A city of southeast Iraq on the Shatt al Arab near the Persian Gulf. The only port in the country, it was heavily damaged during the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988) and the Persian Gulf War (1991). Population: 2,010,000.
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A city of southeast Iraq on the Shatt al Arab near the Persian Gulf. The only port in the country, it was heavily damaged during the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988) and the Persian Gulf War (1991). Population: 2,010,000.
City in Iraq; Iraq's only seaport, but situated some 75 miles (120 km) north of the Persian/Arabian Gulf, on the Shatt al-Arab.
Basra is an administrative and commercial center for Iraq, with a population of some 1.3 million (according to a 2002 estimate). It is linked to Baghdad, the capital, by railroad and is governed by the muhafiz, a chief of the administrative unit who is also the representative of the central government in Baghdad.
The seaport itself is actually situated at the head of the Shatt al-Arab, the confluence and the lower reach of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, which flows for some 112 miles (180 km) to empty into the Persian Gulf. Basra is bounded on the north by the
governate of Maysan, on the east by Iran, and on the west by the Western Desert. Basra has a desert climate with great temperature variations between day and night, summer and winter. The high temperature reaches 106°F (50°C); the low is above frost. Annual relative humidity is 44 to 59 percent; annual rainfall ranges between 2 and 8 inches (50 - 200 mm). Winters are warm, with temperatures above freezing.
With its multitude of waterways, Basra has the right conditions for the successful cultivation of dates; the incoming and outgoing tides of some 635 rivers and channels that water approximately 14 million palm trees make the region one of the world's most fertile. Despite the devastation that occurred here during the Iran - Iraq War (1980 - 1988), the orchards are still farmed in quantity. Besides the 530 kinds of dates, other crops include maize (corn), citrus, apples, and many types of vegetables.
Petroleum has become the leading industry of Basra. The upstream operations are carried out by the Iraq National Oil Company, beyond the areas allotted to the British Petroleum Company, according to laws passed in 1961. In 1975, Iraq nationalized the Basra Petroleum Company, and the era of oil concessions ended. The oil refineries and the petrochemical and fertilizer plants were moved out of Basra during the Iran - Iraq War, but the paper, fishing, and date industries still operate. Through Basra as a port-of-entry come imports, such as sugar, timber, coffee, and tea. The main exports are crude oil and petroleum products, dates, leather, and wool.
Although historically Basra was a multiethnic city, because of the political changes in Iraq since 1958, Muslim Arabs form the majority: Armenians, Indians, and Iranians are, for the most part, gone, as are the Jews. Arabic is the language of the city, and Shiʿism is the predominant form of Islam - although some few Christians, Jews, and Sabaeans remain.
The University of Basra and a branch of the University of Technology are the schools of higher education; some 385 primary schools, 175 secondary schools, and 15 vocational schools exist. The Center for Arab Gulf Studies was located in Basra, but it was moved to Baghdad in 1985.
Basra was founded by Caliph Umar I in 638 C.E. It is the Bassorah of the Arabian Nights and Sinbad. In 1534, Basra was made part of the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Sulayman, who incorporated Iraq into his empire; along with Baghdad and Mosul, Basra was designated one of the vilayets (provinces) of Ottoman Iraq. Although the Mamluks ruled Iraq for several centuries, the Ottomans reestablished their authority in 1831, ousting the Mamluks and forcefully subjugating the tribal areas. British companies meanwhile established a sphere of influence, strengthening ties with tribal shaykhs and controlling the import - export market. The strategic position of Basra as a link in the overland route to Asia or the Mediterranean created a competition between the Ottomans, Germans, British, and Indians. The growth of the British and German presence in Basra during the eighteenth century awakened the Ottomans to its importance. They therefore attempted to reestablish their domination over Basra, Kuwait, and the surrounding region.
During World War I, Basra was the first Ottoman city to fall to a British - Indian occupation, on 23 November 1914, and a military governor was appointed. Britain was planning to keep Basra under permanent jurisdiction, perhaps linking it to the Indian administrative unit, but international events worked against this. Although Britain was granted a mandate over Iraq by the League of Nations in 1920, they recognized Faisal I ibn Hussein as king in 1922 and dissolved the mandate in 1932, when Iraq was admitted to the League of Nations.
One of the factors that led to the Iran - Iraq War was control of the Shatt al-Arab, the major waterway connecting the Gulf with Iraq's port of Basra and Iran's ports of Khorramshahr and Abadan. This had been the very issue between the Ottomans and Persia (now Iran) before World War I. Because of its location, then, Basra became central to the struggle, and the surrounding countryside suffered ecological damage, which was made worse by the destruction wrought by the Coalition forces during the Gulf Crisis of 1990 - 1991.
Bibliography
Altimimi, Hamid. Basra: Under British Occupation, 1914 - 1921. London, 1973.
Atiyyah, Ghassan. Iraq, 1908 - 1921: A Socio-Political Study. Beirut: Arab Institute for Research, 1973.
Cordesman, Anthony H., and Wagner, Abraham R. TheLessons of Modern War: The Iran - Iraq War. London: Mansell; Boulder, CO: Westview, 1990.
Harris, George L. Iraq: Its People, Its Society, Its Culture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1958.
Longrigg, S. H. Iraq, 1900 to 1950: A Political, Social, and Economic History. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1953.
— NAZAR AL-KHALAF
The noun has one meaning:
Meaning #1:
an oil port in southern Iraq
Synonym: Basia
| Basra Arabic: البصرة Al Başrah |
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| Coordinates: | |
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| Country | Iraq |
| Governorate | Basra Governorate |
| Founded | AD 636 |
| Population (2003 Est) | |
| - City | |
Basra (Arabic: البصرة; BGN: Al Başrah) is the second largest city of Iraq with an estimated population of 1,700,000 (2007), (2002) 1,337,600 . It is the country's main port and the capital of the Basra Governorate. Basra played an important role in early Islamic history.
The city is located along the Shatt al-Arab waterway near the Persian Gulf, kilometers ( mi) from the Persian Gulf and kilometers ( mi) from Baghdad, Iraq's capital and largest city.
The area surrounding Basra has substantial petroleum resources and 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, pearl millet, wheat, dates, and livestock. The city's oil refinery has a production capacity of about 140,000 barrels a day ([[1 E+4 m³|22,300 m³]]).
Muslim adherents of the area are primarily members of the Jafari Shi`a sect. A sizeable number of Sunnis 16% of Basra also live there, as well as a small number of Christians. There are also 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 meters ( ft). [citation needed] For a long time, Basra grew the finest dates in the world.[1]
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. Back in Basra, Musaddad ibn 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 (scholar) 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.
An earlier settlement in the immediate vicinity was known by the Syriac name Perat
d'Maishan[citation needed]. 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 kilometres south of the
present city, where a
Umar established this encampment as a city with five districts, and appointed Abu-Musa al-Asha'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 Yazdegard 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 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, 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 ibn Ubayd Allah ibn Ma'mar [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 [5].
`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.
During the time of the Abbasid dynasty Basra became an intellectual center as it was the home city of the Arab universal genius Ibn al-Haytham, the Arab literary giant al-Jahiz, and the Sufi mystic Rabia Basri.
this was a rebellion by the low land slaves who were agricultural slaves..brought from different fringes of the 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.
In 1911, the Encyclopaedia Britannica reported some Jews and a few Christians living in Basra, but no Turks other than Ottoman officials. The wealthiest and most influential personage in Basra was the nakib, or marshal of the nobility (i.e. descendants of the family of the prophet, who are entitled to wear the green turban). 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.
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.
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. At the end of the second world war the population was some 93,000 people.
The University of Basrah was founded in 1967.
By 1977 the population had risen to a peak population of some 1.5 million. The population declined during the Iran-Iraq War, being under 900,000 in the late 1980s, possibly reaching a low point of just over 400,000 during the worst of the war. The city was repeatedly shelled by Iran and was the site of many fierce battles, such as Operation Ramadan.
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.
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. 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.
Workers in Basra's oil industry have been involved in extensive organization and labor conflict. They held a two-day
In March through May of 2003, the outskirts of Basra were the scene of heavy fighting in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. British forces, led by units of 7th Armoured Brigade, took the city on 6 April 2003. This city was the first stop for the United States and the United Kingdom, during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.
On 21 April 2004, a series of bomb blasts ripped through the city, killing 74 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.
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. January 2005 elections saw several radical politicians gain office, supported by religious parties.
British troops pull out of Basra city and the palace and move to a base at Basra International Airport.
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