Kufa

Kufa is a city in Iraq on the banks of the Euphrates River, about 170 kilometers south of Baghdad and 10 kilometers northeast of Najaf, in Najaf Governorate; a 2003 estimate put its population at around 110,000. Founded in 638 CE under the second Rashidun caliph Umar, Kufa is revered as one of Shia Islam's holy cities alongside Najaf, Karbala, Mashhad, Kadhimiya, Samarra and Qom. Its Great Mosque, which also holds shrines to Muslim ibn Aqeel, Hani ibn Urwa and Al-Mukhtar, once housed Ali ibn Abi Talib, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, the first Shia Imam and fourth Sunni Rashidun caliph, who made Kufa the final capital of his caliphate. Kufa later served as the founding capital of the Abbasid Caliphate and produced the influential Kufa school of Arabic grammarians during the Islamic Golden Age; the Kufic script takes its name from the city. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/