The most famous city in the south of Iraq is Basra. The
city was the starting-point of Sindbad the sailor's adventurous voyages to
the world. When we see it today we will be reminded of the commercial
importance it has enjoyed for centuries: endless ships shuttle back and
forth on Shatt-Al-Arab, on which it is built.
It is Iraq's port on the Arabian Gulf. All around it are millions of palm
tree whose delicious dates belong, literally, to hundreds of categories.
Basra was founded by Utba bin Ghazwan on orders from Caliph Omar bin Al-Khattab
in A.D. 637, and has been a major Islamic city ever since.
It started by being an administrative centre and in less than forty years it
had a population of 300,000. Its golden age was under the Abbasids when,
together with its suburb Ibilla, it become the focal point of Arab sea trade
which went as far as China.
Even more significantly, Basra was in those days an intellectual centre of
the first order, with its great mosques and libraries, where many
philosophers, scientists and grammarians flourished. One might mention such
luminaries as Hassan Al-Basri, AL-Farahidi, Ibn Serene, Al-Asma'i, Al-Hariri
- as well as Ibn Al-Jowzi and Ibn Al-Haitham (whose discoveries in optics
and mechanics taught Europa a great deal). The city now has a museum which
tells the story of this magnificent past.