Islam Museum Islam Museum islam.museum
Search ⌕ ARENUR
Accessibility
Text size 100%

Saved on this device only — nothing is sent anywhere.

Digging of the Ma'qil Canal

حفر نهر معقل

Basra

Umar ordered Abu Musa to dig the second canal run by Ma'qil ibn Yasar al-Muzani — so it bore his name; others say al-Mundhir ibn al-Jarud asked Mu'awiya for the Tharr canal, he wrote Ziyad, who dug and ran it through Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakra or another — and when it was done he sent Ma'qil to open it for baraka as a Companion, so the people called it Ma'qil's canal. Ziyad gave a man a thousand dirhams: 'go down the Tigris and ask who owns this canal — if anyone says Ziyad's, the thousand is yours'; he returned — 'not one I asked said anything but Ma'qil's canal'.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Rashidun Caliphate · The Umayyad Period
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

In space

Basra

Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph

Overview

Al-Baladhuri, in "Futuh al-Buldan", gives two accounts of the origin of the Canal of Maqil in Basra. In both the canal is attributed to the Companion Maqil ibn Yasar al-Muzani. 1

The first account

Umar ordered Abu Musa to dig the other canal and to run it by the hand of Maqil ibn Yasar, and so it was named after him. 1

The second account

It is said that al-Mundhir ibn al-Jarud al-Abdi (may God be pleased with him) spoke to Mu'awiya about digging the canal of Thar, and Mu'awiya wrote to Ziyad. Ziyad dug the canal and ran it by the hand of Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakra or another. When they had finished and wanted to open it, Ziyad sent Maqil, and he opened it for its blessing, since he was one of the Companions. The people then said: "the Canal of Maqil". 1

The test

Al-Baladhuri reports that Ziyad gave a man a thousand dirhams, and told him to reach the Tigris and ask about the owner of the canal; if anyone said it was the Canal of Ziyad, he would keep the thousand. The man came back and said he had asked no one without being told that it was the Canal of Maqil. 1

Connections

Explore the connections

Had participant
Ma'qil ibn Yasar· زياد بن أبي سفيان
Occurred at
Basra

People and things also explored

Digging of the Ubulla Canal· Mu'awiya's Marsh Grant· Nafi' ibn al-Harith's Walking Grant· Great Mosque of Basra· Qasr Qubadh / the Hajjaj palace at Basra· The Asawira's Settlement at Basra· The Basra Bathhouse Permissions· The Basrans' Cry to Abdallah ibn Ali

Sources

  1. Futuh al-Buldan — al-Baladhuri (Mu'assasat al-Ma'arif edition)
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Digging of the Ma'qil Canal”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/digging-of-nahr-maqil/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-16.

Improve this page on GitHub · Report an error · JSON

Wing

Time

Eras, timelines, this day in history, any year in the Islamic world. Related

Digging of the Ubulla Canal

Dijlat al-Awra's tidal rain-channel ran a farsakh, its Basra-side basin called al-Ijana; Umar ordered Abu Musa to dig the Basrans a canal — he began at al-Ijana, led it three farsakhs to Basra, making the Ubulla canal four — then the reach toward al-Hayri silted up. Ziyad, on the diwan under Abdallah ibn Amir, urged completing the dig and was stalled till Ibn Amir left for Khurasan; he resumed Abu Musa's channel to Basra with Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakra in charge, who opened the water racing his horse as it nearly outran him. Ibn Amir returned angry — 'you meant to carry off the canal's fame' — and the estrangement held between their houses for life; before the canal, folk drank from Dayr Qawus on the Tigris, a spot the spirits haunted.