The 10th-century geographer Ibn al-Faqih held that besides its capital at Tiberias, the Urdunn's chief districts (qura) were Samaria (al-Samira in Arabic), i.e. Nablus, Beisan, Qadas, Pella (Fahl in Arabic), Jerash, Acre (Akka in Arabic), and Tyre (Sur in Arabic).[2] The geographer al-Muqaddasi (d. 985) notes that the principal towns of the district were its capital Tiberias, Qadas, Tyre, Acre, Faradiyya, Kabul, Beisan, Lajjun and Adhri'at.[3] The 13th-century geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi counted the quras of Urdunn as Tiberias, Beisan, Acre, Beit Ras, Jadar (Jaydur, area adjacent to the east of the Golan Heights), Tyre and Saffuriya.[4]
The geographers Ibn Hawqal (d. c. 978) and Estakhri (d. 957) noted the Ghawr (Jordan Valley) district, the low-lying area along the Jordan River between Lake Tiberias to the Dead Sea, with its capital at Jericho (Ariha in Arabic), was administratively subordinate to Urdunn.[5] The geographer al-Ya'qubi (d. 892) held that the Ghawr was subordinate to Jund Dimashq.[2]
Population
Galilee
The Galilee was referred to as "Jabal al-Jalil" by the 9th century Arab geographer Ya'qubi (d. 891), who noted that its residents were Banu Amilah Arabs.[6] Michael Ehrlich asserts that while the majority of people in the Western Galilee and Lower Galilee probably embraced Islam during the early Islamic period, the Islamization process in the Eastern Galilee took a little longer and lasted until the Mamluk period.[7]
Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan (639-), may have been appointed to the post by Umar after the death of his brother Yazid in 639, when he was appointed to Dimashq)[8]
Abu Uthman ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam (685–705, governed for unspecified period during his brother Caliph Abd al-Malik's rule;[9] identified by Moshe Gil as Aban ibn Marwan,[10] while Asad Q. Ahmed identified him with another brother of Abd al-Malik, Uthman ibn Marwan)[11]