Al-Mada'in
According to another folklore, the names of five (or seven) cities that al-Mada'in comprised were Aspanbur, Veh-Ardashir, Hanbu Shapur, Darzanidan, Veh Jondiu-Khosrow, Nawinabad and Kardakadh.
[3] According to Perso-Arabic sources, Ctesiphon, the capital of the Sasanian Empire, was greatly enlarged and flourished during their rule, thus turning into a metropolis, which was known by in Arabic as al-Mada'in, and in Aramaic as Mahoza.
[3] The oldest inhabited places of al-Mada'in was on its eastern side, which in Arabic sources is called "the Old City", where the residence of the Sasanians, known as the White Palace, was located.
[3] The western side was known as Veh-Ardashir (meaning "the good city of Ardashir" in Middle Persian), known as Mahoza by the Jews, Kokhe by the Christians, and Behrasir by the Arabs.
[3] In 495, during the turbulent reign of Emperor Kavad I, Mahoza (as the Jews called the city) was the scene of a Jewish revolt led by Exilarch Mar-Zutra II.
In 590, a member of the House of Mihran, Bahram Chobin repelled the newly ascended Sasanian ruler Khosrow II from Iraq, and conquered the region.
In 628, a deadly plague hit al-Mada'in and the rest of the western part of the Sasanian Empire, which even killed Khosrau's son and successor, Kavadh II.
[5] In 629, al-Mada'in was briefly under the control of Mihranid usurper Shahrbaraz, but the latter was shortly assassinated by the supporters of Khosrau II's daughter, the banbishn Boran.
[3] The Muslim military officer Khalid ibn 'Urfuta quickly seized Valashabad and made a peace treaty with the inhabitants of Rumiya and Behrasir.
Terms of the treaty were that the inhabitants of Rumiya were allowed to leave if they wanted to, but if they did not, they were forced to acknowledge Muslim authority, and also pay tribute (jizya).
When the Muslim military officer (and one of the companions of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad) Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas arrived to al-Mada'in, it was completely desolated, due to flight of the Sasanian royal family, nobles, and troops.
[7] During the Abbasid civil war (865–866), Abu'l-Saj Devdad, a relative of the Iranian prince Khaydhar ibn Kawus al-Afshin, was put charge in the defense of al-Mada'in in 865.
[8] The Abbasid caliphs al-Mu'tadid (r. 892–902) and al-Muqtafi (r. 902–908) further ruined al-Mada'in by digging it up for building materials to construct the Taj Palace in Baghdad.
[3] In August 942, a battle occurred at al-Mada'in between a combined Hamdanid-Turkish army and the Baridis, who both fought for the de facto rule over Iraq.
[9] In 945, the Iranian Buyid prince Ahmad ibn Buya seized al-Mada'in including the rest of Iraq, and made the Caliph his vassal.
[citation needed] During the Sasanian period, population of al-Mada'in was heavily mixed, it included Arameans, Persians, Greeks, and Assyrians.
[3] A companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman was one of these Arab leaders from Kufa, and is known to have had a Christian or Jewish woman from al-Mada'in as his wife, who, he, however, was forced by the Rashidun Caliph Umar to divorce because of the population of marriageable Muslim women in the metropolis was enough to marry.
