Occupation of Khuzestan By Muslims - Settlement of Banu Al-Ami Between Tigris and Karun

Settlement of Banu Al-Ami Between Tigris and Karun

Meanwhile groups of Banu al-Ami left their former dwelling places and took up residence in al-Basra, one group after another. Utbah wrote about that to Umar and sent a delegation." Then al-Anaf b. Qays told Umar (paragraph# 2539): "We kept on moving from one place to another, until we arrived at a piece of open country. Well, our brothers among the inhabitants of al-Kufah have settled in a place rich in vegetation, overflowing with sweet springs and lush pald groves; in a never-ceasing flow its frute produce reaches them. But we, the people of al-Basra, we have settled in a soggy swamp, which does not produce anything. One side faces the desert and the other side gives on to a brackish river. Supplies reach this region like a tricle from ostrich's gullet. Our houses are crammed, our daily rations poor. Our numbers are large but our nobles are few in number. Many of us have fought vigorously, but our finances are strained, while our plots of land are small. In the past God enriched us and increased our land. So may you now enrich us, Commander of the Faithful, and increase the daily rations assigned to us so that we may survive!

So Omar reviewed their dwelling places which they had occupied until they moved out into the desert. Then he gave them the region as their share in the booty and allotted plots to them, also taken from what used to belong to the Persian royal family. Thus all the land between the Tigris and the desert became fay' land. They divided it among themselves. The other properties of the royal family in the land around al-Basra were thus dealt with in the same manner as the land of al-Kufah was dealt with " "The land occupied by the people of al-Basrah consisted of two halves, one was divided up into plots; the other was left for the benefit of the armed forces and the community."