ʿAbdallâh ibn-ʿAbd-ar-Raḥmân ibn-abi-ʿAmrah-l-Anṣâri, the ʿâmil of ʿAbd-al-Malik ibn-Ṣâliḥ over Shimshâṭ, which resulted in its reduction. The fort was entered on the 14th of Rabiʿ II, 177, and was held by the Moslems until the time of the civil war led by Muḥammad ibn-ar-Rashîd, at which time its holders fled away and the Greeks took possession of it. Some hold that the fort was delivered to the Greeks by ʿUbaidallâh ibn-al-Aḳṭaʿ who, thereby, saved his son who was held by them as prisoner. In the caliphate of al-Maʾmûn, ʿAbdallâh ibn-Ṭâhir reduced it; and it was in the hands of the Moslems until certain Christians from Shimshâṭ, Ḳâlîḳala together with Biḳrâṭ ibn-Ashûṭ, the patrician of Khilâṭ, succeeded by subtle means in transferring it to the Greeks, and in this wise winning their favor which the Christians desired because they held crown-lands in the province of Shimshâṭ.
Malaṭyah. Ḥabîb ibn-Maslamah-l-Fihri was sent by ʿIyâḍ ibn-Ghanm from Shimshâṭ to Malaṭyah[1] whose conquest he effected. The city was later lost to the Moslems. When Muʿâwiyah became governor of Syria and Mesopotamia, he sent again Ḥabîb ibn-Maslamah who took it by force and stationed in it a Moslem company of horsemen to keep post on the frontier and a ʿâmil. When Muʿâwiyah visited it on his way to the land of the Greeks, he stationed in it a garrison from Syria, Mesopotamia and other places. It became one of the headquarters for the summer expeditions. In the days of ʿAbdallâh ibn-az-Zubaîr, its inhabitants having left it, the Greeks came and devastated it; but they soon after evacuated it, and it was occupied by Armenian and Nabatean [Aramean] Christians.
Ṭurandah. Muḥammad ibn-Saʿd from al-Wâḳidi:—After its invasion by ʿAbdallâh ibn-ʿAbd-al-Malik in the
- ↑ Yâḳût, vol. iv, pp. 633–634.
