Zubair (city)
| Zubair | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| location | |||
|
|||
| Coordinates | 30 ° 23 ' N , 47 ° 42' E | ||
| Country |
 Iraq
|
||
| Governorate | Basra | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Residents | 124,611 (2007) | ||
Zubair ( Arabic الزبير, DMG az-Zubair ) is an Iraqi city in the province of Basra . Other variants of the name are az-Zuhair , az-Zubair , Zubair , el-Zubair , or Zobier . The city had a population of 124,611 in 2007.
The city is named after the ṣaḥābī Abu 'Abd Allah Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, who is buried here. Sometimes the city is also called Old Basra.
In the 19th century there was a great wave of immigration from the Saudi Arabian Najd. These immigrants formed the majority of the city's population until the 1970s or 1980s. Zubair was a Sunni town in Shiite southern Iraq. On the other hand, there have been emigrations to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait over time .