Governor of Wasit

Who he is

Title

Governor (wali) of Wasit

Since

not pinned

Born

not pinned

Family

not pinned

Confidence

low

The governorship of Wasit is attested throughout the period; the holder in the winter of 1199-1200 was not found. The Hanbali preacher Ibn al-Jawzi was confined at Wasit from 590 until his release in 595 (1199).

Overlord

the caliph al-Nasir

What it holds

• Wasit and its district on the old Tigris bed (the Shatt al-Gharraf) and the Tigris
• the marshes (al-Bata'ih) between Wasit and Basra, with their reed villages and fisheries
• Nu'maniya and the Tigris road toward Baghdad

How it was acquired

A governorship in the caliph's gift; the holder is appointed from Baghdad and can be recalled at will.

Allies and rivals

Answers to the vizier and the diwans in Baghdad; deals with the Arab tribes of the district.

How things stand that morning

Governed for the caliph; holder not pinned.

Wealth

Rice, dates, fish and reeds of the marshes; river tolls on the Tigris traffic between Baghdad and Basra; Wasit's cloth and markets.

Military

The town garrison; boats on the river and the marsh channels.

Threats

• the Muntafiq and other Arabs of the marsh edges
• the marshmen's old habit of revolt

Places of note

• Umm Ubayda, shrine of Ahmad al-Rifa'i: mother house of the Rifa'i Sufi order in the marshes (the modern town of al-Rifa'i keeps his name)

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The office is certain; no source read names its holder in the winter of 1199-1200.

On the map: The district is drawn from its towns and canals; it shades into the neighbouring governorships and the desert.

Primary sources for Abbasid Iraq

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Chronography of Bar Hebraeus, Gregory Bar Hebraeus (Abu'l-Faraj) (about 1275 to 1286). A later compilation that for 1200 relies on Michael the Syrian and Ibn al-Athir, but adds the Jacobite church's own memory of the Jazira, Mosul, Melitene and the Artuqid and Zangid courts, and carries Michael's story past 1195: the Seljuk brothers' war in Rum, the Khwarazmian and Ghurid wars in the east, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah, and the caliph al-Nasir. Read online
• The Complete History, Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir (about 1200 to 1231, at Mosul). The widest Muslim narrative for the years 596 to 597 AH (1199 to 1201): al-Adil's entry into Cairo and his taking of the sultanate from his nephew al-Mansur Muhammad early in 1200, the quarrels of the Ayyubid princes at Damascus, Aleppo and Hama, the Nile failure and the great famine of Egypt, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah and the Jazira under Gokbori and the Artuqids, Baghdad under the caliph al-Nasir, the Khwarazmshah Tekish's death in 1200 and Muhammad's accession, the Ghurid wars in Khurasan, the Eldiguzids and Georgia, the Almohads in the west, and the Seljuks of Rum in passing. Read online
• The Mirror of Time, on the History of Notables, Sibt ibn al-Jawzi (Shams al-Din Yusuf) (about 1240 to 1256, at Damascus). A Damascene preacher's year-by-year chronicle with obituaries, written by a grandson of the Baghdad scholar Ibn al-Jawzi, so it carries both the Baghdad view (the caliph al-Nasir and his court) and the Damascus view (al-Adil's court, the famine refugees of 1200, prices, the plague of 1201). Read online
• Comfort of Hearts and Sign of Joy: a History of the Seljuks, Muhammad ibn Ali al-Rawandi (Ravandi) (1203 to 1204, dedicated to Kaykhusraw I of Rum). A history of the Great Seljuks from their origins to the death of the last sultan Toghril III in 1194, begun at Hamadan and finished for Kaykhusraw of Rum when the author moved to Anatolia. Read online
• The Life of Sultan Jalal al-Din Mankubirti, Shihab al-Din Muhammad al-Nasawi (about 1241, at Aleppo). A Khwarazmian secretary's life of the last Khwarazmshah. Read online
• Dictionary of Countries, Yaqut al-Hamawi (1224 to 1228, at Aleppo). An alphabetical gazetteer of every place Yaqut had read of or seen: he travelled as a bookseller's agent through Syria, Iraq, Persia, Khurasan and Khwarazm (about 1213 to 1220) and settled in Aleppo. Read online
• Description of the Foreign Peoples (Chau Ju-kua), Zhao Rukuo (趙汝适) (about 1225, while superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou). The Song customs officer's survey of the overseas world, compiled from merchants and from Zhou Qufei, a generation after 1200 but describing trade routes that were the same in 1200. Read online
• The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, Benjamin of Tudela (about 1173). A generation before 1200 but the only survey of its kind: the Jewish communities and their heads from Navarre through Provence, Italy, Constantinople and the Aegean, Antioch, Tyre, Jerusalem, Damascus, Mosul and Baghdad to the Persian Gulf, with notes on rulers, trades, the exilarch at Baghdad, the Assassins of Syria and Persia, and hearsay on India, Ceylon and China. Read online

1 more in the sources library for Persia and the Eastern Islamic World.