BĒṮ DARAYĒ (Arabic Bādarāyā), a district southeast of the lower Nahrawān canal in Gōḵē (Arż Jūḵā), Iraq, linked administratively with Bākosāyā. Fiey identified it with Tell al-ʿAqr near the village of Badra ca. 150km east-southeast of Baghdad. It lay between al-Bandanījayn and the environs of Wāseṭ and produced excellent dried dates. Mani is said to have gone to Bēṯ Darayē in the third century, and Qobād I (r. 488-96, 499-531) is said to have resettled people there. This district is also attested as a Nestorian bishopric of Bēṯ Aramayē in 424, 486, 497, 544, 554, 605, 790, and again in the twelfth century, after being included in the diocese of Kaškar in ca. 900. Bādarāyā and Bākosāyā together were assessed taxes of 4,700 korr of wheat, 5,000 korr of barley, and 330,000 dirhams in 204/819-20.
Bibliography:
Qodāma, Ketāb al-ḵarāj, p. 239. Masʿudī, Tanbīh, Beirut, 1965, p. 36.
Yāqūt, Boldān, I, pp. 459, 477.
J.-B. Chabot, Synodicon Orientale, Paris, 1902, pp. 8, 43, 53, 62, 66-68, 95, 108-09, 214, 279, 285, 299, 310-11, 315-17, 351, 366-67, 603.
J. M. Fiey, Assyrie chrétienne, Beirut, 1965-68, III, pp. 149, 187,194-95.
M. Morony, “Continuity and Change in the Administrative Geography of Late Sasanian and Early Islamic al-ʿIrāq,” Iran 20, 1982, pp. 19, 20.
W. Sundermann, “Studien zur kirchengeschichtlichen Literatur der iranischen Manichäer II,” Altorientalische Forschungen 13, 1986, pp. 254, 301-02.
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(Michael Morony)
Originally Published: December 15, 1989
Last Updated: December 15, 1989
This article is available in print.
Vol. IV, Fasc. 2, pp. 186-187
