during this period. There is also evidence of occupation during Hellenistic times. Fasa came under Muslim control peacefully in 644 (23 AH), when the Arab general Uthman ibn Abi al-As reached an agreement with the herbad of Fasa and Darabgerd. According to Ibn al-Balkhi, the herbad offered a payment of two million dirhams in return for amān (protection from harm), and promised that the locals would continue to pay the jizya tax to the Muslims. Another force was sent to Fars under Abdallah ibn Amir in 650 (29 AH). In the 10th century, Estakhri described Fasa as the largest town in the kūra (province) of Darabgerd – it was almost as large as Shiraz, which was then the capital of Fars. Its buildings, he wrote, were "more spacious" than the ones in Shiraz, and they were made of cypress wood and mud. It had wide streets, a citadel, a moat, and a rabaz or market quarter outside the walls. Fasa was an affluent town, and its residents lived in relative comfort because their commercial activity brought in plenty of wealth. Fasa's agricultural districts produced both cold and warm weather fruits. The main religion was Sunni Islam, of the same madhhab as Baghdad. Estakhri listed some of the items sold at Fasa's markets: silks, including so-called washy silks that were multicolored and sometimes brocaded; "good delicate costumes"; besāṭs (i.e. tablecloths and rugs); fine setrs (i.e. curtains and bedsheets); fūṭas (i.e. napkins and towels); fine carpets; tablecloths; khargāhs (i.e. fine tents); mandīls (i.e. handkerchiefs and turban-like headgear); and safflower. Moqaddasi wrote in 985 that Fasa was home to "the most righteous, pleasant, and liberal people of Fars" and noted that its marketplace was all built out of wood. He described its congregational mosque as being larger than the one in Shiraz; it was built from brick and featured two courtyards connected by a roofed passage like the one in Baghdad. The anonymous author of the Hudud al-'Alam in 982 also described Fasa as a large and prosperous town that was a center of commerce. Fasa was devastated in 989/90 (379 AH) during a bloody Buyid civil war between Turkish mercenaries formerly employed by Sharaf al-Dawla, who had recently died, and Daylamite troops loyal to Samsam al-Dawla. Fasa had been a base of the Daylamites under Samsam al-Dawla, and the Turks, commanded by Sharaf al-Dawla's son Abu Ali, sacked Fasa and killed all