ʿAyn al-Mushāsh

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ʿAyn al-Mushāsh ( Arabic عين المشاش, DMG ʿAin al-Mušāš ) was the name of a spring in the mountains northeast of Mecca and a pipeline built by Zubaida bint Jaʿfar in 809/810 that carried water from this spring to Mecca. The ʿAyn al-Muschāsch formed the basis of the Meccan water supply in the 9th century. It is unclear whether it still worked in the period after that, but it is assumed that the line ʿAin Bāzān or ʿAin Hunain, which was exposed in 1326 by Amīr Tschūpān , was largely identical to the Ain al-Muschāsch. In historiographical works of the 16th century, the ʿAin al-Muschāsch is mentioned as one of the tributaries of the ʿAin-Hunain line.

location

The Sulamite author ʿArrām ibn al-Asbagh (d. 888), who wrote a book on the geography of the Tihāma , is quoted as saying that al-Mushāsh belongs to the waters of the mountains of at-Tā'if . From a poem that is passed down in the Manāsik work of Abū Ishāq al-Harbī (d. 898), it emerges that al-Mushāsh was on the caravan route from Iraq to Mecca and was the last stop before reaching the Holy City. The Mecca pilgrims were able to quench their thirst at the source of al-Mushāsh. The next places on the way to Iraq were an-Nachla, also called al-Bustān, and Qarn al-Manāzil. One could also reach at-Tā'if from there. The geographer Abū ʿUbaid al-Bakrī (d. 1094) states that Mushāsh was between Mecca and the area of ​​the Banū Sulaim and was half a day's journey from Mecca.

Construction of the aqueduct by Zubaida

According to al-Azraqī, the reason for the construction of the line was a great water shortage in Mecca in 194 of the Hijra (= 809/810 AD), for which Zubaida bint Jaʿfar sought to remedy. She first tried to find suitable water sources in the area of ​​the Haram , but failed. So she had them look for water outside the haram until she got to the mountains of Thanīyat Chall. There, too, you first had to dig for water. Zubaida spent enormous sums of money on it. Eventually she was able to direct the water to Mecca from various springs. This included the source of al-Muschāsch ( ʿAin al-Mušāš ), for which she had a pond built, which caught the water during heavy rains. She directed various sources from Hunain to him. For this she bought the garden ( ḥāʾiṭ ) from Hunain and led the water from its source into the pond. She had a dam built on the garden itself so that the water would collect in it when it rained heavily.

The end point of the new pipeline was a basin in the upper part of Mecca, which was named after Zubaida Birkat Umm Jafar. The basin was right on the border of the Haram on the road to Iraq . An inscription dated 194 was affixed to the basin, identifying Zubaida as the builder of the basin and the water pipe.

The ʿAin-al-Muschāsch source is also mentioned in the cultural-historical work Murūdsch adh-Dhahab by al-Masʿūdī (d. 957). The author quotes there the chorasan historian ʿAlī ibn Muhammad al-ʿAbdī, who was a companion of the caliph al-Qāhir (r. 932-934), as saying that Zubaida dug up this spring and then its water over a distance of 12 miles led over very uneven ground to Mecca. In total, she had spent 1,700,000 dinars on it.

News about place and direction in the 9th century

During the Alidian uprising of 200/201 (= 815/16 AD), the Abbasid governors of Mecca and Yemen retreated to al-Mushāsh and set up camp there.

In 210 (= 825/26 AD) the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mūn commissioned his relative Sālih ibn al-ʿAbbās to extend the aqueduct to the lower part of Mecca so that the inhabitants of the other parts of the city could use it for her Water no longer had to run into the upper part of the city. In the other parts of the city he had further basins built, for example two basins at the lower end, which were called al-Mādschilān (“the two cisterns”).

At-Tabarī reports in his world chronicle that Mushāsch, "the spring of Mecca", dried up in the year 245 (= 859/60 AD), so that the hose of water cost 80 dirhams . The mother of the caliph al-Mutawakkil then sent money to Mecca to get her running again. The Meccan author al-Fākihī, who wrote a historical work about Mecca in the second half of the 9th century, repeats the statements of al-Azraqī almost verbatim and adds that the Meccans from the water of the pipe laid by Zubaida "up to the present day Days "drink. In the year 268 but (= 881/882 n. Chr.) Took the former governor Abu l-Mughira al-Machzūmī, which the Zanj had connected to Muschāsch source and destroyed their equipment.

The ʿAin Muschāsch after the 9th century

It is unclear how long the pipeline that carried water from Mushāsch and Hunain to Mecca worked. The Syrian historian Sibt Ibn al-Jschauzī (d. 1256) mentions in his world chronicle Mirʾāt az-zamān fī tawārīḫ al-aʿyān that in the year 466 the Hijra (= 1073/74 AD) a Persian with the name Abū n -Nadīr al-Istarābādhī appeared in Mecca to carry out various construction works on behalf of the Kerman-Seljuq Sultān-Shāh. This also included that "he conducted the water from ʿArafāt to Mecca, in qanāten that Zubaida had already created, but which had disappeared and lay in ruins". Possibly the qanāte mentioned here belonged to the ʿAyn al-Muschāsch.

It is also assumed that the ʿAin Bāzān or ʿAin Hunain, a water pipe that Amīr Tschūpān , excavated and restored in the year 726 (= 1325/26 AD), was identical to the pipe of ʿAin al-Muschāsch.

From the early 16th century, the ʿAin Muschāsch reappeared as an independent source. The Meccan historian Qutb ad-Dīn an-Nahrawālī (d. 1582) mentions them among the seven tributaries of the ʿAin Hunain. His nephew ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Qutbī (d. 1605) reports that the ʿAyn al-Mushāsh flows, but is weak when there is not enough rain, but its location is known.

literature

  • al-Azraqī : Aḫbār Makka wa-mā ǧāʾ a fī-hā min al-āṯār. Ed. ʿAbd al-Malik Ibn Duhaiš. Maktabat al-Asadī, Mecca, 2003. pp. 854-857. Digitized
  • Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad ibn Ishāq al-Fākihī: Aḫbār Makka fī qadīm ad-dahr wa-ḥadīṯihī . Ed. ʿAbd-al-Malik Ibn-ʿAbdallāh Ibn-Duhaiš. Dār Ḫiḍr, Beirut, 1994. Vol. III, pp. 152-155. Digitized
  • Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm Ibn-Isḥāq al-Ḥarbī: Kitāb al-Manāsik wa-amākin ṭuruq al-ḥaǧǧ wa-maʿālim al-Ǧazīra . Ed. Ḥamad al-Ǧāsir. Dār al-Yamāma li-l-Baḥṯ wa-t-Tarǧama wa-n-Našr, Riyad, 1969. Digitized
  • aṭ-Ṭabarī : Taʾrīḫ al-rusul wa-l-mulūk. Ed. MJ de Goeje. Leiden, 1879-1901. Vol. III. Digitized
  • ʿĀtiq ibn Ġaiṯ al-Bilādī: Muʿǧam Maʿālim al-Ḥiǧāz . 2nd ed. Muʾassasat ar-Raiyān, Beirut, 2010. pp. 1599f. Digitized

supporting documents

  1. ^ Yāqūt ar-Rūmī : Kitāb Muʿǧam al-buldān . Ed. Ferdinand Wüstenfeld . Brockhaus, Leipzig, 1867. Vol. IV, p. 536. Digitized
  2. ↑ al-Ḥarbī: Kitāb al-Manāsik . 1969, p. 555.
  3. ↑ al-Ḥarbī: Kitāb al-Manāsik . 1969, pp. 555, 645.
  4. ↑ Abū ʿUbaid al-Bakrī: Kitāb Muʿǧam mā staʿǧam . Ed. Ferdinand Wüstenfeld . 2 Vols. Göttingen / Paris 1876. Vol. II, p. 560, digitized
  5. ↑ al-Azraqī: Aḫbār Makka wa-mā ǧāʾ a fī-hā min al-āṯār. 2003, pp. 854f.
  6. ↑ al-Azraqī: Aḫbār Makka wa-mā ǧāʾ a fī-hā min al-āṯār. 2003, p. 855.
  7. ↑ al-Ḥarbī: Kitāb al-Manāsik . 1969, p. 471.
  8. ↑ al-Fākihī: Aḫbār Makka fī qadīm ad-dahr wa-ḥadīṯihī . 1994, Vol. III, pp. 152f.
  9. ↑ Al-Masʿūdī: Murūǧ aḏ-ḏahab wa-maʿādin al-ǧauhar . Texts and traduction by Barbier de Meynard and Pavet de Courteille . 9 vols. Paris 1861–1877. Vol. VIII, p. 297. Digitized version
  10. ↑ aṭ-Ṭabarī: Taʾrīḫ al-rusul wa-l-mulūk. 1879-1901. Vol. III, pp. 982, 987.
  11. ↑ al-Azraqī: Aḫbār Makka wa-mā ǧāʾ a fī-hā min al-āṯār. 2003, pp. 856f.
  12. ↑ aṭ-Ṭabarī: Taʾrīḫ al-rusul wa-l-mulūk. 1879-1901. Vol. III, p. 1440, lines 6-8.
  13. ↑ al-Fākihī: Aḫbār Makka fī qadīm ad-dahr wa-ḥadīṯihī . 1994, Vol. III, pp. 152f.
  14. ^ Ferdinand Wüstenfeld : History of the city of Mecca, edited from the Arabic chronicles. Leipzig 1861, p. 204. Digitized
  15. ↑ Sibṭ Ibn al-Ǧauzī: Mirʾāt az-zamān fī tawārīḫ al-aʿyān . Dār ar-Risāla al-ʿĀlamīya, Beirut, 2013. Vol. XIX, p. 280. Digitized
  16. ↑ Naǧm ad-Dīn ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad Ibn Fahd: Itḥāf al-warā bi-aḫbār Umm al-Qurā . Ed. Fahīm Muḥammad Salṭūt. 5 vols. Ǧāmiʿat Umm-al-Qurā, Markaz al-Baḥṯ al-ʿIlmī wa-Iḥyāʾ at-Turāṯ al-Islāmī, Mecca, 1982–1990. Digitized volume II, p. 324f.
  17. ↑ Quṭb ad-Dīn an-Nahrawālī: Kitāb al- Iʿlām bi-aʿlām bait Allāh al-ḥarām . Ed. Ferdinand Wüstenfeld . Brockhaus, Leipzig, 1857. pp. 335f.
  18. ↑ ʿAbd-al-Karīm ibn Muḥibb ad-Dīn al-Quṭbī: Iʿlām al-ʿulamāʾ al-aʿlām bi-bināʾ al-Masǧid al-Ḥarām . Dār ar-Rifāʿī, Riyad, 1983. p. 82.