Basra (Name)

Basra (transliteration: Baṣra, Arabic: بصرة) is an ancient Arabian name for boys that is variously described as referring to “soft stones”, “soft white stones”, “tough clay”, “red land”.¹²³⁴ Basra is also the name of an important city in Iraq, the residence of the famous Companion Anas bin Malik and the ascetic and scholar al-Hasan al-Basri.

Basra is also spelled Basrah.

There are two Companions of the Prophet Muhammad named Basra:

• Basra bin Aktham al-Ansari بصرة بن أكثم الأنصاري
• Basra bin Abi Basrah al-Ghaffariبصرة بن أبي بصرة الغفاري

Below is the name Basra written in Arabic naskh script:

Below is the name Basra written in Arabic kufi script:

1. Arabic-English Lexicon by Edward William Lane (d. 1876), بصر.
2. Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo, al-Muʿjam al-Wasīṭ (1998), الْـبَصْرَة.
3. Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim bin Salām al-Harawī, Gharīb al-Ḥadīth (d. 838 CE), بصر.
4. Zayn al-Dīn al-Razī, Mukhtār al-Ṣiḥāḥ (d. 1266 CE), بصر.