'The lands of the Eastern Caliphate Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia from the Moslem conquest to the time of Timur' [‎37] (68/586)

n]
'IRAK.
37
the 4th (10th) century (quoted by Yakut) describes it as a great
monastery surrounded by so high and strong a wall as to be like
a fortress and impregnable. Within the wall were a hundred cells
for the monks, and the right to a cell was only to be bought for a
price ranging from two hundred to a thousand dinars (^100 to
^500). Each cell stood in its own garden, watered by a small
canal and planted with fruit trees which produced a crop that
yearly might be sold for from 50 to 200 dinars (^25 to ^100).
Over against Dayr Kunna, but on the Tigris bank, was the
small town of As-Safiyah, which Yakut writes was in his day
already a ruin; and opposite this on the western side lay
Humaniyah (or Humayniyah) which is still found on the map,
two leagues S.E. of Dayr-aPAktil. In the beginning of the 3rd
(9th) century Humaniyah was a place of some importance, for
after the death of the Caliph Amin, his two sons and his mother,
Zubaydah, widow of Harun-ar-Rashid, were for a time sent to be
kept in prison here by Mamun; and Yakiit in the 7th (13th)
century describes Humamyah as a large village surrounded by
well cultivated lands 1 .
Jarjaraya, or Jarjaray, which still exists, lay four leagues S.E.
of Dayr-al-'AktiL It is described by Mukaddasi in the 4th (10th)
century as having been a large town, and its Friday Mosque stood
close to the Tigris, which surrounded the town on two sides.
Ya^ubi writing in the previous century states that its population
chiefly consisted of Persian nobles, and it was the capital of the
district of Lower Nahrawan. In the 7 th (13th) century, according
to Yakut, it was, like most of the towns of the Nahrawan districts,
in a state of complete ruin. On the western bank of the Tigris,
four leagues below Jarjaraya, at the ruins now called Tall-Nu'man
stood the town of An-N^maniyah, which Yakut counts as the
half-way stage between Baghdad and Wasit. An-Nu £ maniyah was
the capital of the Upper Zab district, its Friday Mosque standing
in the market place, and Ya^ubi adds that near by stood the
monastery called Dayr Hizkil, where mad people were looked
after by the monks. Nu'maniyah was celebrated according to
Ibn Rustah for its looms, where carpets like those of Hirah were
1 I. R. 185, 186. Ykb. 321. Kud. 193. Muk. 122. Mas. Tanbih 149.
Yak. ii. 676, 687; iii. 362; iv. 980. Mst. 139. Ibn-al-Athir, vi. 207.