Kufa: Builders

Date: c. 638

The chronicler, al-Tabari (d. 923) records that the people of Kufa requested that they be allowed to use reeds as a building material. Caliph ʿUmar (r. 634-44) agreed to let this happen, but there were subsequently fires in both Kufa and Basra. After the fire a request was made to change the method of construction to bricks. These events appear in the chapter dealing with 17/638. See also: Architect; Builder; House Painter; Mat Maker.

Citation: Al-Tabari, Abu Jaʿfar Muhammad b. Jarir, Taʾrīkh al-rusul wa’l-mulūk. Translated in al-Tabari, Abu Jaʿfar Muhammad b. Jarir, The History of al-Ṭabarī (Taʾrīkh al-rusul wa’l-mulūk). Volume XIII: The Conquest of Iraq, Southwestern Persia, and Egypt, trans. Gautier Juynboll, Bibliotheca Persica (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), pp. 67-68.

Also: Milwright, Marcus. Islamic Arts and Crafts: An Anthology (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017), pp. 73-74.

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