in his book, with his chain of narration on the authority of Sulayman ibn 'Utba (69), that the Commander of the Faithful, 'Abd Allah ibn Muhammad—I think he means al-Mansur—asked him during his arrival in the Levant, in the year fifty-three or fifty-four, about the cause of the lands (70) that were in the hands of the sons of the Companions, as they claimed they were ancient land grants (qata'i') for their fathers. I said: "O Commander of the Faithful, when Allah the Exalted gave the Muslims victory over the lands of the Levant, and they made a peace treaty (71) with the people of Damascus and the people of Homs, they were reluctant to enter them before their dominance was complete and they had inflicted severe losses upon the enemy of Allah. So, they encamped in Marj Barada, between al-Mizza and Marj Sha'ban. The two sides of the Barada were meadows that were permissible between the people of Damascus and its villages, belonging to none of them. They stayed there until Allah humbled the polytheists through them in subjugation and disgrace. Every group then revived their own area and prepared construction upon it (72), [this was referred to 'Umar] (73), who ratified it for them, and 'Uthman ratified it after him until the caliphate (74) of the Commander of the Faithful." He said: "We have ratified it for them." And on the authority of al-Ahwas ibn Hakim, that the Muslims who conquered Homs did not enter it, and they encamped (75) by the Arbad River and revived it, so 'Umar and 'Uthman ratified it for them. There were some among them who had crossed at that time to the bridge of the Arbad, which is at the gate of al-Rastan (76), and they encamped in its meadow as a garrison (maslaha) for the Muslims behind them. When they were informed of what 'Umar had ratified for those encamped by the Arbad River, they asked to be included with them in those land grants, and they wrote to 'Umar regarding it. He wrote that they should be compensated with the like of it from the meadows where they had encamped at the gate of al-Rastan. Thus, those land grants remained upon