Hawramani Encyclopedia of Muslim Baby Names

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:

Footnotes

  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.