Jarjaraya

Jarjarāyā was a city of medieval Iraq, surrounded by a meander of the Tigris. Capital of the district of Lower Nahrawan, it was inhabited by Persian nobles, according to Ya'qubi.^[1] This has been taken to assume that Jarjaraya was founded in the Sasanian period, if not earlier.^[2] By the time of Yaqut al-Hamawi in the early 1200s, however, the town was in ruins.^[3] Archaeological evidence suggests that the site was abandoned by the end of the Abbasid period.^[4]

Map showing Jarjaraya in relation to other contemporary sites in the region

Several medieval viziers had origins here, as indicated in their nisbas. Two Abbasid viziers, Al-Abbas ibn al-Hasan al-Jarjara'i and Ahmad ibn al-Khasib al-Jarjara'i, were from Jarjaraya,^[5] as was the eleventh-century Fatimid vizier Abu'l-Qasim al-Jarjara'i, who held the position for 18 years.^[6]