'The lands of the Eastern Caliphate Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia from the Moslem conquest to the time of Timur' [‎54] (85/586)

54
'irak.
[chap.
Caliph Mu^asim (a younger son of Harun-ar-Rashid) built his first
palace when he came to settle at Samarra in 221 (836) belonged
to a Christian monastery {Dayr) which was bought for 4000
dinars (^2000) and it was known as At-Tirhan. His Turk body
guard were granted fiefs at Karkh, and further up stream to D6r,
some also lay south of Samarra towards Matirah; and the Caliph
proceeded to build the first Friday Mosque near the east bank of
the Tigris, and lay the foundations of his palace. Artificers were
brought together from all parts of the empire, and immense
quantities of teak-wood {Sdj) were imported, also palm beams
from Basrah and divers marbles from Antioch and Laodicea.
A thoroughfare called the Great Road (Ash-Shari^al-A'zam) was
laid out along the Tigris bank, being bordered by the new palaces
and the fiefs, and this road went from Matirah right up to Karkh,
many by-roads and market streets branching from it. The new
Treasury and Government Offices also were built, and the Great
Hall called Dar-al- £ Ammah (the Public Audience Chamber) where
the Caliph sat in state on Mondays and Thursdays.
Besides his palace in Samarra, Mu'tasim laid out a pleasance
on the west side of the Tigris opposite the new capital, with which
it was connected by a bridge of boats, and the gardens were
planted with palms brought up from Basrah, and with exotics
sent for from provinces as far distant as Syria and Khurasan.
These lands on the western side were irrigated by branch canals
from the Nahr-al-Ishaki, already mentioned, which was dug by
Ishak ibn Ibrahim, Chief of Police to Mu'tasim, and this was
more especially the district called Tirhan, which Ya'kubi speaks
of as c the plain ? of Samarra. When the Caliph Mu'tasim died in
227 (842) Samarra was in a fair way to rival Baghdad in the
grandeur of its palaces and public buildings. His two sons
Wathik and Mutawakkil, who became Caliphs in turn, completed
the work of their father. Harun-al-Wathik built the palace, called
after his name the Kasr-al-Haruni, on the Tigris bank, and at
either end of this, east and west, was a great platform. Wathik
also dug a harbour from the river, where cargo-boats coming up
from Baghdad might conveniently unload. He was succeeded by
his brother Ja c far-al-Mutawakkil in 232 (847) who at first lived in
the Hanini palace, but in 245 (859) he began to build himself a