In the battle of dhu-Ḳâr in which Allah through his Prophet gave the Arabs the victory, the Arabs gained possession of some of these springs, the rest remaining in the hands of the Persians. When the Arabs advanced to al-Ḥîrah, the Persians took to flight after covering over with earth all the springs in their lands. The Arabs who held the remaining springs embraced Islâm; and the land which they cultivated became tithe-land.
After the battles of al-Ḳâdisîyah and al Madâʾin, the lands whose owners had evacuated them, were turned over to the Moslems and given out as fiefs, thus becoming tithe-lands. Such was the case with ʿUyûn aṭ-Ṭaff whose lands are treated like the villages in the valley of al-Madînah and the villages of Najd, all the ṣadaḳah thereof being given to the ʿâmils of al-Madînah.
When Isḥâḳ ibn-Ibrâhîm ibn-Muṣʿab ruled over as-Sawâd in the name of al-Mutawakkil, he added these ʿUyûn and their lands to what he already controlled; and he collected their tithe, treating them as any other land in as-Sawâd, which status they still retain. The Moslems later dug out many other springs which irrigate lands that are treated in a similar way.
ʿAin al-Jamal. I was told by a sheikh that ʿAin al-Jamal[1] was so called because a camel [Ar. jamal] died near it. Others say that the one who dug it out was called Jamal.
ʿAin aṣ-Ṣaid. ʿAin aṣ-Ṣaid[2] [fishing spring] was so called because fish gathered in it. I was told by certain Kuraizîyûn [?] that this spring was one of those covered with earth. As one of the Moslems was passing there, the legs of his horse sank in the mud. He dismounted and dug in the ground; and the water appeared. With the help of
