Digging of the Ubulla Canal
حفر نهر الأبلة
Dijlat al-Awra's tidal rain-channel ran a farsakh, its Basra-side basin called al-Ijana; Umar ordered Abu Musa to dig the Basrans a canal — he began at al-Ijana, led it three farsakhs to Basra, making the Ubulla canal four — then the reach toward al-Hayri silted up. Ziyad, on the diwan under Abdallah ibn Amir, urged completing the dig and was stalled till Ibn Amir left for Khurasan; he resumed Abu Musa's channel to Basra with Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakra in charge, who opened the water racing his horse as it nearly outran him. Ibn Amir returned angry — 'you meant to carry off the canal's fame' — and the estrangement held between their houses for life; before the canal, folk drank from Dayr Qawus on the Tigris, a spot the spirits haunted.
At a glance
- Era
- The Rashidun Caliphate · The Umayyad Period
- Review
- Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it
In space
Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph
The long-form text for this entry has not been written yet. The facts and connections below come from the museum's data.
Connections
- Had participant
- Abu Musa al-Ashari· زياد بن أبي سفيان· Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakra· عبد الله بن عامر
- Occurred at
- Basra
People and things also explored
The Basra Bathhouse Permissions· Digging of the Ma'qil Canal· Mu'awiya's Marsh Grant· Nafi' ibn al-Harith's Walking Grant· Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakra· Basra· Great Mosque of Basra· The Asawira's Settlement at Basra
Sources
- Futuh al-Buldan — al-Baladhuri (Mu'assasat al-Ma'arif edition)
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Digging of the Ubulla Canal”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/digging-of-nahr-al-ubulla/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-13.