A Guide to al-Basrah
(June, 2014)
Ahmed B. Bash-Ayan
A Guide to al-Basrah
(By Ahmed B. Bash-Ayan; June 2014)
 An Introduction
Location
Population
Climate
Natural Geography
Economy
Etymology
 Old History
Pre-History
Ancient History
Pre-Islamic History
 A Modern History
The Rashidi Era
The Umayyad Era
The Abbasid Era
The “Moghul-Memluk” Era
The First Safavid Era
The First Ottoman Era
The Second Safavid Era
The Second Ottoman Era
British Invasion
British Occupation
 Bibliography
English Language
Arabic Language
 Acknowledgements
 About the Author
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An Introduction
Location
Al-Basrah city is the capital city of the al-Basrah Governorate (Province).
It is located in the south of Iraq, on the Shatt al-Arab river, between
Kuwait and Iran. Al-Basrah lies at about 70 kilometers below the alQurna region (which is part of the Greater al-Basrah Province), where
Iraq’s two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, meet. The al-Fao
Peninsula, which is the southern-most tip of the al-Basrah Province, lies
at about 85 km to the south, on the Arabian Gulf. Al-Basrah has always
been Iraq’s only main port. The distance from al-Basrah to the border
with Kuwait (which lies to the south-west in the western desert) is about
75 km. Iran, which has a long land-border with Iraq stretching from the
extreme north-east of Iraq all the way down to the south-eastern flank of
the Tigris River, borders al-Basrah across the Shatt al-Arab waterway.
That is where Iran’s oil-rich, predominantly Arabic-speaking, southwestern region of al-Muhemmerah (Khuzestan), with its major oil
terminal of Abbadan, lies.
A View of Shatt al-Arab
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The city is close to the historic location of Sumer (the sites of the ancient
Sumerian civilization’s main cities of Lagash and Ur are located about 70
km to the north-east of modern al-Basrah), the home of Sinbad the Sailor,
and a proposed location of the Garden of Eden, which is believed to have
been in the great marshland 20,000 km2 area, about 150 km north of alBasrah. Its present location is believed to approximately correspond to
the Assyrian-Chaldean city of Tereedon.This location can be defined
accurately as lying 47°30’ longitude east of Greenwich, and 30°32’
latitude north of the Equator.
Population
The city’s current (February, 2014) population is estimated at around 2
million, keeping it consistently Iraq's second largest and most populous
city after the capital Baghdad. Historically, the al-Basrah Province’s
demographic composition has been overwhelmingly Arab Muslim, but
has included a number of other ethnic and religious minorities (such as
Christians, Jews, Mandaens, Persians, Armenians, Africans, and Indians).
The sizes of most of these minority groups however have shrunk over the
past few decades mainly due to emigration to other parts of Iraq or
abroad.
Climate
Basrah’s climate is, like that of the rest of southern Iraq and the northern
Arabian Gulf regions, semi-desert-like but also somewhat tropical. It is
wet and cold to mildly cold in the winter and hot to very hot and humid in
the summer.
The winter months last between December and March, while the summer
season runs from early June to the end of September. In the summer time,
temperatures are typically in the mid-40s Celsius, occasionally reaching
and exceeding 50°C. Humidity is at its highest during the 3-4 months
period from August to October, when it can often get as high as 100%.
The average temperatures in the winter are around 15 degrees, with
minimum temperatures occasionally dropping below zero.
Natural Geography
The land, which covers about 180 km², is mainly flat and highly fertile.
The Shatt-Al-Arab and al-Basrah waterways define its eastern and
western borders. The city is penetrated by a complex network of canals
and streams; vital for irrigation and other agricultural use. These canals
were once used to transport goods and people throughout the city, but
during the last 2 decades, pollution and a continuous drop in water levels
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have made river navigation impossible in the canals. The number of the
brooks and streams that make up this network of canals has been
legendary throughout its history. While exaggerated historical estimates
have gone as far as to claim that they exceeded 20,000 in numbers, it has
been generally accepted that, at their peak they did in fact number a few
thousand. Current estimates, which include recently dried riverbeds, run
into the hundreds. Due to this famed and long-established network of
canals, al-Basrah has sometimes been nicknamed “the Venice of the
East”.
A River Canal in al-Basrah
Economy
Besides its substantial petrochemical industry, al-Basrah lies in a fertile
agricultural region, with major produce that include dates, rice, maize
corn, barley, pearl millet, and wheat, as well as livestock. For a long time,
al-Basrah was known for the superior quality of its dates and the rich
diversity of its dates’ sub-species, At its peak during the mid- to late-20th
century, al-Basrah’s share of Iraq’s date-palm wealth was estimated at
around 65%, amounting to some 20 million palm trees, with the diversity
of these dates encompassing species whose numbers run to an order of
hundreds. Al-Basrah has also been renowned for its sugar market. Fishing
was an important business before the oil boom.
Iraq has the world's 4th largest oil reserves, which are estimated to be
more than 115 billion barrels. Some of Iraq's largest oil fields are located
in the al-Basrah Province, and most of Iraq's oil exports leave from Al
Basrah Oil Terminal. The South Oil Company has its headquarters in the
city.
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The Oil Terminal
Shipping, logistics and transport are also major industries in al-Basrah,
not least in view of the fact that it is home to all of Iraq’s six ports, the
largest one of which, Umm Qasr, being the main deep-water port, with 22
platforms, some of which are dedicated to specific goods. The city also
has an international airport, which is the second largest in Iraq.
Etymology
The city was called by many names throughout its history, al-Basrah
being the most common. In Arabic the word can either mean:
(a)- a land that is covered in harsh (black-coloured) pebble stone soil,
something which is borne out by the fact that this kind of pebbles
proliferates in the surrounding region, especially the area around the
city’s original site, in the modern day al-Zubair county, which is
about 23 km to the south-west of the location of the modern city;
or
(b)- 'the overwatcher', (which might have been an allusion to the city's
origin as an Arab military base against the Sassanids).
On the other hand, some sources claim that the name is derived from the
Persian word Bas-rah, which means "where many paths meet, while
others have argued that the name is derived from the Aramaic word
basrayatha, meaning 'place of huts' or 'settlements’.
Old History (c. 600,000 B.C.-637 A.D.)
Having always been, from times immemorial, an integral and major
component of the Iraqi land and nation, al-Basrah’s ancient and modern
history is a part and parcel of that of Iraq as a whole.
Pre-History (c. 600,000-4,250 B.C.)
From the point of view of natural history, the northern part of Iraq went
through 6 major pre-historic stages, namely: the Lower–Paleolithic
(c.600,000-120,000 B.C.); the Middle Paleolithic (c.120,000-35,000
B.C.); the Upper Paleolithic (c.35,000-10,000 B.C.), the Mesolithic
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(10,000-7,000 B.C.), the Chalcolithic (c.7,000-4,250 B.C.), and the early
Bronze age (c.4,250- 3,000 B.C.). These last two stages also cover the
southern part of the country, corresponding roughly to the dawn of the
earliest known human civilization there, which is the Sumerian
civilization.
Ancient History (c. 4,250-538 B.C.)
Civilizations Like the rest of Iraq, al-Basrah has been the site of a
number of successive civilizations from the earliest times of recorded
human history. Beginning with the Sumerian civilization (c. 4,250-1,960
B.C.), through the ancient Babylonian (c. 1,960-1,600 B.C.), the KassiteAssyrian (c. 1,600-1,200 B.C.), the Middle Assyro-Babylonian (c. 1200700 B.C.), and down to the New Babylonian-Chaldean Era (c. 700-538
B.C.).
The Sumerians The Sumerian civilization, which, by most accounts was
non-Semitic, covered most of the south of modern Iraq and Kuwait
during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze ages.
The Babylonians By contrast, the Babylonians were an Akkadianspeaking Semitic nation, who established a state and cultural region based
in central-southern Iraq. This state emerged as an independent state
c.1894 BC, with the city of Babylon as its capital, becoming the major
power in the region after Hammurabi (who flourished c. 1650) created an
empire out of many of the territories of the former Akkadian Empire.
The Assyrians A view that seems to be widely held by a number of
modern Western historians suggests that the earliest origins of al-Basrah
correspond to the ancient Assyian city of Tereedon, which was founded
by the great Assyrian king Nebukhetdh-Nusser during the 8th century
B.C. This is borne out by the Assyrian relics that were discovered in and
around al-Zubair by various persons, including European diplomats and
travelers, as well as some local notables. During the new BabylonianChaldean era, some tribes of the Nabatean Arabs (who originate from
southern Arabia, but who established prosperous and powerful local
kingdoms in the northern Arabian Peninsula, Jordan, and Syria), were
settled in the city’s old location. During that time, when it became known
as Ubulla (a location that is due north-east from the modern city), the city
became one of the main focal points for global trading in the region,
attracting merchants from lands near and far, like Persia, India, China,
and Byzantium.
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Pre-Islamic History (c.538 B.C.-637 A.D.)
Foreign Occupiers Again like most of the rest of Iraq, al-Basrah was
subjected to a series of military occupations and foreign rules, which
began with the defeat of the Babylonian-Chaldean state by the Achminid
Persians in the year 539 B.C. Then, in the year 331 B.C., the GrecoRomans took the country from the Achminids, and held it till the year 138
B.C., when the Parthean Persians defeated the Greco-Romans. In 224
A.D., the Sassanid Persians replaced the Partheans, until the Islamic
conquests of Persia and Iraq, in the year 637 A.D.
The Achminids The Achminids had started to expand east and north
towards Iraq since 550 B.C. In 539 B.C., the army of their King, Korush,
finally succeeded in defeating and occupying Babylon. The Achminids
and the Greco-Romans, led by the Macedonian Alexander the Great, had
been at war, in and around Syria and Iraq for two years when, in October
331 B.C., Alexander finally defeated the Achminidians, in the battle of
Jemjamal in northern Iraq.
The Greco-Romans Alexander, who is believed to be buried in Iraq in a
site close to where Babylon used to be, is also believed to have visited alBasrah. At any rate, during this 4th century B.C., the Greek navigator
Yanarvis mentioned that Ubulla was the great warehouse for the goods of
the (Arabian) Gulf traders.
The Partheans In the year 138 B.C., the Parthean king Mythriad I,
invaded Syria and Iraq, replacing those countries’ Greco-Roman
occupiers, and bringing them under Parthean rule until the year 224 A.D.
During this time, and in the year 110 B.C., the Roman Emperor Trajan
attempted to gain control over the East, by seeking to replace his chief
rivals there, the Partheans, making some progress at first, but his attempts
eventually ended in failure.
The Sassanids The Sassanid dynasty was founded by the Persian king
Ardesheer I in 224 A.D., and lasted until the Muslim conquests of Persia
and Iraq, in the mid-7th century A.D. During its time, the Sassanid empire
became one of the main powers in western and central Asia,
encompassing, in addition to Iraq and Iran, the Levant, the Caucasus,
Egypt, parts of Turkey, much of Central Asia, the Arabian Gulf countries,
Yemen, Oman and Pakistan.
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A Modern History (638-1921 A.D.)
Al-Basrah’s Islamic and post-Islamic history, which began with the
Islamic conquests of Iraq and Iran in early-7th century A.D., up to the
founding of the modern Iraqi state in 1921, may be divided into 10 main
eras, reflecting the succession of the dominant powers in Iraq and its
neighbouring region during those 13 centuries. These ten eras are as
follows: 1- The Islamic Rashidi, 638-661 A.D.; 2-the Umayyad, 661-750
A.D.; 3-the Abbasid, 750-1258 A.D.; 4-the “Moghul-Memluk”, 12581508 A.D. (for the sake of brevity, we have, under this “MoghulMemluk” era, included a variety of rulers, most, but by no means all, of
which are of Moghul or their adversaries, Memluk, background. Thus,
included under this heading will be the Seljuk’s, the Jelaairis, the
Buweihis, and some other dynastic rules); 5-the First (Persian) Safavid,
1508-1533; 6-the First (Turkish) Ottoman, 1533-1623 A.D.; 7-the Second
Safavid, 1623-1638; 8-the Second Ottoman, 1638-1914; 9-the British
Invasion, 1914-1917; and 10-the British Occupation 1917-1921.
The Rashidi Era (638-661 A.D.)
Foundation The Islamic quest for Ubulla was part of the greater Islamic
military campaign to conquer Iraq and Persia. This came after the Persian
Sassanid King Hurmuz rejected the invitation of abu-Bekr, (the first
Muslim Caliph to succeed Prophet Muhammed, who was based in the
first Islamic capital, al-Medina, in the north-western Arabian peninsula),
to him to embrace Islam.
A map showing the location of the ancient city of Ubulla
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The campaign for Ubulla, which initially consisted of just over 600
warriors, including 6 women, began in the year 638 A.D., during the end
of the Caliphate of abu-Bekr, and was successfully accomplished the
following year, 639 A.D., during the beginning of the Caliphate of Omar
ibn el-Khettaab. This quest involved some fierce historical battles in and
around Ubulla, where Hurmuz’s army’s headquarters were based, and
also in modern day Kuwait, as well as across Persia.
Having been settled in Ubulla, Omar’s General who took it, Utbah ibnGhezwaan, proposed to the Caliph Omar in Medina that they urbanize the
town’s environs, to make it a major civilian city for all Muslims. He cited
two good reasons for his proposal, namely, (1)- that its location makes it
ideal as a mid-way station for Muslim war campaigns waged from the
Arabian peninsula, and (2)- it would make an excellent summer and
winter resort. Omar’s response was cautiously positive, eventually
granting his approval. The city was thus established, and was named alBasrah by ibn-Ghezwaan, a name that reflects the nature of its location,
soil and terrain (as described in the Introduction, above). Ibn-Ghezwaan
then set upon founding the new city. He had a grand Mosque, a
Principality house, a deewaan (government house), a prison, a set of
public baths, souqs (markets), hospitals, and a series of tent camps and
living quarters, all built in and around al-Basrah, thus laying the nucleus
of the new city, for the next 8 centuries (when the “new” al-Basrah was
founded in the early 15th century; see below). Arab and Muslim historians
have asserted that some 70,000 families, “of the noblest Arabian tribes”,
were encouraged by the Caliph Omar to move from the Arabian
Peninsula and settle in al-Basrah. These settlers were charged with
educating the local populace in the teachings of Islam, and with
reinforcing the Islamic armies in future campaigns.
A map showing the location of modern al-Basrah
The Great Fire Thus, Omar’s scheme made al-Basrah during this time a
major military outpost for the Islamic state in Medina. However, since
most of the city’s early buildings were built from the local qasab (reeds),
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when a huge fire erupted three years later (641 A.D.), most of the city
was destroyed. It took the vigorous efforts of its new provincial governor,
abu-Mousa al-Ashaari, and the ingenuity of some of the city’s best
architects and masons to re-build it, on safer and more solid foundations,
using libn (bitumen and mudbrick), which is a local, soil-based material.
Expansion The new city’s plan included the famed Grand Mosque,
whose congregational capacity is reported to have peaked a few decades
later to reach an estimated 10,000 worshippers or so. (In the year 660
A.D., the Imam Ali ibn abi-Taalib, the Prophet’s cousin, son-in-law, and
4th Rashidi Caliph, delivered a historical prayer sermon in this mosque,
during the Battle of the Camel there, see below). Thereafter, the city grew
fast, attracting a large number of prominent Sahabis (the Prophet’s
disciples) and Ulemas (scholars), merchants, and other types of visitors,
tourists, and resident. This was so much so, that al-Basrah was soon to
become one of the main centres of learning, trade, tourism, and culture in
the Islamic world during those times.
The Waaqiaat al-Jemel In the year 660 A.D., the (infamous) “Great
Seditious” politically-based split in the nascent Islamic nation took place,
(involving the Imam Ali ibn abi-Taalib and his supporters amongst the
Prophet’s sahabis, versus a group of other sahabis, who included, among
others, one of the Prophet’s widows, Aaisheh). This culminated in the
Battle of the Camel (Mewqiaat al-Jamal), which took place in al-Basrah.
(This political split later evolved into a theological split, which eventually
led to the emergence of the Shiite sect of Islam). A number of sahabis on
both sides were killed in this battle, and are buried in al-Basrah. These
include such prominent figures as Telhaa ibn Ubaid-Ullaah, and al-Zubair
ibn al-Awwaam.
The al-Mirbid-1 In the early days of Islamic conquests and settlements
in al-Basrah, the al-Mirbid plaza served as the major transportation
station and parking for the warriors’ and travellers’ horses and camels.
With time, this station was to develop into an important local and then
regional market.
The Umayyad Era (661-750 A.D.)
The al-Mirbid-2 During the Umayyad period, the al-Mirbid market
evolved to become of the Islamic world’s famed cultural, religious, and
academic centres, and a great business complex.
Al-Basrah as a Universal Centre of Culture-(1) During this era, alBasrah began to rise as a major centre for theological learning, literature,
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trade, and tourism. Amongst its prominent sons and daughters during this
era were men and women like the judiciary expert, grammatist and poet
Abu al-Aswad al-Duweli; the linguist-poetry expert al-Kheleel ibn
Ahmed al-Feraaheedy; the monastic Sufi female philosopher Raabiaa al‘Adawiyyeh; the poet al-Ferezdaq; the translator-novelist-philosopher alMuqeffaa’; the hermetically-minded theologian al-Hassan al-Basri; and
the theologian and dream interpreter, ibn-Seereen.(for more renowned alBasrahns, see below under “The Abbasid Era”).
The Abbasid Era (750-1258 A.D.)
The Founding of Baghdad After the fall of the Umayyads, the Abbasid
rulers wanted their own capital. Choosing a site north of the Sassanid
capital of Ctesiphon, on 30 July 762, the caliph Al-Mansur commissioned
the construction of the city. Al-Mansur believed that Baghdad was the
perfect city to be the capital of the Islamic empire under the Abbasids.
The city's growth was helped by its location, which gave it control over
strategic and trading routes, along the Tigris. Another important reason
why Baghdad provided an excellent location was the abundance of water
and the dry climate.
Baghdad (The Round City”) as it was between 767 and 912 AD
Al-Basrah as a Universal Centre of Culture-(2) During the Abbasid
period, al-Basrah reached a pinnacle of its cultural and economic glory. It
became a major, world-class city in terms of theology, science, literature,
poetry, historical studies, philosophy, the arts, and medicine. It produced
such iconic figures as the great physicist-optometrist innovator ibn al Haythem (known in the West as al-Hazin), the satirist-thinker al-Jaahidth,
two of the classical Islamic world’s most controversial poets, the
“liberalist” poet Abu Nuaas, and the “apostatic” Beshshaar ibn Berd.
The “Zutt” Riots In the year 832, an ethnic group peculiar to al-Basrah,
who were known as the Zutt, revolted. Their origins seem rather obscure,
but most historians assert that they were of a mixed Indian, gypsy, and
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other stock. The year 832 coincided with the end of the reign of the 7th
Abbasid Caliph al-Maamoun and the beginning of the reign of his
successor, the 8th Caliph al-Muutessim. During their riotous revolt, these
Zutt wreaked havoc in the city, pillaging and looting its farms and its
neighbouring villages, and razing these to the ground. The Caliph alMuutessim responded by selecting one of his most renowned military
commandetrs, one ‘Ajeef bin ‘Anbeseh, to deal with them. Bin ‘Anbeseh
gathered a sizeable army of tough men for the task, which attacked and
routed the Zutt, killing 500 of them.
The “Zinj” (“Negros’”) Revolt During the years 873-875, a man by the
name of Ali bin Muhammed began a revolt in al-Basrah against the
Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad, al-Muutemid. Bin Muhammed gathered
around him a number of disaffected elements, including a large number
of blacks, (most of them slaves or ex-slaves), and began a series of armed
raids on al-Basrah’s civilian population as well as official sites. This
revolt grew in size, with the blacks comprising the majority of its
followers. Bin Muhammed’s main appeal to his black followers lay in his
promise to “liberate” them and give them privileged positions when his
revolt succeeds. (Thus, Ibn Muhammed was to be accorded the name
Saahib el-Zinj, meaning “the Negors’ man”, by Arab historians). The
revolt, which was to last till the year 888 A.D., began by bin
Muhammed’s destruction of al-Basrah (ie, old Ubulla, due north-east of
today’s al-Basrah), razing it to the ground, and ended with his near-total
destruction of al-Basrah itself. Bin Muhammed and his followers were
finally chased out of al-Basrah by the Caliph al-Muutemid’s local
garrison, which was lead by the Caliuph’s brother, Ahmed alMouweffeque, but took refuge in the vast, thick and impenetrable
marshland north of the city. The Caliph’s army from Baghdad finally
managed to enter the marshlands and put down the revolt. (The phrase in
Arabic which translates to “yes, but after what, after the destruction of alBasrah” became a standard proverbial expression in the Arabic language,
used whenever someone finally manages to get around to doing
something that is critically vital, and long overdue, but only when it is too
late). It took the Abbasid Government many decades to restore the city to
something resembling its former glory. It is believed that the rebuilt city’s
location was shifted to the modern town of al-Zubayr, to the south-west
of al-Basrah.
The Qaramitehs’ Revolt The Qaramiteh’s movement emerged in c. 900,
initially as an offshoot of the Ismaili sect. It quickly became entrenched
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along the Eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula (al-Hasa and Bahrain),
at the hands of one Abu-Saeed bin Hassan al-Janabi and his sons, Saeed
and Sulaiman. This was accomplished between the years 900 and 918.
The Qaramitan dynasty lasted altogether till around the year 1078, when
the 18th Abbasid caliph in Baghdad, al-Muqteder, and the Fatimid caliph
in Cairo, finally managed to defeat it. The movement, which was a
rebellious-cum-revolutionary theo-political movement, spanned the reign
of 10 Abbasid Caliphs. It was finally purged by the 27th Caliph, alMuqtedie. Its tenets and practices were widely seen as being heretical by
its contemporaries as well as by later Muslim historians of all sects,
including mainstream Shiites. Moreeover, some of its own prominent
adherents eventually retracted from it. It manifested itself in such
dangerous practices as the removal of the Black Stone from the Ka’aba in
Makkah, to preventing pilgrims from leaving their hometowns in order to
go to perform Hajj in Makkah, to denying the payment of the mandatory
Islamic zakat (tax), to defying the authority of the Muslim Caliphs. This
Qeramitahn revolt ended being declared an apostasy by all the Muslim
scholars of all the theological sects of Islam, which culminated in the
repentance and plea for pardon by its last leaders, who appealed to the
Abbasid Caliph al-Muqtedie for an amnesty. During its heyday, the
revolts’ leaders attacked, pillaged, and ransacked al-Basrah, murdering
and kidnapping thousands of its civilian population. This occurred in the
year 1020, during the Provincial Governate of the Abbasid-appointed
wali Sebek al-Miflihi. The Qeramitahn onslaught on al-Basrah was led by
one Taahir bin Sulaiman bin Saeed al-Qurmutie, who was a descendant
of the movement’s original pioneer. Al-Qurmutie led a band of 1,700
men, who, one dark night, erected a series of rope-ladders against the
city’s walls, which they used to climb into the city. As soon as the alQurmutie and his men were in the city, the got into battle with city’s
populace as well as the wali’s garrison there, all of whom they managed
to defeat. Then, they set upon ransacking, pillaging, and massacring
civilians. Contemporary historical sources estimate the number of
civilians murdered by the Qaramitehs at 1,500, and the number of
hostages and prisoners taken or kidnapped at 1,000 women and 500
children.
(It must be noted here that, from the 12th century A.D. onwards, the city’s
history became increasingly inseparable from that of the Bash-Ayan
family, as will become clear from the rest of this article. This
inseparability became particularly pronounced from the year 1407 A.D.
onwards, when this family’s ancestors co-pioneered and co-led the
construction and en masse transfer to the new al-Basrah. The Bash-Ayan
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political life of the city during the eight centuries that ensued from the
12th century has been widely recognized. See below).
The “Moghul-Memluk” Era (1258-1508 A.D.)
(Note: As previously pointed out, we have sought, for the sake of brevity,
to include in this “Moghul-Memluk” era all the dynasties that ruled Iraq
during the period between the fall of the Abbasid Empire and the rise of
the Safavid Empire. Thus, this “Moghul-Memluk” era includes a variety
of rulers, most, but by no means all, of which are of Moghul or their
adversaries, the Memluks, background. Thus, included under this heading
are the Seljuk’s, the Jelaairis, the Buweihi, and some other dynastic
rules).
The Destruction of Baghdad In one of the most traumatic turning points
in medieval history, the Moghul army of Hulago attacked Baghdad in
1258, and slaughtered the last Abbasid Caliph and most of his royal
household, laying waste to Baghdad, including its famed libraries.
Eventually, Hulago’s descendants embraced Islam, and they, and their
kin, succeeded in ruling various parts of the Islamic world, albeit all the
while waging various devastating wars against their rivals as well as
against each other.
The Seeds of the Abbasid House in al-Basrah Some of the surviving
princes ran away to al-Basrah, carrying with them whatever they could
salvage from the enormous collection of precious manuscripts, most of
which Hulago and his army having burnt or thrown into the Tigris river.
These Abbasid princes joined an established house of their second and
third cousins, whose parents and grandparents had started settling in alBasrah several decades before that. These included Prince Hashim, son of
the 33rd Abbasid Caliph, the al-Mustedthee bi-Allaah, whose descendants
became one of al-Basrah’s oldest and most famous families, the BashAyans. (These salvaged manuscripts were to become the seeds of the
Bash-Ayan family’s famed Abbasid library, which, at its peak, contained
an estimated 4,000 of the Islamic world’s rarest and oldest manuscripts, a
number which has since dwindled to a mere 1,500. In addition to these
manuscripts, the Abbasid library now also contains some 12,000 printed
books, many of which are also amongst the Islamic world’s oldest and
rarest copies). The Bash-Ayans played a major role in the founding of the
new al-Basrah, in1407 A.D., and in defending the city against all sorts of
threats and dangers, all the while substantially contributing to its cultural,
spiritual, and architectural history (see below).
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The City’s Decline During this “Moghul-Memluk” era, al-Basrah, like
the rest of the Islamic world, suffered from a host of very serious
environmental and administrative problems, which led to its rapid
decline. These problems ranged from serious crime caused by the security
vacuum that the political chaos that ensued after the fall of the Abbasid
state had created, to droughts, diseases, and famine.
The Founding of New al-Basrah In the year 1407 A.D., the al-AbdulSelaam al-Abbaasi family, (which was later, as of 1707, to become
known as the Bash-Ayans), along with the chief of the most powerful
regional tribe at the time, the al-Mughamis, finally made plans to lead the
migration of the old al-Basrah’s population to a new site, located about
23 km to the north-east. This site had been carefully selected by the alAbdul-Selaam Abbaasis and the al-Mughaamis to provide vastly better
conditions for the populace of the old al-Basrah. This was to become the
nuclear location of modern-day al-Basrah. The new al-Basrah was
previously predominantly made up of farmlands and some fishing
outposts scattered along the banks of the Shatt-al-Arab waterway. The alAbdul-Selaam al-Abbbaasi family and the al-Mughamis tribal chiefs laid
out the plan for the new city, which comprised such standard elements as
housing developments, public baths, mosques, and the like. The alAbdul-Selaams established the first residential quarter in the new alBasrah, which they named al-Mishraaq, after their previous residential
quarter in the old al-Basrah.
The First Safavid Era (1508-1533 A.D.)
The Safavid emperor Ismail Shah entered Baghdad and then he and his
army wreaked havoc across the country, destroying much of what had
survived the Moghul invasion of its architectural and cultural heritage, on
sectarian grounds.
The Sufi Movement In al-Basrah during this period, the Sufi movement,
which began across the Islamic world during the middle-Abbasid age,
had flourished, expressing itself in the variety of schools of worship that
were evolving around the Islamic world. Of these Sufi schools (Tereeqas,
or methods of worship), some of the better known were the Rifaaie, the
Shaadthli, and the Ridaini Tereeqas. The Kewwaazie Tereeqa was an
offshoot of the Shaadthli Tereeqa, which was propagated by an alBasrahn by the name of Muhammed Ameen al-Kewwaaz, who is
believed to have been under the tutelage of a master who had originated
from Morocco in the early 16th century. Muhammed Amin al-Kewwaaz’
Tereeqa captured the attention of the senior members of the al-Abdul____________________________________________________________________
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Ahmed B. Bash-Ayan
Selaam al-Abbaasi (later, Bash-Ayan) family, who became al-Kewwaaz’
disciples and whose descendants assumed the position of his Tereeqa’s
Grand Mastership for several generations after his death. When alKewwaaz died in 1514, Sheikh Saari al-Abdul-Selaam al-Abbaasi built a
grand mosque next to al-Kewwaaz’ shrine, which is in the al-Mishraaq
quarter (the first residential quarter to be established in the new al-Basrah,
back in 1407, by these ancestors of the Bash-Ayan family). This mosque,
which was initially built from qasab (reeds), was later re-built by one of
Sheikh Saari’s descendants, Sheikh Anas Bash-Ayan (see below), and is
still standing in al-Basrah, and is one of the city’s major historical and
architectural landmarks.
The First Ottoman Era (1533-1623 A.D.)
The Ottoman Turks first entered Baghdad in 1534, having captured it
from the Persian Safavid Shah Tehmazep. During this first phase, the
Ottomans ruled Iraq for 90 years,until they were replaced (temporarily, as
it turned out) by the Safavids, who ruled the country for the second (and
last time) for 15 more years. Even during this first phase of Ottoman rule
over Iraq, the Safavids never gave up their attempts to regain their rule
there, and actually nearly succeded in so doing in 1555, but Sultan
Sulaiman still managed to defeat them. During this first era of their rule
over Iraq, it took the Ottomans another 14 years to spread their control
over al-Basrah, which lies close to the Persian borders, having faced a
much stiffer resistance against their campaign from the Safavids there.
Upon so doing, the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman (“the magnificent”) came to
learn of the prominent religious and social position of the city’s oldest
family, the al-Abdul-Selaam al-Abbaasis (ancestors of the Bash-Ayans),
and so, in the year 1547 A.D., bestowed upon the family’s dean the
highest religious title of Sheikh al-Meshaayikh (Sheikh of Sheikhs).
The Second Safavid Era (1623-1638 A.D.)
In 1622 A.D., the Safavid king Abbas Shah the Great captured Hormuz,
and, in the following year, 1623, al-Basrah, and Baghdad the year after
that, 1624. Thus, for the next 15 years, the Persian Safavids were to
displace the Ottoman Turks from al-Basrah (and Iraq at large) for the
second (and last time).
A Changed Trade Position of al-Basrah The capture of Baghdad cut
off Iraq from the northern trade routes, which passed through the
strategically important Syrian city of Aleppo. This, in turn, adversely
affected al-Basrah’s long-standing position as a trading centre en route to
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Ahmed B. Bash-Ayan
distant parts of the Islamic world. On the other hand, al-Basrah became
an important trading post for the Safavid Empire, especially as a conduit
for Persia’s bullion export trade.
The Carmelite Order in al-Basrah The Safavids sought an alliance
with some of the major European powers, notably the French and the
Russians, against their common rivals, the Ottoman Turks. In
consequence, they demonstrated much tolerance for the works of
Christian missionaries in their realm of Islamic lands. One aspect of this
was the allowance, by Shah Abbas, of the monastic Carmelite order,
which had been legated to the Shah by Pope Clement VIII, to operate in
Persia and Iraq. Fr. Basil of St. Francis came to reside in al-Basrah in
July, 1623. By 1625, the first Carmelite House had been founded in alBasrah. The Carmelites eventually became Arabized citizens of the city,
and of the rest of Iraq, making some very substantial contributions to alBasrah’s cultural life.
The Second Ottoman Era (1638-1914 A.D.)
In 1638, the Ottoman Sultan Murad IV was able to recapture Iraq from
the Safavids. This second period of Ottoman rule over Iraq witnessed a
succession of walis (Provincial Governors), over the three main wilayets
(Provinces) that made up Iraq, namely, those of Baghdad, al-Basrah, and
al-Mosul. The wilayet of al-Basrah was to occasionally be merged under
that of Baghdad, depending on political and military circumstances. It is
estimated that the total number of walis who governed al-Basrah during
the Ottoman era was 120, and that their ethnic backgrounds were as
diverse as the various nations that made up the Ottoman Empire. These
included, in addition to Turks and Arabs, Kurds, Bosnians, Macedonians,
Albanians, Slavs, Armenians, Greeks, Bulgars, Georgians, and Persians.
Afar-Asyaab’s War Thus, when in 1648, the city’s wali, Hussein Pasha
Afar-Asyaab, who is believed to have been of Seljuk background, began
to transgress against the civil rights of the city’s inhabitants, a number of
the city’s notables, led by members of the al-Abdul-Selaam al-Abbaasi
(i.e., the Bash-Ayan) family, protested, in person, to the Sultan himself in
Constantinople (Istanbul). The conflict between this wali and his fellowtransgressors and collaborators on the one hand, and the city’s notables
(who included some of Afar-Asyaab’s own maternal uncles, who were
actually Basrah Arabs), and the Ottoman Sultan, Muhammed IV, on the
other, went on, albeit intermittently, for nearly two decades. It was only
finally decisively resolved in the year 1668, when the Sultan finally
responded to the insistent pleas by the al-Abdul-Selaam al-Abbaasi
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Ahmed B. Bash-Ayan
family to remove Afar-Asyaab. This effort on the part of the Basrahns
was initiated by Sheikh of Sheikhs Dthu-el-Kifl al-Abdul Selaam alAbbaasi, and four of his brothers and cousins. Their appeals to the Sultan
were only responded to in the end through military force, when the
Sultan sent the al-Abdul-Selaam al-Abbaasi-led delegation from
Constantinople back to al-Basrah at the head of a sizeable military force.
A civil war erupted, lasting several weeks, but Afar-Asyaab finally fled
al-Basrah to Iran, never to return. Several members of the al-AbdulSelaam al-Abbaasi family lost their lives during the ensuing battles.
These included the family’s Dean himself, the Sheikh of Sheikhs Dthuel-Kifl, as well as some of his brothers and cousins.
The “Bash-Ayan” Title In 1707 A.D., the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed Khan
III bestowed the Sultanate’s highest honorary socio-political title of
Bash-Ayan (Chief of the Notables) upon Sheikh Abdul-leteef, the dean of
Basrah’s oldest family, the al-Abdul-Selaam al-Abbasis.
The Re-Building of the al-Kewwaaz Mosque In 1737, Sheikh Anas
Bash-Ayan rebuilt the minaret and dome of the al-Kewwaaz grand
mosque, which his ancestor, Sheikh Saari al-Abdul-Selaam al-Abbaasi
had built, back in 1514 (see above). The reconstruction involved the
pioneering use of the Qashaanic style of domes, which has been described
by a number of architectural historians as having ushered in a turning
point in the Islamic dome-building style. Thus, this al-Kewwaaz mosque
remains to this day one of the city’s major historical and architectural
landmarks. (In the mid-1970s, it was surrounded by a round-about, the
only known such mosque location). Being 5 centuries old, the al-Kewaaz
mosque is now the oldest continually used mosque in al-Basrah.
Al-Kewwaaz Mosque
Suleiman Pasha al-Kebeer Perhaps one of the most prominent of the
city’s walis was Suleiman Pasha al-Kebeer (“the Great”, as distinct from
another Ottoman wali with a similar name, Suleiman Pasha Abu-Leila,
“the Small”). This Suleiman Pasha, who is believed to have been of
Georgian stock, and who was later appointed a wali of Baghdad, served
as the wali of al-Basrah on several occasions between 1763 and 1776.
During that time, he became renowned for his extensive administrative
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Ahmed B. Bash-Ayan
and agrarian reforms, and also for his solid defense of the city against
raiding Bedouins and Persians alike. (Suleiman Pasha’s sister was
married to Sheikh Derweesh Bash-Ayan; his son, Asaad Pasha, was also
to serve as wali of Baghdad, in the early 19th century).
The Persian al-Zindi Invasion The Persian Savafids’ ambitious designs
on Iraq continued after their second dislodging from it by the Ottoman
Turks in 1638. After a succession of attempts to take Baghdad and alMosul by their Shahs, including the famed siege of Bagdad in 1732 by
Nadir Shah, two of the Safavids’ senior army generals, the brothers
Saadiq Khan and Kereem Khan al-Zindi, assumed control over Persia,
after the end of the Safavid dynasty in 1747. They laid siege to al-Basrah
in 1772, towards the end of the Ottoman Sultan Mustafa III, which lasted
over a year. Al-Basrah’s wali, Suleiman Pasha, his brother-in-law,
Sheikh Derweesh Bash-Ayan, and Sheikh Derweesh’s son, Sheikh
Ahmed Bash-Ayan, were amongst the al-Basrah’s notables whom the
Persians took prisoners. During that time, the city’s population suffered
severely from famine and disease, including the Bubonic plague, which
affected the whole of Iraq and its neighbours. (This was the second time
that Iraq, including al-Basrah, had suffered from the plague during the
Ottoman era, the first one having been in 1743. A third one was to
follow, in the year 1831). The Safavid occupation of the city was only
finally reversed by the Ottomans in 1778, when a powerful alliance of the
southern Iraqi Arabian tribes, led by the Sheikhs of the famous alSaadoon tribe of the Al-Muntefeq-Al-Naasiriyyeh Province, combined
with the successful intercession of the Sheikhs of the well-known and
prestigious al-Shaawi family (of Baghdad, but who were actually the
sheikhs of the famous al-Obaid tribe, which is based in the Euphratian alJezeereh region of northern Iraq), and the Dean of the Suweidis (a wellknown Baghdadi family of renowned ‘ulemas), resulting in the safe
release of all the detainees.
The Deposing of a Tyrannical Provincial Ruler Another example of
the Ottoman state’s responsiveness to the al-Basrhans’ appeals for their
grievances to be redressed, and their ability to take action to see that this
is carried through, when necessary, was an incident that occurred in the
year 1814, during the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Mahmoud II. At that
time, al-Basrah was ruled from the wilayet of Baghdad, by the wali
Assaad Pasha (son of the famed wali Suleiman pasha al-Kebeer,
mentioned above). Asaad Pasha’s deputy in charge of al-Basrah, Mustafa
Agha, provoked the wrath of the city’s population for his transgressive
and corrupt practices. Asaad Pasha was a maternal first cousin of
hubaabeh (lady) Khedeejeh, daughter of Sheikh Derweesh Bash-Aayan.
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Ahmed B. Bash-Ayan
Hubaabeh Khedeejeh’s husband, Sheikh Qaasim Bash-Ayan (who was
her paternal first cousin), both appealed to Asaad Pasha to have this
deputy-wali Mustafa Agha removed from his post, both husband and
wife travelling to Baghdad especially for this purpose. As with AfarAsyaab before him, Mustafa Agha disobeyed the wali’s orders to leave
al-Basrah, which again resulted in a local battle, although on a much
smaller scale, involving him and his followers on the one hand, and the
Bash-Ayan family and the rest of the city’s population, on the other. Yet,
he was in fact eventually removed and replaced.
European Interests and Activities in the City During the second half of
the Ottoman rule (from the 18th century onwards), a-Basrah, like the rest
of the Arab world, had become increasingly targeted by the European
powers, and, to a lesser extent, the USA, and their private organizations.
Businessmen, travelers, explorers, missionaries, and diplomats alike
intensified their interests and activities in and around the city. The 19 th
century witnessed a new level of energy in such activities, largely due to
the opening of the Suez Canal in Egypt in 1869. Shipping lines and
agricultural projects were established by various British (and, later on,
American), business concerns. French and Dutch missionaries set up
churches and schools there. Practically all the major western powers
opened consulates there. Towards the end of the 19th and early 20th
centuries, the German Kaiser’s government began to seriously discuss
with the Ottoman government a railway network proposal to link Kuwait,
via al-Basrah, Baghdad, al-Mosul, Aleppo, and Istanbul, through the
Balkans and Austria, with Berlin. Another factor that contributed to the
world powers’ rising interest in al-Basrah was the discovery of high
quality oil in substantial commercial quantities in neighbouring region of
Abadan, in Iran. This discovery was made at the turn of the 20th century;
whereby the first oil refinery and oil terminal were completed by 1913 by
the Anglo-Persian oil company.
The British Invasion (1914-1917 A.D.)
Initial Ottoman Neutrality When the First World War broke out in
June, 1914, the Ottoman government opted for neutrality. The British and
the Germans, however, became acutely aware of the vital strategic
importance of oil to the operation of their respective war machines, and
the race to control the sources of oil between the two warring world
powers was set.
British Designs on al-Basrah The British decided to assume complete
control and secure free access to the oil fields of Abadan (see above).
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Ahmed B. Bash-Ayan
This meant for them the invasion of southern Iraq. Upon the insistence of
the British Colonial Secretary, Winston Churchill, that the British army
was to “take al-Basrah and hold it at any cost”, the British India
government formed a special task force out of the British Army, India,
which set for the Arabian Gulf tip of the Iraqi peninsula of al-Fao. They
moved up to al-Basrah via the Persian flank of the Shatt-al-Arab, Persia
having taken a (nominally, at least) neutral position throughout this Great
War.
Ottoman Abandonment of Neutrality The Ottomans, under the reign of
Sultan Muhammed V, were thus forced to abandon their previously
declared position of neutrality, and by October of 1914, the two powers
were at war with each other. Al-Basrah became one their first major
battlefields, and their fight became wider and more intense as the British
pushed for the rest of Iraq.
The City’s Reaction to the British Invasion Upon hearing the news of
the British plan to attack al-Basrah, a number of the city’s notables, led
by the dean of the Bash-Ayan family, Sheikh Abdullah Dthiaauddin,
began a campaign within the city and beyond, to elicit popular support
for the defense of the city. Sheikh Abdullah’s eldest son, Sheikh AbdulWaahid Sefaauddin, hastily formed an ad hoc brigade of armed ablebodied men, in a desperate attempt to check the British advance on the
city. Sheikh Abdullah’s middle son, Sheikh Saalih, was in Baghdad when
the British hostilities against the Ottomans broke out, and remained there
till the end of the war, offering political and intelligence support to the
local Ottoman wali. Back in al-Basrah, his youngest brother, Sheikh
Muhammed Ameen Aali Bash-Ayan, joined his father and eldest brother
in their military and political efforts to stand up to the attacking British
force. Sheikh Muhammed had his own daily newspaper, the alTehdtheeb, in which he wrote daily articles calling for the town’s people
to come together in defense of their city and of the Ottoman state at large.
Sheikh Abdul-Waahid’s attempts to fight the advancing British military
force were thwarted by the overwhelmingly-sized and superior-equipped
British army, but he was still able to negotiate some favourable terms to
protect the city’s civilian population against any moral or physical abuses
by the British invaders. Nevertheless, soon after they had taken al-Basrah
(which they entered on the 22nd November), the British authorities took
some severe measures against their local opponents. These included
exiling Sheikh Muhammed Ameen Aali Bash-Ayan (who had continued
to publish patriotic articles in his newspaper and make public orations
against the British occupation), to Kuwait, for a whole year, after forcibly
closing down his newspaper, and repeatedly exerting coercive pressures
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Ahmed B. Bash-Ayan
on Sheikh Abdul-Waahid’s eldest son, Sheikh Ahmed Nouri Bash-Ayan,
to collaborate with their (British), newly-formed Basrah police force.
The British Military Expansion in Iraq The British strategic objectives
in Iraq quickly grew more ambitious, beginning with the quest for
Baghdad (which was only accomplished in March, 1917), and further,
reaching all the way to the country’s northern city of al-Mosul and the
Kurdish region (1919). Realizing this expanded British strategic
objective and sensing the seriousness of the British challenge to its
sovereignty in the Middle East, the Ottoman government enlisted the
help of their chief ally in this war, Germany, appointing the German
Marshall von der Goerlitz Chief of the Ottoman army in Iraq. Marshall
von der Goerlitz died while still on duty in Iraq at the beginning of April,
1916, (almost a year before the British capture of Baghdad). All the
while, the British push for Baghdad from Basrah brought them into some
of the fiercest battles with the Ottoman army as well as the country’s
population. Very heavy human losses were sustained on all sides.
During their occupation of al-Basrah, the British military administration
set up its own police force, prison, hospital, school, telecommunications’
network, religious centre, and social club. In 1916, Miss Gertrude Bell,
who, as Secretary to the British High Commissioner in Baghdad from
1917 onwards, was to play a crucial role in the founding of the modern
Iraqi state, arrived in al-Basrah in order to help with the administrative
tasks of the war effort.
British Occupation (1917-1921 A.D.)
Having replaced the Ottomans (which, by the year 1918, had entered the
reign of Sultan Muhammed VI Weheeduddeen), and occupied Iraq, the
British in al-Basrah established a new railway network, and set about
constructing major, modern port facilities, that would allow heavy and
large merchant and naval vessels to dock in the Shatt al-Arab. This was
mainly in aid of their war efforts and in support of their administration in
the country.
Iraq’s Popular Revolt against the British In 1920, Iraq went into a
major, nationwide, popular revolt against the British occupation of the
country, and particularly against the proposed British Mandate for Iraq.
The brunt of this revolt was centered on Baghdad and the south, although
most of the rest of the country was also deeply involved in it and affected
by it.
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Ahmed B. Bash-Ayan
The famous Captain T.E. Lawrence (aka “Lawrence of Arabia”), was
invited by the British authorities in al-Basrah to help with the intelligence
work of the British occupation administration in trying to suppress the
1920 revolt. Captain T. E. Lawrence set up an office in the city’s British
army headquarters, where he operated his network of spies and
interrogators, targeting specifically the tribesmen of the Lower Euphrates
region, which lies close to al-Basrah.
British Mandate & Iraqi Kingdom Thereafter, the British still went
ahead to establish their Mandate over Iraq, but at the same time worked
with various sectors of Iraqi society and population, to arrive at an
arrangement for the Emir Feisal ibn al-Hussain, son of the leader of the
1916 British-supported Arab revolt against the Ottomans, the Sherif
Hussain of Mecca, to be the first king of modern Iraq. Feisal was
crowned in August, 1921 as King Feisal I. In 1932, Iraq became a fully
independent, sovereign state, having been admitted as a full member of
the League of Nations (later, the UN).
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Ahmed B. Bash-Ayan
Bibliography
English Language
Barker, A. J. (1967)
“The Neglected War Mesopotamia 1914-1918”
Faber & Faber – Harmondsworth, Middlesex, UK
Batatu, Hanna (1978)
"The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements Of Iraq"
Princeton University Press – N. J., USA
Byford, Cecil (1935)
"The Port Of Basrah - Basrah, Iraq" (Compiled By A. M. Inst. T.)
The Port Of Basrah Directorate - Basrah, Iraq
Goodman, Susan (1985)
"Gertrude Bell"
Berg – Leamington Spa, UK
Graves, Robert And B. H. Liddell Hart n(1963)
“T. E. Lawrence To His Biographers”
Cassell & Company Ltd. – London, UK
Hart, B. H. Liddell (1965)
“T. E. Lawrence In Arabia And After”
Jonathan Cape – London, UK
Knightley, Philip, and Colin Simpson (1969)
“The Secret Lives Of Lawrence Of Arabia”
Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd. – London, UK
Longrigg, Stephen Hemsley (1968)
“Four Centuries Of Modern Iraq”
Librairie du Liban – Beirut, Lebanon
Longrigg, Stephen Hemsley (1968)
“Iraq 1900 to 1950 A Political, Social, and Economic History”
Oxford University Press – London, UK
Longrigg, Stephen Hemsley, and Frank Stokes (1968)
“Iraq”
Frederick A. Prugger, Inc. – NY, USA
Mansoor, Menahem (1972)
“Political and Diplomatic History of the Arab World 1900-1967 A
Chronological Study" (Vols I & II)
NCR Microcard Edition
Marr, Phebe (1985)
“The Modern History Of Iraq”
Westview Press – Boulder, Colorado, USA
Méchin, Benoist (1961)
“Lawrence d'Arabie on le Réve Fracasse”
Éditions Claire Fontaine - Lausanne, Suisse
Palmer, Alan (1992)
"The Decline and Fall Of The Ottoman Empire"
John Murray – London, UK
Roux, Georges (1964)
____________________________________________________________________
Page 24 of 29
‫‪Ahmed B. Bash-Ayan‬‬
‫)‪(June, 2014‬‬
‫‪A Guide to al-Basrah‬‬
‫”‪“Ancient Iraq‬‬
‫‪Penguin Books, UK‬‬
‫)‪Saab, Dr. Hassan (1958‬‬
‫”‪“The Arab Federalists Of The Ottoman Empire‬‬
‫‪Dtambatan, N.V.– Amsterdam, The Netherlands‬‬
‫)‪Tuson, Penelope (1978‬‬
‫"‪"The Records Of The British Residency And Agencies In The Persian Gulf‬‬
‫‪India Office Library And Records – London / Kew, UK‬‬
‫)‪Winstone, H. V. F. (1978-1979‬‬
‫"‪"Gertrude Bell‬‬
‫‪Jonathan Cape – London, UK‬‬
‫)‪Zeine, Zeine N. (1958‬‬
‫”‪“Arab Turkish Relations And The Emergence Of Arab Nationalism‬‬
‫‪Khayyat's – Beirut, Lebanon‬‬
‫‪Arabic Language‬‬
‫عبدّللا ضياء الدين (ت ‪1919‬م)‬
‫باش أعيان الع ّباسي‪ ،‬الشيخ عبدالواحد صفاء الدين بن‬
‫ّ‬
‫"تحفة النصرة في تاريخ البصرة" (جزءان)‬
‫كتاب موسوعي مخطوط محفوظ في المكتبة العبّاسيّة ألسرة آل (باش أعيان) في (البصرة)‪"،‬‬
‫(العراق)‬
‫بطاطو‪ ،‬د‪ .‬حنّا (‪1991‬م)‬
‫" الطبقات اإلجتماعيّة القديمة الحاكمة و الحركات الثوريّة في العراق" (جزءان)‬
‫مؤسّسة األبحاث العربيّة – (بيروت)‪( ،‬لبنان)‬
‫البصري‪ ،‬حسّون كاظم (‪1949‬م)‬
‫" ذكرى فقيد األ ّمة و الوطن المغفور له الشيخ صالح باش أعيان العبّاسي"‬
‫دار الك ّ‬
‫شاف لللنشر للطباعة و التوزيع – (بيروت)‪( ،‬لبنان)‬
‫الجبوري‪ ،‬كامل سلمان (‪1426‬ه‪2005/‬م)‬
‫"النجف األشرف و مقتل الكابتن مارشال عام ‪1336‬ه‪1918/‬م"‬
‫دار القاريء للطباعة و النشر و التوزيع‪/‬المواهب للطباعة و النشر– (الكوفة)‪( ،‬العراق)‬
‫الياسري‪ ،‬السيّد عبدالشهيد (‪1386‬ه‪1966/‬م)‬
‫"البطولة في ثورة العشرين"‬
‫مطبعة النعمان ‪( -‬النجف األشرف)‪( ،‬العراق)‬
‫موسى‪ ،‬سليمان (‪1966‬م)‬
‫" الثورة العربيّة الكبرى – وثائق و أسانيد"‬
‫دائرة الثقافة و الفنون ‪( -‬ع ّمان)‪( ،‬األردن)‬
‫المصطفى‪ ،‬حسين علي عبد (رمضان ‪1418‬ه‪/‬كانون الثاني ‪1998‬مم)‬
‫"البصرة في مطلع العهد العثماني ‪1079-953‬ه‪1668-1546/‬م" (رسالة دكتوراه)‬
‫جامعة (البصرة) ‪( -‬العراق)‬
‫الدار العربيّة للموسوعات – (الحازميّة)‪( ،‬لبنان)‬
‫النبهاني‪ ،‬الشيخ مح ّمد بن خليفة بن موسى (ألّفه عام ‪1199‬ه‪1785/‬م؛ نشر عام‬
‫‪1407‬ه‪1986/‬م)‬
‫"التحفة النبهانيّة في تاريخ الجزيرة العربيّة"‬
‫دار إحياء العلوم – (بيروت)‪( ،‬لبنان)‬
‫نعمة‪ ،‬د‪ .‬كاظم (‪1988‬م)‬
‫األول و اإلنكليز و اإلستقالل" (الطبعة الثانية)‬
‫" الملك فيصل ّ‬
‫____________________________________________________________________‬
‫‪Page 25 of 29‬‬
‫‪Ahmed B. Bash-Ayan‬‬
‫)‪(June, 2014‬‬
‫‪A Guide to al-Basrah‬‬
‫الدار العربيّة للموسوعات – (الحازميّة)‪( ،‬لبنان)‬
‫السويدي البغدادي‪ ،‬عبدالرحمن بن عبدهللا (متوفّى عام ‪1200‬ه‪1785/‬م؛ نشر عام ‪1987‬م)‬
‫"تاريخ حوادث بغداد و البصرة من ‪1192-1186‬ه‪1778-1772/‬م" (الطبعة الثانية)‬
‫(تحقيق د‪ .‬عماد عبدالسالم رؤوف)‬
‫دار الشئون الثقافيّة العا ّمة‪ ،‬وزارة الثقافة و اإلعالم – (بغداد)‪( ،‬العراق)‬
‫السعدون‪ ،‬د‪ .‬خالد حمود (‪1988‬م)‬
‫"األوضاع القبليّة في البصرة ‪1337-1326‬ه‪1918-1908/‬م"‬
‫شركة الربيعان للنشر و التوزيع ‪( -‬اكويت)‬
‫سعيد‪ ،‬أمين (‪1960‬م)‬
‫" أسرار الثورة العربيّة الكبرى و مأساة الشريف حسين"‬
‫دار الكاتب العربي‪( -‬بيروت)‪( ،‬لبنان)‬
‫سترانك‪ ،‬وليام ثيودور (‪1426‬ه‪2006/‬م)‬
‫"حكم الشيخ خزعل بن جابر و آحتالل أمارة عربستان"‬
‫(ترجمة د‪ .‬عبدالجبّار ناجي)‬
‫الدار العربيّة للموسوعات – (الحازميّة)‪( ،‬لبنان)‬
‫العبّاسي‪ ،‬محفوظ (‪1990‬م)‬
‫"العبّاسيّون بعد آحتالل بغداد ‪1409-656‬ه‪1989-1258/‬م"‬
‫دار الشئون الثقافيّة العا ّمة و آفاق عربيّة‪( -‬بغداد)‪( ،‬العراق)‬
‫عبدالحميد خان الثاني‪ ،‬السلطان العثماني (كتبها بين عامي ‪ 1891‬و ‪1918‬؛ نشرت عام‬
‫‪1406‬ه‪1986/‬م)‬
‫" مذ ّكراتي السياسيّة ‪( "1908-1891‬الطبعة الخامسة)‬
‫مؤسّسة الرسالة – (بيروت)‪( ،‬لبنان)‬
‫ّ‬
‫العزاوي المحامي‪ ،‬السيّد عبّاس (‪1425‬ه‪2004/‬م)‬
‫ّ‬
‫"موسوعة تاريخ العراق بين آحتاللين عام ‪1335-656‬ه‪1917-1258/‬م" (‪ 8‬مجلدات)‬
‫الدار العربيّة للموسوعات – (الحازميّة)‪( ،‬لبنان)‬
‫عثمان أوغلي‪ ،‬األميرة العثمانيّة عائشة بنت السلطان عبدالحميد الثاني (‪1411‬ه‪1991/‬م)‬
‫" والدي السلطان عبدالحميد الثاني"‬
‫(ترجمة د‪ .‬صالح سعداوي صالح)‬
‫دار البشير للنشر و التوزيع – (ع ّمان)‪( ،‬األردن)‬
‫فيضي‪ ،‬سليمان (أمالها عام ‪ /1952‬نشرت عام ‪2000‬م)‬
‫" مذ ّكرات سليمان فيضي" (الطبعة الرابعة)‬
‫(تحقيق باسل سليمان فيضي)‬
‫شركة مطبعة األديب البغداديّة – (بغداد)‪( ،‬العراق)‬
‫الفرحان‪ ،‬صائب بن الحاج عبدالواحد (‪1996‬م)‬
‫"البصرة حكايا و ذكريات"‬
‫(الشارقة)‪( ،‬األمارات العربيّة المتّحدة)‬
‫الدار األهليّة للنشر و التوزيع – (ع ّمان)‪( ،‬األردن)‬
‫صايغ‪ ،‬أنيس (‪1966‬م)‬
‫"الهاشميّون و الثورة العربيّة الكبرى"‬
‫دار الطليعة ‪( -‬بيروت)‪( ،‬لبنان)‬
‫ّ‬
‫عبدالرزاق عبدالمحسن‪ ،‬و عبدالعزيز عمر العلي (‪1406‬ه‪1985/‬مم)‬
‫الصانع‪،‬‬
‫"أمارة الزبير بين الهجرتين بين سني ‪ 979‬و ‪ 5( "1400‬أجزاء)‬
‫مطبعة الخط ‪( -‬الكويت)‬
‫القطري‪ ،‬حسن علي عبيد (شعبان ‪1408‬ه‪/‬آذار ‪1988‬م)‬
‫"الزبير في العهد العثماني ‪1333-979‬ه‪1914-1571/‬م" (رسالة ماجستير)‬
‫كلّيّة اآلداب‪ ،‬جامعة (البصرة) ‪( -‬العراق)‬
‫الريحاني‪ ،‬أمين (ألّفه عام ‪1923‬م‪/‬هذه الطبعة عام ‪2005‬م)‬
‫األول"‬
‫" قلب العراق فيصل ّ‬
‫دار الجيل – (بيروت)‪( ،‬لبنان)‬
‫____________________________________________________________________‬
‫‪Page 26 of 29‬‬
‫‪Ahmed B. Bash-Ayan‬‬
‫)‪(June, 2014‬‬
‫‪A Guide to al-Basrah‬‬
‫الريحاني‪ ،‬أمين (ألّفه عام ‪1343‬ه‪1924/‬م؛ هذه الطبعة عام ‪1960‬م)‬
‫" ملوك العرب" (جزءان)‬
‫دار الريحاني للطباعة و النشر – (بيروت)‪( ،‬لبنان)‬
‫الشهابي البصري‪ ،‬ياسين بن حمزة بن أحمد (ألّفه عام ‪1086‬ه‪1675/‬م؛ طبع عام ‪1990‬م)‬
‫"أرجوزة في تاريخ البصرة لواقعة حسين باشا بن أفرأسياب في البصرة المحروسة"‬
‫(تحقيق د‪ .‬فاضل جبر مطر)‬
‫المركز الثقافي‪ ،‬جامعة (البصرة)‪/‬دار الحكمة للطباعة و النشر‪( -‬البصرة)‪( ،‬العراق)‬
‫الشاله‪ ،‬د‪ .‬حسين هادي (‪1422‬ه‪2000/‬م)‬
‫" طالب باشا النقيب البصري و دوره في تاريخ العراق السياسي الحديث"‬
‫الدار العربيّة للموسوعات – (الحازميّة)‪( ،‬لبنان)‬
‫تريب‪ ،‬تشارلز (‪2006‬م)‬
‫"صفحات من تاريخ العراق"‬
‫(ترجمة زينة جابر إدريس)‬
‫الدار العربيّة للعلوم – (بيروت)‪( ،‬لبنان)‬
‫الخ ّطاب‪ ،‬د‪ .‬رجاء حسن حسني (‪1985‬م)‬
‫" عبدالرحمن النقيب"‬
‫المكتبة العالميّة – (بغداد)‪( ،‬العراق)‬
‫إبن خلدون المغربي‪ ،‬العالّمة عبدالرحمن (متوفّى عام ‪808‬ه‪1400/‬م؛ هذه الطبعة عام‬
‫‪1979‬م)‬
‫ّ‬
‫"التاريخ" (‪ 7‬مجلدات)‬
‫مؤسّسة جمال للطباعة و النشر ‪( -‬بيروت)‪( ،‬لبنان)‬
‫الخضري بك‪ ،‬الشيخ مح ّمد (‪1986‬م)‬
‫"الدولة العبّاسيّة"‬
‫(تحقيق الشيخ مح ّمد العثماني)‬
‫دار القلم – (بيروت)‪( ،‬لبنان)‬
‫الغريب‪ ،‬طالب جاسم مح ّمد (‪1994‬م)‬
‫"حيازة األراضي الزراعيّة و طرق آنتقالها في البصرة من أواخر العهد العثماني إلى نهاية‬
‫اإلنتداب البريطاني" (رسالة دكتوراه)‬
‫كلّيّة اآلداب‪ ،‬جامعة (البصرة) – (البصرة)‪( ،‬العراق)‬
‫____________________________________________________________________‬
‫‪Page 27 of 29‬‬
A Guide to al-Basrah
(June, 2014)
Ahmed B. Bash-Ayan
Acknowledgements
All of the pictures used in this article, and some of the data, were
taken from various web-sites on the Internet, including Wikipedia,
and some other related links. These other links consist of articles
and information of historical, geographical, political, economic, or
other such nature. Some of them are of the general type (Islamic or
Arabic), others more specific (Iraq- or al-Basrah-related). All of
these web-sites are duly credited and thankfully acknowledged.
With deep gratitude, the author acknowledges the moral and
practical support and assistance that he has received from various
family members and close friends throughout his work on this
project. The encouragement and proof-reading of my loyal wife
Gisela Bohn Bash-Ayan and our three wonderful children Shehabud-Din, Aa-isheh, and Seniyyeh, have been particularly helpful in
fine-tuning the successive versions of this article. Two of our old
family friends, Mr. Muutezz Mekki al-Jemeel, and Mr. Feisal
Abdul-Azeez al-Buraikaan, have contributed their usual meticulous
and indispensable reviews of these successive versions for factual
errors and historical data
____________________________________________________________________
Page 28 of 29
A Guide to al-Basrah
(June, 2014)
Ahmed B. Bash-Ayan
About the Author
 Born in Basrah, Iraq in 1950.
 Moved with parents to Baghdad in 1954.
 Completed his primary education in Iraq and the Lebanon, and his
middle- and high-school in the Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and the
UK.
 He studied Mathematics major with Computer Science minor at
Sussex University, graduating with a Bachelor’s (Honours) degree
in July 1976.
 He then joined London University’s Imperial College where he
graduated with a Master of Science degree in Computing Science
in February, 1979.
 He studied for a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics at the Brighton
Polytechnic (now Brighton University) in East Sussex. He was
granted his Ph.D. in March, 1983.
 He worked for the Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) in
Riyadh between March, 1983 and April, 1984, as a software
development programmer.
 In April, 1984, he joined the Saudi Arabian American Oil
Company (Saudi ARAMCO) in Dhahran as a Systems Analyst. By
the time of his retirement in October, 2010, he had moved within
Saudi ARAMCO’s main organizations, where he worked as a
Geophysical Analyst, a Petroleum Engineer, a Simulation engineer,
and a Petroleum Engineering Consultant.
 He has published 4 books so far, with a fifth one being researched.
The topics of these five books cover his father’s biography, his
family’s history, and the contemporary political history of Iraq.
 He is married with three grown-up children.
____________________________________________________________________
Page 29 of 29