al-Ahnaf's Petition to Umar for Basra

al-Ahnaf ibn Qays came to Umar ibn al-Khattab with a delegation from the people of Basra and presented their condition to him. Umar added their dependants to the stipends and ordered a canal to be dug. ¹

Umar questioned the members of the delegation one by one, while al-Ahnaf stood to one side of the room without speaking. Umar asked him whether he had a need. ¹

al-Ahnaf described the land of Basra as a salt flat whose dew never dries and whose pasture never grows: the briny sea to the east and the desert to the west. He said that the people of other cities had settled between sweet waters and gardens, while they had no crops and no livestock. He said that the weak must go out two parasangs to fetch sweet water, and he asked that their condition be raised and their need relieved. ¹

Umar added the dependants of the people of Basra to the stipends, and wrote to Abu Musa ordering him to dig a canal for them. ¹

The data names the city as the place of the event but gives no date; it needs an additional source.