30°30N 47°50E, pop (2000e) 954 000. Port capital of Basra governorate, SE Iraq, at head of the Shatt al-Arab, c.120 km/75 mi from the Persian Gulf; major centre of literature, theology, and scholarship in 8th9th-c; modern administrative and commercial centre; airport; railway; university (1967); oil refining, fertilizers; port badly affected in 1980s by IranIraq war and again in 1991 during and after the Gulf War; attacked by US-led coalition forces (Mar 2003) during the Iraq War.
Basra (Arabic: البصرة ; Basra is the capital of the Basra Governorate. Basra played an important role in early Islamic history
Overview
The city is located along the Shatt al-Arab ( Arvandrood ) waterway near the Persian Gulf. Basra is 55 km from the Persian Gulf and 545 km from Baghdad, Iraq's capital and largest city.
The area surrounding Basra has substantial petroleum resources with many oil wells.
Muslim adherents of the area are primarily members of the Jafari Shi`a sect.
A network of canals flowed through the city, giving it the nickname "The Venice of the Middle East" at least at high tide. For a long time, Basra grew the finest dates in the world.
Islamic theology and scholarship
Wael Hallaq notes that by contrast with Medina and to a lesser extent Syria, in Iraq there was no unbroken Muslim population dating back to the Prophet's time.
Shirazi's "Tabaqat", which Wael Hallaq labels "an important early biographical work dedicated to jurists", covered 84 "towering figures" of Islamic jurisprudence; Among the Companions who settled in Basra were Abu Musa and `Anas ibn Malik. Among its jurists, Hallaq singles out Muhammad ibn Sirin, Abu `Abd Allah Muslim ibn Yasar, and Abu Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani. In the late 750s, Sawwar ibn Abd Allah began the practice of paying salaries to the court's witnesses and assistants, ensuring their impartiality. 784), mufti of Basra, was a teacher of Abu Hanifa. Abu Hanifa's student Zufar ibn al-Hudayl later moved from Kufa to Basra.
Sufyan al-Thawri and Ma`mar ibn Rashid collected many legal and other teachings and traditions into books, and migrated to the Yemen; Back in Basra, Musaddad ibn Musarhad compiled his own collection arranged in "Musnad" form.
Basra also spawned heterodox interpretations of Islam.
Qadarism in Islam corresponds to the doctine of human free will in Christianity, as opposed to such doctrines of predestination as later proposed by, e.g., John Calvin. The traditionist Yahya ibn Ya`mar attributed the introduction of Qadari doctrines into Basra to a Ma'bad al-Juhani (d. According to al-Dhahabi (Siyar A`lam al-Nubala 6:330 #858), al-Hasan's student Abu `Uthman `Amr ibn `Ubayd (d. Imam Malik in his Muwatta recorded (with approval!) that caliph `Umar ibn `Abd al-Aziz had recommended putting Qadarists "to the sword". Syrian hadith transmitters invented traditions of the Prophet that denounced Qadarism as a heresy, and labeled its believers and Basra as a whole as "monkeys and swine" - as sura 5 had said of the Jews.
Under Abu 'l-Hudhayl al-`Allaf (d.
According to Arthur Jeffery, Basra also at first held to an idiosyncratic pronunciation of the Qur'an, which they put to paper as the "Lubab al-Qulub" and attributed to Abu Musa. This was also the reading of Ibn al-Zubayr when he came to Mecca (although his variants did encompass sura 21). and that Basra accepted sura 21 as part of Qur'an later than it accepted other suras - most likely during or after the mid-680s.
History
First millennium
636: Founding
An earlier settlement in the immediate vicinity was known by the Syriac name Perat d'Maishan. The present city was founded in 636 as an encampment and garrison for the Arab tribesmen constituting the armies of amir `Umar ibn al-Khattab, a few miles south of the present city, where a tell still marks its site. While defeating the Sassanid forces there, the muslim commander Utba ibn Ghazwan first set up camp there on the site of an old Persian settlement called Vaheštābād Ardašīr, which was destroyed by the invading Arabs .
639: Abu-Musa al-Asha'ari
Umar established this encampment as a city with five districts, and appointed Abu-Musa al-Asha'ari as its first governor. After this, `Umar ordered him to aid `Uthman ibn Abu al-`As, then fighting Iran from a new, more easterly misr at Tawwaj.
650: `Abdallah ibn `Amir
In 650, the amir `Uthman reorganised the Persian frontier, installed `Abdallah ibn `Amir as Basra's governor, and put the invasion's southern wing under Basra's responsibility. Ibn `Amir led his forces to their final victory over Yazdegird III, king of Persia. Basra accordingly had few quarrels with `Uthman and so in 656 sent few men to the embassy against him. On `Uthman's murder, Basra refused to recognise `Ali ibn Abu Talib;
6??: `Uthman ibn Hanif
Ali first installed `Uthman ibn Hanif as Basra's governor and then `Abd Allah ibn `Abbas.
661: Umayyad `Abd Allah
The Sufyanids held Basra until Yazid I's death in 683.
661: Ziyad ibn Abu Sufyan
In 664 Mu`awiyah replaced him with Ziyad ibn Abu Sufyan, often called "Ibn Abihi (son of his own [unknown] father)", who became famed for his Draconian methods of public order.
673: Ubayd-Allah ibn Ziyad
On Ziyad's death in 673, his son Ubayd-Allah ibn Ziyad became governor. In 680, Yazid I ordered Ubayd Allah to keep order in Kufa as a reaction to Hussein ibn `Ali's popularity there; Hussein had already fled, and so Ubayd Allah executed Hussein's cousin Muslim ibn Aqeel.
684: Abd-Allah ibn al-Harith
In 683, Abd Allah ibn Zubayr was hailed as the new caliph in the Hijaz. In 684 the Basrans forced Ubayd Allah to take shelter with Mas'ud al-Azdi and chose Abd Allah ibn al-Harith as their governor. Ibn al-Harith swiftly recognised Ibn al-Zubayr's claim, and Ma'sud made a premature and fatal move on Ubayd Allah's behalf;
Ibn al-Harith spent his year in office trying to put down Nafi' ibn al-Azraq's Kharijite uprising in Khuzestan.
684: Umar ibn Ubayd Allah
In 685, Ibn al-Zubayr required a practical man, and so appointed Umar ibn Ubayd Allah ibn Ma'mar
684: Mus`ab ibn al-Zubayr
Finally Ibn al-Zubayr appointed his own brother Mus`ab. In 686, the self-proclaimed prophet Mukhtar led an insurrection at Kufa, and put an end to Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad near Mosul.
684: Al-Hajjaj
`Abd al-Malik reconquered Basra in 691, and Basra remained loyal to his governor al-Hajjaj during Ibn Ash`ath's mutiny 699-702. However Basra did support the rebellion of Yazid ibn al-Muhallab against Yazid II during the 720s.
740s - 1660s: ?
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Second millennium
1668: Ottoman Empire
It was long a flourishing commercial and cultural center, until it was captured by the Ottoman Empire in 1668, after which it declined in importance, but was fought over by Turks and Persians and was the scene of repeated attempts at resistance.
1911: Ottoman Empire
In 1911, the Encyclopaedia Britannica reported some Jews and a few Christians living in Basra, but no Turks other than Ottoman officials.
1914 : World War I
After the Battle of Basra (1914) during World War I the occupying British modernized the port (works designed by Sir George Buchanan), which became the principal port of Iraq.
1939 : World War II
During World War II it was an important port through which flowed much of the equipment and supplies sent to Russia by the other allies.
1945-1990: peacetime and the Iran-Iraq War
The University of Basrah was founded in 1967.
By 1977 the population had risen to a peak population of some 1.5 million.
1991: Persian Gulf War
After the first Persian Gulf War in 1991 Basra was the site of widespread revolt against Saddam Hussein, which was violently put down with much death and destruction inflicted on the city.
1999: Second revolt
A second revolt in 1999 led to mass executions in and around Basra, subsequently the Iraqi government deliberately neglected the city and much commerce was diverted to Umm Qasr.
Third millennium
Workers in Basra's oil industry have been involved in extensive organization and labor conflict.
2003: Iraq War and occupation
In March through May of 2003, the outskirts of Basra were the scene of heavy fighting in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
2004: Car bomb
On 21 April 2004, a series of bomb blasts ripped through the city, killing scores of people.
The Multi-National Division (South-East) (Iraq), under British Command, is currently engaged in Security and Stabilization missions in Basra Governorate and surrounding areas.
2005
January: Elections
Political groups and their ideology which are strong in Basra are reported to have close links with political parties already in power in the Iraqi government, despite opposition from Iraqi Sunnis and the more secular Kurds.
Internal conflicts
By the first half of 2005, Basra had become noted as a focal point for confrontations between secular Iraqi culture and Shi'a Muslims .
Militia members, probably from the Mahdi Militia of Muqtada Sadr beat several students, and beat one young woman severely enough that it was reported that she lost her eyesight.
Senior al-Sadr supporters praised the militia's actions .
August: Steven Vincent
On 3 August 2005, an American journalist was assassinated in Basrah.
September: UK fighting against Iraqi police
Wikinews has news related to: Basra, Iraq raid by UK forces to rescue soldiers from policeOn September 19, 2005, two British soldiers were arrested by Iraqi police in Basra following a car chase. The arrests followed the detention of two high-ranking officials of Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army
UK Ministry of Defence officials insisted they had been talking to the Iraqi authorities to secure the release of the men, who were reported to be working undercover.
Two British Warrior AFVs, sent to the police station where the soldiers were being held, were hit by multiple petrol bombs in clashes.
Tim Collins, a former commander of troops in Iraq, described the incident with the crowd as like a "busy night in Belfast
2006
February: British beating teenagers
In February 2006 a video showing a group of British soldiers beating several Iraqi teenagers was posted on the internet, and shortly thereafter, on the main television networks around the world.
Trivia
Under the name of Bassorah the city is mentioned in the Thousand and One Nights, and Sindbad the Sailor was said to have begun his voyages here.
Basra is also the name of a fishing-type card game played in coffeehouses throughout the Middle East.
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