Ziyad's Rebuilding of Basra's Mosque

عمارة زياد لجامع البصرة

When Mu'awiya made Ziyad governor of Basra he greatly enlarged the mosque — fired brick, gypsum, teak roof — moved the dar al-imara from al-Dahna' to the qibla wall so the imam no longer crossed the worshippers, gave the minbar five steps, built a stone minaret and made the first maqsura; touring the work he asked Basra's notables 'do you see a flaw?' — 'none sounder' — 'yes: these four-load columns should have been thicker', yet none of those columns ever cracked or flawed. Haritha ibn Badr — or al-Ba'ith al-Mujashi'i — sang: 'Ziyad built for God's remembrance a fabric of stone, not of clay; but for the hands of men upholding it, we had called it the work of demons'.

Depth

At a glance

Era: The Umayyad Period
Review: Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

Overview

When Mu'awiya appointed Ziyad over Basra, he greatly enlarged the mosque, built it of baked brick and lime, and roofed it with teak. ¹

What he did

Ziyad said that an imam should not step over people, so he moved the governor's house from al-Dahna to the qibla side of the mosque; the imam used to go out through a door in the qibla wall. He made the front of the pulpit five pillars, and built its minaret of stone. Al-Baladhuri says that he was the first to make the screened enclosure (maqsura). ¹

The building and the verses

Ziyad went round the building and asked the notables of Basra about its defects, and they said they knew no building more sound than it. He said of the pillars, which had four arches, that they were thicker than the others. Al-Baladhuri quotes verses describing the building attributed to Haritha ibn Badr, and said to be of al-Bu'ayth al-Mujashi'i. ¹

The building in question is the Great Mosque of Basra.

Connections

Explore the connections

Had participant: زياد بن أبي سفيان
Occurred at: Great Mosque of Basra

People and things also explored

Conquest of al-Ubulla and al-Furat· Digging of the Ubulla Canal· Digging of the Ma'qil Canal· Mu'awiya's annexation of Ziyad ibn Abihi· al-Khirrīt ibn Rāshid and Banū Nājiya's break with ʿAli (38 AH)· Mu'awiya's Marsh Grant· The Mughira-Umm Jamil Affair· Nafi' ibn al-Harith's Walking Grant

Sources

Futuh al-Buldan — al-Baladhuri (Mu'assasat al-Ma'arif edition)

Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Ziyad's Rebuilding of Basra's Mosque”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/ziyad-mosque-rebuild/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-16.

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Conquest of al-Ubulla and al-Furat

Utba ibn Ghazwan stormed al-Ubulla and wrote Umar — borne by Nafi' ibn al-Harith — that it was the port of Bahrain, Uman, India and China; crossing to al-Furat its folk came out with their spades and were beaten, Mujashi' ibn Mas'ud taking the town by force; at al-Madhar its marzban came out, was routed with most of his men drowned, taken alive and beheaded; at Dastumaysan Utba struck pre-emptively 'to weaken their sides and embolden hearts', killing their dehqans; then Abar Qubadh fell — the tract from al-Fahraj to al-Furat being treaty-land, the rest of Ubulla by force. Utba's wife Arda bint al-Harith goaded the men 'if they rout you, you'll enter us uncircumcised', and the forelocked boy Ziyad divided the spoils at two dirhams a day.