The tarikh between Jalûlâ and Tikrit

I had been thus far studiously ignoring the classical accounts of the Futuh al-Iraq, with so much rot about the Jalulâ' battle. Normies cite Tabarî - which means, they are citing Sayf, who is suspect. Real historians cite Khalifa bin Khayyât. Sadly we are not given a translation of preUmayyad times such as what Carl Wurtzel delivered for that. Happily chronographies tend to be easy to read, even in the Arabic.

Ibn Khayyat sets Jalulâ' for the seventeenth year (of the dispensation of the Muhajireen). He devotes the eighteenth year to the conquest of West-Syria (which we'll get to) on one side; of Hulwân and Khuzestan (to be read in Chase Robinson) on the other. The year ends in the mosque of al-Kûfa, as fitting. Elias bar Shenaye reports that Khwarizmi agreed with West-Syria (although pinning Kufa and Basra 16 AH). I did extract this:

Hâtim bin Muslim told me that ʿUmar appointed ʿIyâd. This one conquered al-Mosul. ʿUtba bin Farqad followed upon one of the two fortresses (hesnayn) and conquered all the land by force, except for the fortress. But its people reconciled with him in the eighteenth year.

The "two fortresses" mean Hesna-ʿEbraya and Nineveh, which shall become Mosul. ʿIyâd had, earlier, scored multiple victories over the west - and Khwarizmi had ʿIyâd taking Nisibin and Qardû, in 19 AH. And ʿIyâd may have died saving Christians.

Ibn Khayyât's nineteenth year starts:

Its commanders were Muʿâwiya b. Abî Sufyan and Saʿîd b. ʿÂmr b. Huthaym. Every amir was upon his own jund. Thus God defeated the mushriks and killed them with a great slaughter.
Ibn al-Kalbî said: That was in the nineteenth year. Ibn Ishâq said: The twentieth year.
And in it, Tikrit was opened in the nineteenth year.
And in it, Shahrek was killed in the land of Persia. Bâb b. Dhû'l-Jira killed him. Abû'l-Yaqzân said: Jadîd b. Mâlik al-Yahmadî killed him.

Ibn Khayyat goes further with that Shahrek account, involving it with the campaign for Tûj and Istakhr in, yes, Fârs and involving one Jadîd b. Mâlik. 'Tis not so different from what one might read in Tabarî although he (i.e. Sayf) implicates Hâkim b. Abî'l-ʿÂs and dates it all to AH 23. Here the scholar to read is Martin Hinds.

The Tayyaye conquests in West-Syria started AG 947 and ran a few seasons. The Mhaggraye would call that first year, AH 15. I can negotiate Persian-occupied Nisibin to salvage Ibn Khayyât's AH 18 for that town. But it all looks imprecise.

Beyond Nisibin Ibn Khayyât's East Syria is, accordingly, difficult. His Tikrit at AH 19 is three years after Sayf's AH 16 (AG 948). If the famine at Nisibin (Ishoyahb #27) is the Ramada, then the Arabs are running the Jazira as of summer AG 950 - except for Dara. Tikrit should have "fallen to" (more likely, allied with) the Arabs before that. Implying Sayf was right.