Al Basrah, also known as Basra, city in southeastern Iraq, capital of Al Basrah Governorate on the Shatt al Arab. The main port of Iraq, Al Basrah has an international airport and is connected by rail with Baghdad and the countries of Iran and Kuwait. It is the terminal point for oil pipelines, and petroleum refining is a major industry. Oceangoing oil tankers reach Al Basrah by means of the Roka Channel. Petroleum products, grains, and dates are the chief exports. The University of Al Basrah (1964) is here.
The city was founded by the caliph Umar I in 636. It was called Basorah in the collection of Oriental folk tales known as the Arabian Nights. By the 8th century it had become an important trade and cultural center, but it declined with the fall of the Abbassid dynasty in 1258. Developed as a supply base by the British in World War I (1914-1918), Al Basrah became a major port once more. The city's petroleum complex was damaged during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s; the population also declined greatly, as a result of the war, from more than 1.5 million in 1977 to less than 900,000 in the late 1980s. Al Basrah was a target of severe allied bombing during the Persian Gulf War (1991), and now falls within the allied-imposed “no flight zone” over southern Iraq. Since the war, fighting has increased in Al Basrah between the Iraqi military and Shiite Muslims who oppose the rule of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Population 406,296 (1987).
