KUFAH

also spelled Kufa, medieval city of Iraq that was a centre of Arab culture and learning from the 8th to the 10th century. It was founded in 638 as a garrison town by 'Umar I, the second caliph. The city lay on the Hindiyah branch of the Euphrates River, about 7 miles (11 km) northeast of an-Najaf. It was populated largely by South Arabians and Iranians and served as the seat of the governor of Iraq, sometimes sharing this position with its sister city, Basra. In 655 the Muslims of Kufah became the first to support the claims of 'Ali, son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad, against the caliph 'Uthman; Kufah subsequently served as 'Ali's capital (656661). Throughout Umayyad rule Kufah remained a constant source of unrest. In 683, in the civil war following the death of the caliph Yazid I, it recognized as caliph 'Abd Allah ibn az-Zubayr; then in 685 it violently resisted the Shi'ite doctrine forced on it by al-Mukhtar ibn Abu 'Ubayd at-Thaqafi. Occupied by the 'Abbasids in 749, the city was maintained as an administrative capital for some years, until the founding of Baghdad. After being sacked by the Qarmatians in 924925, 927, and 937, Kufah declined steadily and was almost deserted in the 14th century when it was visited by the geographer Ibn Battutah. In its prime in the 2nd and 3rd Muslim centuries, Kufah, along with Basra, was a centre for the study of Arabic grammar, philology, literary criticism, and belles lettres.