-Muḥammad ibn-ʿAli. Since ʿAli ibn-Sulaimân had by this time completed the building of the city of al-Ḥadath, Muḥammad assigned to it troops from Syria, Mesopotamia and Khurâsân, fixing forty dînârs as the stipend of each soldier. To these he assigned the houses as fiefs, and bestowed three hundred dirhams on every one of them. The city was completed in 169.
According to abu-l-Khaṭṭâb, ʿAli ibn-Sulaimân assigned 4,000 paid troops to al-Ḥadath and settled them in it, transferring 2,000 men into it from Malaṭyah, Shimshâṭ, Sumaisâṭ, Kaisûm, Dulûk and Raʿbân.
It was stated by al-Wâḳidi that when the building of al-Ḥadath was completed, winter set in and rain and snow fell in great quantities. The houses of the city, not being strongly built or provided with the necessary precautions, had their walls soon covered with cracks and fell to pieces. The Greeks then occupied it and the troops together with the people that were in it were scattered. Hearing that, Mûsa conscripted a contingent of troops headed by al-Musaiyab [not al-Musaiyib] ibn-Zuhair, another by Rauḥ ibn-Ḥâtim and still another by Ḥamzah ibn-Mâlik. Mûsa, however, died before they were sent out.
After that, ar-Rashîd became caliph, and he gave orders to rebuild the city, fortify it, station a garrison in it and assign to its fighters dwellings and lands as fiefs.
It was stated by others than al-Wâḳidi that when al-Ḥadath was built, one of the great patricians of the Greeks
