Kufa (Arabic:الْكُوفَة"al-Kūfah"), also spelledKufah, is a city inIraq, about 170 kilometres (110 mi) south ofBaghdad, and 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) northeast ofNajaf. It is located on the banks of theEuphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000.
ThePalestinian keffiyeh,[1] also known as kufiya and worn by Arab men, wasappropriated from Kufa, and is worn today to conveydiverse political sentiments. Due to heightened global consumer demand, most keffiyehs are now manufactured in China.[2]
After the Arabian hegemony and the fall of Persian Empire, and its geographic proximity to the imperial capital, Ctesiphon) atBattle of Al-Qadisiyyah in 636, Kufa was founded and given its name in 637–638 CE, about the same time asBasra. Kufa and Basra were the twoamsar (garrison cities) of Iraq, serving as military bases and administrative centers.[3] TheCompanion of the ProphetSaʻd ibn Abī Waqqas founded it as an encampment adjacent to theLakhmid Arab city ofAl-Hirah, and incorporated it as a city of seven divisions. Non-Arabs knew the city under alternate names:Hīrah andAqulah, before the consolidations ofʻAbdu l-Mālik in 691.[4] Umar, who assigned the land of the Jews in Arabia to his warriors, ordered the relocation of the Jews ofKhaybar to a strip of land in Kufa, in 640.[5] In the 640s, the Kufan commons were agitated that Umar's governor was distributing the spoils of war unfairly. In 642 ʻUmar summoned Saʻd toMedina with his accusers. Despite finding Sa'd to be innocent, Umar deposed him to avert ill feelings. At first, Umar appointedAmmar ibn Yasir and secondly Basra's first GovernorAbū Mūsā al-Ashʻarī; but the Kufan instigators accepted neither. ʻUmar and the Kufans finally agreed onAl-Mughīrah ibn Shuʻbah.
Following Umar's death (644), his successorUthman replaced Mughirah withAl-Walid ibn Uqba in 645. This happened while the Arabs were continuing their conquest of western Persia underUthman ibn Abi al-As fromTawwaj, but late in the 640s, these forces suffered setbacks.
Uthman in 650 reorganised the Iranian frontier; both Basra and Kufa received new governors (Sa'id ibn al-'As in Kufa's case), and the east came under Basra's command while north of that remained under Kufa's. The few but noticeable trouble makers in Kufa sought in 654 and had Sa'id deposed and instead showed satisfaction with the return ofAbu Musa, which Uthman approved seeking to please all. Kufa remained a source of instigations albeit from a minority. In 656 when the Egyptian instigators, in co-operation with those in Kufa, marched onto the Caliph Uthman inMedina, Abu Musa counselled the instigators to no avail.
Upon Uthman's assassination by rebels, governor Abu Musa attempted to restore a non-violent atmosphere in Kufa. The Muslims in Medina and elsewhere supported the right ofAli ibn Abu Talib to thecaliphate. In order to manage the military frontiers more efficiently, Ali shifted the capital from Medina to Kufa.
The people of Syria and their governor,Muawiyah, who seized the Caliphate for himself and his family by using the confusion caused by the assassination of Caliph Uthman and being disturbed by the brutal assassination of the Caliph Uthman, demanded retribution. As Muawiyah mounted his campaign to hold Ali responsible for the murder of Uthman, factions developed. In an already emotionally charged atmosphere, Muawiyah's refusal to give allegiance to Ali as the Caliph without Ali avenging Uthman first eventually, led to war.
Muawiyah I appointedZiyad ibn Abihi Al the Governor of Kufa, afterHasan's A.S migration to Medina, which was a peace treaty which dictated he abdicate his right to caliphate to avoid an open war among Muslims. Some of Hasan's A.S followers, likeHujr ibn Adi, were unhappy with the peace treaty, and did not change their ways according to the edicts of the new Governor. This became increasingly noticeable, since it created a rebellion against the ruler. However, Ziyad ibn Abihi was an equally keen strategist and politician, and was able to put down all challenges posed by the rebels against his rule.[citation needed]
Throughout the Umayyad era, as was the case since the inception of the city by Umar ibn Khattab, there were those among Kufa's inhabitants who were rebellious to their rulers.Yazid I was declared as the SecondUmayyad Caliph which led to a rebellion among Kufans and they turned toMuhammad's grandsonHusayn for help and leadership. Yazid appointedUbayd Allah ibn Ziyad as the new Governor to put down the rebellion, and kill Husayn if he did not acknowledge his Caliphate, culminating in theBattle of Karbala. There was a period of relative calm during the short reign ofAl-Mukhtar's rulership, and the Umayyad-era Governorship ofAl-Hajjaj.[citation needed]
In 749, theAbbasids underal-Hasan ibn Qahtaba took Kufa and made it their capital. In 762, they moved their seat toBaghdad. Under the Umayyad and early Abbasid decades, Kufa's importance gradually shifted from caliphal politics to Islamic theory and practice.[3] The city was sacked by theQarmatians in 905, 924, and927, and it never fully recovered from the destruction.[3]
Wael Hallaq notes that by contrast withMedina and to a lesser extentSyria, inIraq there was no unbrokenMuslim orIshmaelite population dating back to the prophetMuhammad's time. Therefore,Maliki (andAwza'i) appeals to the practiceamal () of the community could not apply. Instead the people of Iraq relied upon those Companions of Muhammad who settled there, and upon such factions from theHijaz whom they respected most. A primary founder of aSunni school of thought,Abu Hanifa, was a Kufan who had supported theZaydi Revolt in the 730s; and his jurisprudence was systematised and defended against non-Iraqi rivals (starting withMalikism) by other Kufans, such asal-Shaybani.
Shirazi's "Tabaqat", which Hallaq labels "an important early biographical work dedicated to jurists", covered 84 "towering figures" of Islamic jurisprudence; to which Kufa provided 20. It was therefore a center surpassed only byMedina (22), althoughBasra came close (17). Kufans could claim that the more prominent of Muhammad's Companions had called that city home: not only Ibn Abu Waqqas,Abu Musa, andAli; but alsoAbd Allah ibn Mas'ud,Salman the Persian,Ammar ibn Yasir, and Huzayfa ibn Yaman. Among its jurists prior to Abu Hanifa, Hallaq singles outSa'id ibn Jubayr, Ibrahim al-Nakha‘i, and Hammad ibn Abi Sulayman; and considers Amir al-Sha‘bi a pioneer in the science of judicial precedent.
TheShia theology started in the city of Kufa. Many preachers claimed to be students of the Medina based ImamMuhammad al-Baqir and his son ImamJa'far al-Sadiq, although Sunni scholars question the truthfulness of these preachers. Originally it was divided into various sects, some of which lent support to the rebellions ofZayd ibn Ali and Abbasids.
Kufa was also among the first centers ofQur'anic interpretation, which Kufans credited to the exegeteMujahid (until he escaped to Mecca in 702). It further recorded general traditions asHadith; in the 9th century, Yahya ibn ‘Abd al-Hamid al-Himmani compiled many of these into aMusnad.
Given Kufa's opposition toDamascus, Kufan traditionists had their own take on Umayyad history. TheShia historianAbu Mikhnaf al-Azdi (d. 774) compiled their accounts into a rival history, which became popular underAbbasid rule. This history does not survive but later historians like Tabari quoted from it extensively.
Kufa is also where thekufic script was developed, the earliest script of theArabic language. As the scholaral-Qalqashandi maintained, "The Arabic script [khatt] is the one which is now known as Kufic. From it evolved all the present hands." The angular script which later came to be known as Kufic had its origin about a century earlier than the founding of the town of Kufa, according to Moritz in theEncyclopaedia of Islam. The kufic script was derived from one of the four pre-Islamic Arabic scripts, the one calledal-Hiri (used inHirah). (The other three wereal-Anbari (fromAnbar),al-Makki (fromMecca) andal-Madani (fromMedina)).Ibn al-Nadim (diedc. 999) the author of the famousKitab al-Fihrist, an index of Arabic books, dedicates the a section of the first chapter to calligraphy.[citation needed]
Kufan coins were among the numerous silver coins of various origins found in 1989 by the mouth ofDvina, right next toArkhangelsk in the extreme north ofRussia.[7] The Kufan coins were the only non-European ones in the hoard, and testify to the very wide-ranging indirect trading links which Kufa had at one time. It is estimated the hoard was buried in the beginning of the 12th century, when Kufa was already long past the peak of its fortunes, but the coins might have arrived at the far north at a much earlier time.
Kufa began to come under constant attack in the 11th century and eventually shrank and lost its importance. Over the last century, the population of Kufa began to grow again. It continues to be an important pilgrimage site forShi'ite Muslims.[citation needed]
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