PEOPLEafter the victory at Buwayb by a party of three hundred men and a
few dependents led by 'Utba ibn Ghazwan, who had been sent from
Madina by 'Umar. They were joined along the way by several hundred
bedouin Arabs, increasing the size of the party that settled at the site
of Basra in 635 to between five and eight hundred men. This group
settled at a place called Khurayba, where two of the ruined forts stood,
and initially had no permanent housing. They dwelled in tents, pa-
vilions, and under canopies. 59 According to Sayf, Basra was founded
when Sa'd dispatched 'Utba from his army and sent him to south-
eastern Iraq after the fall of Mada'in in 637.^60 Indeed, five thousand
veterans of the Battle of Qadisiyya settled at Basra, but they are more
likely to have been the troops under al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba sent by
Sa'd to reinforce the original settlers of Basra against a Persian coun-
terattack.^61 By 642 there were fifteen thousand fighting men at Basra.^62
The organization of Basra along tribal lines was similar to that of
Kufa. At the center of the city, 'Utba built the masjid out of reeds
and a complex of government buildings (Ar. dar al-imara), including
the prison and the dfwan in an empty space called the mirbad (Ar.).
Lots were allocated for the settlers who built houses out of reeds in
their tribal districts around this nucleus. The central buildings were
rebuilt by Abii Miisa al-Ash'ari with bricks.^63
Because most of the people in 'Utba's original party came from the
upper Hijaz, they were called Ahl al-'Aliya. Most of them were Qur-
aysh or Qays 'Aylan but they included other Hijazi groups such as
the Mazin, Awd, Bahila, Luway, Sulaym, and 'Amir.^64 'Utba's own
clan of the Banii Mazin had their cemetery near the center of the city
and by 683 the Qays had their own masjid.^65 The Hijazis had sixty-
eight companions of Mul)ammad among them.^66 Ziyad migrated to
Iraq with this party and established himself in Basra, where his son,
59 Baladhurl, FutulJ, pp. 242, 256, 340-42, 346, 350; Ibn al-Faqlh, Buldiin, p. 187-
88; Ibn Qutayba, Ma'iirif, p. 563; Ibn Rustah, A'liiq, p. 194; Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqiit, Vll(1),
138; Yaqiit, Buldiin, I, 639, 641; Ill, 682.
60 Tabarl, Ta'rikh, I, 2377.
61 Ibid., I, 2540.
62 Ibid., I, 2611.
63 Baladhurl, FutuIJ, p. 346-47; Dlnawari, Akhbiir at-tiwiil, pp. 124-25; Ibn al-FaqTh,
Buldiin, p. 188; Tabari, Ta'rikh, I, 2381; Ya'qiibl, Ta'rikh, ll, 163.
6<Ibn Qutayba, Ma'iirif, p. 81; L. Massignon, "Explication du plan de Basra (Irak),"
Westostliche Abhandlungen, ed. F. Meier (Wiesbaden, 1954), p. 158; Pellat, Milieu
ba§rien, p. 23.
65 Tabarl, Ta'rikh, I, 3122; ll, 452.
66 Ya'qiibi, Ta'rikh, n, 167.