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al Basrah
KNOWLEDGE OF al Basrah
Basra (also spelled Başrah or Basara; historically sometimes written Busra, Busrah, and the early form Bassorah; Arabic: البصرة, Al-Basrah) is the second largest city of Iraq with an estimated population of c. 2,600,000 (2003). It is the country's main port. Basra is the capital of the Basra Governorate. 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. The city also has an international airport, which recently began restored service to Baghdad with Iraqi Airways - the nation's flag airline. Basra is in a fertile agricultural region, with major products including rice, maize corn, barley, millet, wheat, dates, and livestock. The city's oil refinery has a production capacity of about 140,000 barrels a day (22,300 m³).
Muslim adherents of the area are primarily members of the Jafari Shi`a sect. A sizeable number from the Sunni sect also live in Basra as well as a small number of Christians. Living among them are also the remnants of the pre-Islamic gnostic sect of Mandaeans, whose headquarters were in the area formerly called Suk esh-Sheikh.
A network of canals flowed through the city, giving it the nickname "The Venice of the Middle East" at least at high tide. The tides at Basra fall by about 9 feet (2.7 m). For a long time, Basra grew the finest dates in the world.
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 VaheÅ¡tÄ?bÄ?d ArdaÅ¡Ä«r, which was destroyed by the invading Arabs. (according to Encyclopædia Iranica, E. Yarshater, Columbia University, p851). The name Al-Basrah, which in Arabic means "the over watching" or "the seeing everything", was given to it because of its role as a Military base against the Sassanid empire. Other sources however say its name originates from the Persian word Bas-rÄ?h or BassorÄ?h meaning "where many ways come together". (See Mohammadi Malayeri, M. Dil-i Iranshahr).
Umar established this encampment as a city with five districts, and appointed Abu Musa `Abd Allah ibn Qays al-Ash`ari as its first governor. Abu Musa led the conquest of Khuzestan from 639 to 642. After this, `Umar ordered him to aid `Uthman ibn Abu al-`As, then fighting Iran from a new, more easterly misr at Tawwaj.
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; instead supporting the Meccan aristocracy then led by `Aisha, al-Zubayr, and Talha. `Ali defeated this force at the Battle of the Camel. He first installed `Uthman ibn Hanif as Basra's governor and then `Abd Allah ibn `Abbas. These men held the city for `Ali until the latter's death in 661.
The Sufyanids held Basra until Yazid I's death in 683. Their first governor there was an Umayyad `Abd Allah, who proved to be a great general (under him, Kabul was forced to pay tribute) but a poor mayor. In 664 Mu`awiyah replaced him with Ziyad ibn Abu Sufyan Sufyan, often called "Ibn Abihi (son of his own [unknown] father)", who became famed for his Draconian methods of public order. 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.
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; and so `Ubayd Allah felt obliged to flee.
Ibn al-Harith spent his year in office trying to put down Nafi' ibn al-Azraq's Kharijite uprising in Khuzestan. Islamic tradition condemns him as feckless abroad and corrupt at home, but praises him on matters of doctrine and prayer. In 685, Ibn al-Zubayr required a practical man, and so appointed Umar b. Ubayd Allah b. Ma'mar. (Madelung p. 303-4) 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. In 687, Mus`ab defeated Mukhtar, with the help of Kufans whom Mukhtar had exiled. (Brock p.66)
`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. In the 740s, Basra fell to al-Saffah of the `Abbasids.
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. Therefore Maliki (and Azwa`i) appeals to the practice (`amal) of the community could not apply. Instead the people of `Iraq relied upon those Companions of the Prophet who settled there, and upon such factions of the Hijaz whom they respected most.
Shirazi's "Tabaqat", which Wael Hallaq labels "an important early biographical work dedicated to jurists", covered 84 "towering figures" of Islamic jurisprudence; to which Basra provided 17. It was therefore a center surpassed only by Medina (22) and Kufa (20). 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. Qatada ibn Di`ama (680-736) attained respect as a traditionist and Qur'anic interpreter. In the late 750s, Sawwar ibn Abd Allah began the practice of paying salaries to the court's witnesses and assistants, ensuring their impartiality. Hammad ibn Salama (d. 784), mufti of Basra, was a teacher of Abu Hanifa. Abu Hanifa's student Zufar ibn al-Hudayl later moved from Kufa to Basra. Basran and Kufan law, under the patronage of the early `Abbasids, became a shared jurisprudence called the "Hanafi Madhhab"; as opposed to others, like the practice of Medina which became the Maliki Madhhab.
Sufyan al-Thawri and Ma`mar ibn Rashid collected many legal and other teachings and traditions into books, and migrated to the Yemen; there 'Abd al-Razzaq included them into his Musannaf during the 9th century CE. Back in Basra, Musaddad b. Musarhad compiled his own collection arranged in "Musnad" form.
Basra also spawned heterodox interpretations of Islam. Rabi`ah al-`Adawiyya al-Qaysiyya (born 717), lived there and became popular as poet, mystic, and teacher. It was also among the first bases of the Qadariyya.
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. 80). Al-Hasan developed a moderate form of this in his Risala: God may command, forbid, punish, and test; but He does not force ordinary mortals to evil or good despite that He has the power. According to al-Dhahabi (Siyar A`lam al-Nubala 6:330 #858), al-Hasan's student Abu `Uthman `Amr ibn `Ubayd (d. ~144) left al-Hasan's teaching circle and "isolated" himself by taking these doctrines further. In Syria, the reigning Marwanids relied on predestination to justify their hold on secular authority. 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. 841), the Basrans are also credited (or blamed) for the Mutazilist school, a form of rationalism which included the Qadari doctines of al-Hasan and attracted the support of `Abbasid caliph al-Ma`mun.
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. For instance, this codex used the more Biblically correct "Ibraham", as against the "Ibrahim" which is forced by sura 21's rhyme; in addition there are no Abu Musa variants recorded for sura 21. This was also the reading of Ibn al-Zubayr when he came to Mecca (although his variants did encompass sura 21). The likely solution is that the first Qur'an text at Basra was "defective", which is to say it lacked long vowel signs; 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.
The area surrounding Basra has substantial petroleum resources with many oil wells. The city also has an international airport, which recently began restored service to Baghdad with Iraqi Airways - the nation's flag airline. Basra is in a fertile agricultural region, with major products including rice, maize corn, barley, millet, wheat, dates, and livestock. The city's oil refinery has a production capacity of about 140,000 barrels a day (22,300 m³).
Muslim adherents of the area are primarily members of the Jafari Shi`a sect. A sizeable number from the Sunni sect also live in Basra as well as a small number of Christians. Living among them are also the remnants of the pre-Islamic gnostic sect of Mandaeans, whose headquarters were in the area formerly called Suk esh-Sheikh.
A network of canals flowed through the city, giving it the nickname "The Venice of the Middle East" at least at high tide. The tides at Basra fall by about 9 feet (2.7 m). For a long time, Basra grew the finest dates in the world.
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 VaheÅ¡tÄ?bÄ?d ArdaÅ¡Ä«r, which was destroyed by the invading Arabs. (according to Encyclopædia Iranica, E. Yarshater, Columbia University, p851). The name Al-Basrah, which in Arabic means "the over watching" or "the seeing everything", was given to it because of its role as a Military base against the Sassanid empire. Other sources however say its name originates from the Persian word Bas-rÄ?h or BassorÄ?h meaning "where many ways come together". (See Mohammadi Malayeri, M. Dil-i Iranshahr).
Umar established this encampment as a city with five districts, and appointed Abu Musa `Abd Allah ibn Qays al-Ash`ari as its first governor. Abu Musa led the conquest of Khuzestan from 639 to 642. After this, `Umar ordered him to aid `Uthman ibn Abu al-`As, then fighting Iran from a new, more easterly misr at Tawwaj.
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; instead supporting the Meccan aristocracy then led by `Aisha, al-Zubayr, and Talha. `Ali defeated this force at the Battle of the Camel. He first installed `Uthman ibn Hanif as Basra's governor and then `Abd Allah ibn `Abbas. These men held the city for `Ali until the latter's death in 661.
The Sufyanids held Basra until Yazid I's death in 683. Their first governor there was an Umayyad `Abd Allah, who proved to be a great general (under him, Kabul was forced to pay tribute) but a poor mayor. In 664 Mu`awiyah replaced him with Ziyad ibn Abu Sufyan Sufyan, often called "Ibn Abihi (son of his own [unknown] father)", who became famed for his Draconian methods of public order. 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.
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; and so `Ubayd Allah felt obliged to flee.
Ibn al-Harith spent his year in office trying to put down Nafi' ibn al-Azraq's Kharijite uprising in Khuzestan. Islamic tradition condemns him as feckless abroad and corrupt at home, but praises him on matters of doctrine and prayer. In 685, Ibn al-Zubayr required a practical man, and so appointed Umar b. Ubayd Allah b. Ma'mar. (Madelung p. 303-4) 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. In 687, Mus`ab defeated Mukhtar, with the help of Kufans whom Mukhtar had exiled. (Brock p.66)
`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. In the 740s, Basra fell to al-Saffah of the `Abbasids.
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. Therefore Maliki (and Azwa`i) appeals to the practice (`amal) of the community could not apply. Instead the people of `Iraq relied upon those Companions of the Prophet who settled there, and upon such factions of the Hijaz whom they respected most.
Shirazi's "Tabaqat", which Wael Hallaq labels "an important early biographical work dedicated to jurists", covered 84 "towering figures" of Islamic jurisprudence; to which Basra provided 17. It was therefore a center surpassed only by Medina (22) and Kufa (20). 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. Qatada ibn Di`ama (680-736) attained respect as a traditionist and Qur'anic interpreter. In the late 750s, Sawwar ibn Abd Allah began the practice of paying salaries to the court's witnesses and assistants, ensuring their impartiality. Hammad ibn Salama (d. 784), mufti of Basra, was a teacher of Abu Hanifa. Abu Hanifa's student Zufar ibn al-Hudayl later moved from Kufa to Basra. Basran and Kufan law, under the patronage of the early `Abbasids, became a shared jurisprudence called the "Hanafi Madhhab"; as opposed to others, like the practice of Medina which became the Maliki Madhhab.
Sufyan al-Thawri and Ma`mar ibn Rashid collected many legal and other teachings and traditions into books, and migrated to the Yemen; there 'Abd al-Razzaq included them into his Musannaf during the 9th century CE. Back in Basra, Musaddad b. Musarhad compiled his own collection arranged in "Musnad" form.
Basra also spawned heterodox interpretations of Islam. Rabi`ah al-`Adawiyya al-Qaysiyya (born 717), lived there and became popular as poet, mystic, and teacher. It was also among the first bases of the Qadariyya.
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. 80). Al-Hasan developed a moderate form of this in his Risala: God may command, forbid, punish, and test; but He does not force ordinary mortals to evil or good despite that He has the power. According to al-Dhahabi (Siyar A`lam al-Nubala 6:330 #858), al-Hasan's student Abu `Uthman `Amr ibn `Ubayd (d. ~144) left al-Hasan's teaching circle and "isolated" himself by taking these doctrines further. In Syria, the reigning Marwanids relied on predestination to justify their hold on secular authority. 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. 841), the Basrans are also credited (or blamed) for the Mutazilist school, a form of rationalism which included the Qadari doctines of al-Hasan and attracted the support of `Abbasid caliph al-Ma`mun.
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. For instance, this codex used the more Biblically correct "Ibraham", as against the "Ibrahim" which is forced by sura 21's rhyme; in addition there are no Abu Musa variants recorded for sura 21. This was also the reading of Ibn al-Zubayr when he came to Mecca (although his variants did encompass sura 21). The likely solution is that the first Qur'an text at Basra was "defective", which is to say it lacked long vowel signs; 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.
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