stronghold, to which they resorted after acting as highwaymen, and from which they could not be called back, because it was a boundary line between Hamadhân, ad-Dînawar and Adharbaijân. Sulaimân and his colleague wrote to al-Mahdi, reporting the case of those who interfered with their beasts and cattle. Thereupon, al-Mahdi directed against them a great army and wrote to Sulaimân and Sallâm, ordering them to build a city and occupy it with their associates and shepherds and use it as a refuge for their beasts and cattle against those who threatened them. Accordingly, they built the city of Sisar, fortified it, and made people settle in it. The district [rustâḳ] of Mâyanharaj[1] in ad-Dînawar, and that of al-Jûdhamah in Adharbaijân which is a part of the province of Barzah, together with Rusṭuf[2] and Khâbanjar were added to Sîsar; and the whole was made into one district that was put under one ʿâmil to whom its kharâj was paid.[3]
Later, in the caliphate of ar-Rashîd, this band of destitute multiplied and badly damaged Sîsar. Ar-Rashîd ordered that it be repaired and fortified, stationing in it 1,000 of the men of Khâḳân al-Khâdim as-Sughdi, whose descendants are still in it. Towards the end of his caliphate, ar-Rashîd appointed Murrah ibn-abi-Murrah ar-Rudaini-l-ʿIjli over Sîsar. ʿUthmân al-Audi attempted to wrest it from his hands, but failed, succeeding[4] only in wresting all or most of what Murrah already held at Adharbaijân. Until the time of the insurrection, Murrah ibn-ar-Rudaini did not cease in the days of Muḥḥammad ibn-ar-Rashîd to pay the fixed kharâj of Sîsar which he had
