Talk:Basra

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As of March 2003, Basra has been a battle site in the 2003 invasion of Iraq by a "coalition of the willing" led by the United States.

The above is incorrect. Or is at best a gross exaggeration. Only 4 of the "coalition of the willing" are part of the invading force. The remainder of the nearly four dozen "willing" nations merely provided support.

I think we should make a clear distinction between the coalition of the willing and the actually allied invaders. --Uncle Ed 23:58 Apr 2, 2003 (UTC)

An earlier version said by the U.S.A. and the U.K. but someone found that unacceptable. -- Infrogmation

If media reports are to be trusted (and I won't be the one to say they should be), it's pretty much exclusively UK forces laying seige to Basrah. DanKeshet 00:33 Apr 3, 2003 (UTC)

The whole province of Al Basrah is under UK command. It was originally taken by US forces but handed over as they pushed on towards Baghdad. PhilipPage 01:52, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Actually the US troops engaged were under UK command and the city was captured by and large by UK forces. Roydosan 13:58, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

• I think the section on Islamic Theology and Scholarship is very unclear. In part this is because the grammar really needs to be touched up but also there needs to be more clear delineation of why these facts need to be included in the Basra article instead of an article about religion in Iraq in general or Islamic Theology & Scholarship in General. --slothropslothrop (talk) 04:55, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

Contents 1 British forces 2 British forces 2 3 Afo-Arab 4 Population 5 Origin

[edit] British forces

Can someone find a fair use or whatever copy of the original, uncensored version of the picture. This is widely available and is not leaked or illegal and there is no reason to censor the faces of the people involved... 60.234.141.76 09:38, 12 October 2005 (UTC)

There's a very good reason not to reveal the identity of any UK citizens involved in an incident which might attract prosecution within a Crown or military court. PhilipPage 01:52, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Your forgetting that wikipedia is not censored. WP:NOT#CENSOR. MrMacMan ^Talk 14:17, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

I really hope so. 192.129.3.135 16:05, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] British forces 2

How about some information regarding this matter in the article? 192.129.3.135 16:19, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Afo-Arab

I think there should be an article on the Afro-Arab population. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.151.105.96 (talk) 22:37, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Population

At the top we say Basra is the Third largest city of Iraq with an estimated population of 2,600,000 (2003) In the box it says Population (2003 Est) 1,700,000. Should these be changed/sourced? (Msrasnw (talk) 14:10, 26 March 2008 (UTC)) I think I will change the pop. figure in the text to 1.7 million to match the box as 2.6 is I guess more likely the figure for the province Basra Governorate. (Msrasnw (talk) 14:56, 27 March 2008 (UTC))

in 2002 basra city had a population between 1,3 millions according to iraqi data and confirmed by the british asuthorities in there in 2006 it rose to 1,6 millions in wikipedia we see people giving unconfirmed data for the city population or simply using the population of tzhe

governate for the city  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.184.99.197 (talk) 10:15, 31 March 2008 (UTC) 

I've undone the revision changing it back to 2.6 million as I think this is clearly wrong. I hope this is OK. (Msrasnw (talk) 10:49, 31 March 2008 (UTC)) I've added the pop of the governate at 2.6 million to the box and replaced the 2.6 with 1.7 million as the pop of the city in the city's box - I hope this is OK - it looks a bit ugly but I think hleps remove the confusion that the 2.6 mil figure might cause. (Msrasnw (talk) 12:23, 1 April 2008 (UTC))

I noticed Basra's pop was changed to 825,000. I have changed it back to 1,700,000 as this is what the ref. says it is and this is, I think a source for lots of cities not just Basra. Also it was still 1,700,000 in the box. I am worried about the pop figures for Iraq's cities. Does anyone have a more reliable source that we could use? (Msrasnw (talk) 15:12, 5 May 2008 (UTC))

It was me who changed it to 825,000 because this is what I read in the ref, if you check 1,700,000 is the population of the governorate, the city itself is only 825,000. I don't know whether the source is reliable or not. A good source I've found from UN is this: http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/cpa-iraq/regions/south-central/provinces/english/provinces.html but only some provinces are included. P221072 (talk) 18:04, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Can anyone suggest a reliable source for the population data, divided in Governorate/District/City? P221072 (talk) 16:01, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Origin

• "Basra" is a PURE PERSIAN word. BAS + RAH = BASRAH. both the "bas" and "rah" are pure Persian words. "bas" means many and "rah" means way, overall it means "many ways" and this naming was because of the many ways which were branching from it to different places.

If you know arabic read this part, it is from an Arabic source: وقال حمزة بن الحسن الأصبهاني: سمعت مُوبَذ بن اسوهشت يقول: البصرة تعريب (بس راه) لأنها كانت ذات طُرُق كثيرة انشعَبَت منها إلى أماكن مختلفة.

• Basra people are originally Persian. Assyrians were defeated by Aryan Medians and Babylonians also were defeated by Aryan Persians. The Kurds are a group of Aryans who came to Iranian plateau, who were called Medians. So they are Iranian. Iranian means Aryan. The word "Iran" is taken from the word "Aryan". Besides this, Basra was a part of PERSIAN GULF long time ago(geologically).1 At the time of Cyrus when Babylonia was defeated, mostly Aryans(Persians or Medians) Settled in those parts(near to basra). See, When you are talking about Iraq you shouldnt think that as it is an arabian country so all people of Basra in the past also had to be Arab. No, If you are talking about "Karbala" it is acceptable that its people are Arab, but not Basra. Even, if you look to the present map you can see how close is Basra to Iran. and if you look to the historical maps before Islam you will see Todays Basra was always a part of Persia.--Iranway (talk) 07:19, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Basrah is a pure Arab word as well, as I know you Persians used Bassorah. we are discussing it here. There are some efforts there. Any way Basrah is founded by Arab and it is Arabic city, yes in times it was part of Persia by that won't change the facts, I won't even discuss it, you can check the websites. Cheers. Mussav (talk) 22:34, 29 April 2008 (UTC) Mussav (talk) 22:29, 29 April 2008 (UTC)