Kufa

An early Islamic garrison city on the Euphrates, founded within a decade of the Prophet's death, and quickly one of the intellectual capitals of the new civilization: a center of Arabic grammar, Quranic recitation, and early theology. Al-Kindi, the first philosopher of the Arabs, was born here around 801, the son of the city's governor.

Kufa was laid out as a garrison town in 638, tribal quarters radiating from a central mosque and governor's house. It grew fast and stayed quarrelsome. Ali made it his capital and was murdered in its mosque, which left the city permanently bound up with Shia loyalty and with revolt. It was also where Arabic grammar was first systematized, in rivalry with Basra, and the two cities argued over the rules of the language for generations.