Kufa

Jat Places in Iraq

Kufa or al-Kufah (Arabic: الكوفة‎ al-Kūfah) is a city in Iraq,

Location

It is about 170 kilometres south of Baghdad, and 10 kilometres northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates River.

History

Along with Samarra, Karbala, Kadhimiya and Najaf, Kufa is one of five Iraqi cities that are of great importance to Shia Muslims. The city was the final capital of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, and was founded within the first hundred years of the 622 Hijra.

The city contains the Great Mosque of Kufa, one of the earliest mosques in Islam, built in the 7th century. The town has produced several Shia scholars.

Jat History

Prof. Abdul Ali writes about the Policy of Jats in Internal Arab Strife....When subsequent to the assassination of Caliph 'Uthman, Hadrat Ali was proclaimed the fourth caliph at the Prophet's mosque in Medina in 656 AD, it was a very turbulent sail for him. It was a period of

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dynastic wars among the Muslims themselves. His two influential rivals to the office of the caliphate Talhah and Zubair, who represented the Meccan party and had followers in Hijaz and Iraq, refused to acknowledge his appointment as caliph. Hadrat 'Aishah, wife of the Prophet, who had been ill-disposed towards Ali, also joined the ranks of the insurgents against the caliph at Basra. Hadrat Ali fought and defeated the coalition of insurgents in a battle called the Battle of the Camel after the camel, on which Hadrat 'Aishah rode. Both Talhah and Zubair were killed, and Ali emerged victorious.

Then Amir Mu'awiyah, the governor of Syria and kinsman of 'Uthman, the slain caliph, raised the banner of revolt against Caliph Ali, as a consequence of which the Battle of Siffin took place, in which thousands of soldiers were killed on both sides.

It is a matter of great historical importance that the Jat Muslims of Basra and Kufa remained neutral in the dynastic wars of the Muslims in fulfillment of the terms and conditions of their conversion to Islam, and as such they did not participate in any of the above two battles. But later, due to a number of factors the situation became so complex that it became very difficult, rather impossible for them to maintain their neutrality and they were looked upon as partisans of Ali. First, the Jat Muslims had great love for Hadrat AIi and his family mainly because of his proximity to Prophet Muhammad. There were also several slave women in his family, who became mothers of their off-springs. For example, Khawlah Sindiyyah was a bondwoman of Hadrat Ali, who was captured in the battle of Yamamah as a captive and brought to medina. She gave birth to a son by Ali named Muhammad Bin Ali, who became popularly known as Ibn al-Hanafiyyah after the tribe of Banu Hanifah whose client she had earlier been. As mentioned by Ibn Khallikan on the authority of Asma, daughter of Abu Bakr, Khawlah the mother of Muhammad Ibn al-Hanafiyyah, was a dark-complexioned lady of Sind, who earlier had been a bondwoman of the tribe of Banu Hanifah of Yamamah, and not one of its descendants. Since Jats existed in Yamamah from very ancient periods of time, it is quite probable that she might have been a Jat lady.

The second main factor that endeared Jat Muslims of Basra and Kufa to Hadrat Ali was the massacre by Talhahand Zubair on the eve of the Battle of the Camel of forty or four hundred Jat and Sayabijah Muslims who were appointed by the caliph as guards of the state treasury under the command of Abu Salimah al-Zutti, who was a very pious and honest person. It is related that both Talhah and Zubair accompanied by their supporters reached Basra before the Battle of

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the Camel and wanted the treasury to be handed over to them. But the Jats and other guards refused to do so, following which they were attacked in the night and all the forty or four hundred of them were killed. This incident also further antagonized the Jats against the opponents of Ali. That was the main reason that when Ali emerged victorious in the battle at Basra in 36 AH/656 AD, seventy Jats visited him and paid their allegiance to him in their own Indian language, saying,

"May Allah curse your opponents! None but only you are the legitimate ruler of the state. "

But despite all these feelings of affection and loyalty displayed by the Jats towards Ali, they by and large remained neutral in the struggle for power between the Caliph and his rival Amir Mu'awiyah. As a result, they were not yet discriminated against even after the downfall and assassination of Ali in 661 AD. In the meantime the Jats continued to flourish and prosper under the Arab rulers. They struck deep roots in the soil of Basra, Kufa and neighbouring territories and became a power to reckon with. They also maintained, among other things, their linguistic identity and had not yet been thoroughly Arabicized. It was mainly because of the impact of linguistic traditions of the Jats and other Indians upon the Arabs of such territories with whom they had intermingled most, particularly the Banu Abd al-Qays and Azd tribes settled in Iraq, Bahrain and Oman, that the chastity of their Arab tongue could no longer be maintained. One distinguishing feature of the Jats was that the tribal affiliation among them had been very strong, due to which they mostly lived, sailed or sank together wheresoever they were settled.

Another commendable quality that made the Jats lovable and useful to the Arab rulers and elite was that they were found to be sincere, hard-working, honest, daring and faithful. Needless to say that this quality together with their policy of remaining neutral in internal Arab strife proved very fruitful to them. They were in great demand in both military and civil services. As soldiers of the Muslim army they got the same respect, gifts, stipends and rewards that were due to their Arab counterparts. Early Muslim rulers, particularly Caliph Umar took measures to ensure that no distinction was made between Arab Muslims and non-Arab Muslims. It is related that on a certain occasion when the Banu 'Ady tribe expressed some reservation to Caliph 'Umar regarding equitable distribution of booty to non-Arab Muslim soldiers, the latter replied, saying: "If the non-Arab Muslims bring some good work and we bring no work, the former would indeed be nearer to Prophet Muhammad than ourselves on the Day of Judgment, for one who left behind by his deeds cannot be put ahead by his lineage. "

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It is further described on the authority of Muhammad Bin al-Sabah al-Bazzaz that when once a group of Arab Muslims and non-Arab Muslims visited a certain governor of Caliph 'Umar Bin al-Khattab, the latter rewarded and honoured the Arab Muslims, but he neglected the non-Arab Muslims. When the caliph was informed about it, he rebuked him and sent him a single-line scathing message, saying that it was more than enough for a man to become wicked that he should humiliate his Muslim brother.

Jats in civil services:

Likewise, there was a great market of employment for the Jats in civil services also. A good number of them were employed as guards of commercial ships that used to sail between Arabia, India and China. Their main duty was to protect the ships from the Indian sea pirates who were very active in those days. In addition, they served as guards and superintendents of jails, treasuries and other installations. They were skilled in construction work also, and contributed a great deal to the construction of palaces, colonies, mosques and other buildings in Iraq and elsewhere.

References

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