Foundation by the Rashidun Caliphate (636–661) The city was founded at the beginning of the Islamic era in 636 and began as a garrison encampment for
Arab tribesmen constituting the armies of the
Rashidun Caliph Umar. The original site, which was a military site, is still marked by the
Imam Ali Mosque about 15 kilometers SW of modern Basra. While defeating the forces of the
Sassanid Empire there, the Muslim commander
Utba ibn Ghazwan erected his camp on the site of an old Persian military settlement called
Vaheštābād Ardašīr, which was destroyed by the Arabs. While the name Al-Basrah in Arabic can mean "the overwatcher". In 639, Umar established this encampment as a city with five districts, and appointed
Abu Musa al-Ash'ari as its first governor. The city was built in a circular plan according to the
Partho-Sasanian architecture. Abu Musa led the conquest of
Khuzestan from 639 to 642, and was ordered by Umar to aid
Uthman ibn Abi al-As, then fighting Persia from a new, more easterly
miṣr at
Tawwaj. In 650, the Rashidun Caliph
Uthman reorganised the Persian frontier, installed ʿAbdullah ibn Amir as Basra's governor, and put the military's southern wing under Basra's control. Ibn Amir led his forces to their final victory over
Yazdegerd III, the Sassanid
King of Kings. In 656, Uthman was murdered and
Ali was appointed Caliph. Ali first installed Uthman ibn Hanif as Basra's governor, who was followed by ʿAbdullah ibn ʿAbbas. Why Basra was chosen as a site for the new city remains unclear. Nevertheless, Basra overcame these natural disadvantages and rapidly grew into the second-largest city in Iraq, if not the entire Islamic world. Its role as a military encampment meant that the soldiers had to be fed, and since those soldiers were receiving government salaries, they had money to spend. Thus, both the government and private entrepreneurs invested heavily in developing a vast agricultural infrastructure in the Basra region. Governors sometimes directly supervised these projects, but usually they simply assigned the land while most of the financing was done by private investors. This system was first reported in 962, when just 8,000 hectares of it remained in use, for the cultivation of
date palms, while the rest had become desert. This represents an enormous amount of work:
H.S. Nelson calculated that 45 million tons of earth were moved in total, and with his extremely high estimate of one man moving two tons of soil per day, this would have taken a decade of strenuous work by 25,000 men. The Sufyanids' first governor was Umayyad ʿAbdullah, a renowned military leader, commanding fealty and financial demands from Karballah, but poor governor. In 664,
Mu'awiya I replaced him with
Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan, often called "ibn Abihi" ("son of his own father"), who became infamous for his draconian rules regarding public order. On Ziyad's death in 673, his son
ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyad became governor. In 680, Yazid I ordered ʿUbayd Allah to keep order in
Kufa as a reaction to
Husayn ibn Ali's popularity as the grandson of the
Islamic prophet Muhammad. 'Ubayd Allah took over the control of
Kufa. ʿUbayd Allah's army was victorious; Husayn and his followers were killed and their heads were sent to Yazid as proof. Finally, Ibn al-Zubayr appointed his own brother Mus'ab. In 686, the revolutionary
al-Mukhtar led an insurrection at Kufa, and put an end to ʿUbaydullah ibn Ziyad near
Mosul. In 687, Musʿab defeated al-Mukhtar with the help of Kufans who Mukhtar exiled.
Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan reconquered Basra in 691, and Basra remained loyal to his governor al-Hajjaj during Ibn Ashʿath's mutiny (699–702). However, Basra did support the rebellion of Yazid ibn al-Muhallab against
Yazid II during the 720s.
Abbasid Caliphate and its Golden Age: 750–1258 In the late 740s, Basra fell to
as-Saffah of the
Abbasid Caliphate. During the time of the Abbasids, Basra became an intellectual center and home to the elite
Basra School of Grammar, the rival and sister school of the
Kufa School of Grammar. Several outstanding intellectuals of the age were Basrans; Arab
polymath Ibn al-Haytham, the
Arab literary giant
al-Jahiz, and the
Sufi mystic
Rabia Basri. The
Zanj Rebellion by the agricultural slaves of the lowlands affected the area. In 871, the Zanj sacked Basra. In 923, the
Qarmatians, an extremist Muslim sect,
invaded and devastated Basra. In 1126, Zengi suppressed a revolt and in 1129, Dabis looted the Basra state treasury. A 1200 map "on the eve of the Mongol invasions" shows the Abbasid Caliphate as ruling lower Iraq and, presumably, Basra. The
Assassin Rashid-ad-Din-Sinan was born in Basra on or between 1131 and 1135.
Mongol rule and thereafter: 1258–1500s In 1258, the Mongols under
Hulegu Khan sacked Baghdad and ended Abbasid rule. By some accounts, Basra capitulated to the Mongols to avoid a massacre. The Mamluk
Bahri dynasty map (1250–1382) shows Basra as being under their area of control, and the
Mongol Dominions map (1300–1405) shows Basra as being under Mongol control. In 1290 fighting erupted at the
Persian Gulf port of Basra among the
Genoese, between the
Guelph and the Ghibelline factions.
Ibn Battuta visited Basra in the 14th century, noting it "was renowned throughout the whole world, spacious in area and elegant in its courts, remarkable for its numerous fruit-gardens and its choice fruits, since it is the meeting place of the two seas, the salt and the fresh." Ibn Battuta also noted that Basra consisted of three-quarters: the Hudayl quarter, the Banu Haram quarter, and the Iranian quarter (
mahallat al-Ajam).
Fred Donner adds: "If the first two reveal that Basra was still predominantly an Arab town, the existence of an Iranian quarter clearly reveals the legacy of long centuries of intimate contact between Basra and the Iranian plateau." In 1550, the local Kingdom of Basra and tribal rulers trusted the Portuguese against the Ottomans, from then on the Portuguese threatened to invoke an invasion and conquest of Basra several times. From 1595 the Portuguese acted as military protectors of Basra, and in 1624 the Portuguese assisted the
Ottoman Pasha of Basra in repelling a Persian invasion. The Portuguese were granted a share of the customs revenue and freedom from tolls. From about 1625 until 1668, Basra and the Delta marshlands were in the hands of local chieftains independent of the Ottoman administration at Baghdad.
Ottoman and British rule Basra was, for a long time, a flourishing commercial and cultural center. It was captured by the
Ottoman Empire in 1668. It was fought over by Turks and
Persians and was the scene of repeated attempts at resistance. From 1697 to 1701, Basra was once again
under Safavid control. The
Zand dynasty under
Karim Khan Zand briefly occupied Basra after a long siege in 1775–9. The Zands attempted at introducing
Usuli form of
Shiism on a basically
Akhbari Shia Basrans. The shortness of the Zand rule rendered this untenable. In 1911, the
Encyclopaedia Britannica reported "about 4000 Jews and perhaps 6000 Christians" living in Basra Vilayet, but no Turks other than Ottoman officials. In 1884 the Ottomans responded to local pressure from the
Shi'as of the south by detaching the southern districts of the
Baghdad vilayet and creating a new
vilayet of Basra. During
World War I,
British forces
captured Basra from the Ottomans, occupying the city on 22 November 1914. British officials and engineers (including
Sir George Buchanan) subsequently modernized Basra's harbor, which due to the increased commercial activity in the area became one of the most important ports in the Persian Gulf, developing new mercantile links with
India and
East Asia. The graves of around 5,000 men from WW1 both are at
Basra War Cemetery and a further 40,000 with no known grave are commemorated at
Basra Memorial. Both sites are suffering from neglect with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission having withdrawn from the country in 2007.
Modern era: 1921–2003 During
World War II (1939–1945), Basra was an important port through which flowed much of the equipment and supplies sent to the
Soviet Union by other
Allies of World War II. and reached 219,167 in 1957. The
University of Basrah was founded in 1964. By 1977, the population had risen to a peak population of some 1.5 million. After the 1991
Gulf War a
rebellion against Saddam erupted in Basra. As part of the
Iraqi no-fly zones conflict,
United States Air Force fighter jets carried out two
airstrikes against Basra on 25 January 1999. A
second revolt in 1999 led to mass executions by the Iraqi government in and around Basra. Subsequently, the Iraqi government deliberately neglected the city, and much commerce was diverted to
Umm Qasr. These alleged abuses are to feature amongst the charges against the former regime to be considered by the
Iraq Special Tribunal set up by the
Iraq Interim Government following the 2003 invasion.
Post-Saddam period: 2003–present , 2 April 2003In March through to May 2003, the outskirts of Basra were the scene of some of the heaviest fighting in the beginning of the
Iraq War in 2003. The British forces, led by the
7th Armoured Brigade, captured the city on 6 April 2003. On 19 September 2005, two
undercover British
Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers were stopped by the
Iraqi Police at a
roadblock in Basra. The British transferred control of Basra province to the Iraqi authorities in 2007, four-and-a-half years after the invasion. A BBC survey of local residents found that 86% thought the presence of British forces since 2003 had had an overall negative effect on the province. Major-General Abdul Jalil Khalaf was appointed Police Chief by the central government with the task of taking on the militias. Talking to the BBC, he said that his determination to tackle the militia had led to almost daily assassination attempts. This was taken as sign that he was serious in opposing the militias. In March 2008, the Iraqi Army launched a major offensive, code-named Charge of the White Knights (
Saulat al-Fursan), aimed at forcing the
Mahdi Army out of Basra. In April 2008, following the failure to disarm militant groups, both Major-General Abdul Jalil Khalaf and General Mohan Furaiji were removed from their positions in Basra. was hosted Workers in Basra's oil industry have been involved in extensive organization and labour conflict. They held a two-day strike in August 2003, and formed the nucleus of the independent
General Union of Oil Employees (GUOE) in June 2004. The union held a one-day strike in July 2005, and publicly opposes plans for privatizing the industry. Basra was scheduled to host the
22nd Arabian Gulf Cup tournament in
Basra Sports City, a newly built multi-use sports complex. In 2023, the city hosted the long scheduled
25th Arabian Gulf Cup where the Iraqi team won. ==Geography==