Kufa (Arabic,الكوفة al-Kūfah) is a city in Iraq, about 170 kilometres (110 mi) south of Baghdad, and 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000.

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^{[citation needed]}.

The city contains the Great Mosque of Kufa, one of the earliest mosques in Islam, built in the 7th century.

File:Kufa masjid.pdf

See Ancient Mesopotamia.

Ruled by Sassanian Empire as part of Suristan province. See Middle Bih-Kavad.

The Arabs, led by Caliph ʻUmar ibn Khattāb, conquer Iraq and begin ruling Suristan around 637.

ʻUmar ibn Khattāb became the second caliph in 634. After the Arab victory against the East Roman Empire at Battle of Yarmouk in 636, Kūfah was founded and given its name in 637–638 CE, about the same time as Basra. The Companion of the Prophet Saʻd ibn Abī Waqqas founded it as an encampment adjacent to the Lakhmid Arab city of al-Hīrah, and incorporated it as a city of seven divisions. The city was alternately known to non-Arabs as Hīrah and Aqulah before the consolidations of ʻAbdu l-Mālik in 691.

Ali Ghulam Murtaza ( born January 1, 1990) is an Indian First Class cricketer. He was a member of Indian World Team in the Indian Cricket League Twenty20 competition. He bowled wonderfully in ICL games and earned a reputation of a very good left-arm spinner. In IPL 2010, he was a part of the Mumbai Indians squad which lost to Chennai Super Kings in the final. Since he played in ICL he has a one year amnesty period during which he can't represent the Indian cricket team.He is currently looking for a spot in the Indian cricket team. In the 5th edition of IPL, he moves to Pune Warriors India. His father is a cricket coach in Bishop Johnson School & College, Allahabad

Hajji Hazrat Ali bin Bahawal Sheir is a Politician in Afghanistan. He previously served as a military commander for the Northern Alliance in eastern Afghanistan.

Ali was born in 1964 in Kabul to an ethnic Pashai^{[citation needed]} family. He rose to prominence during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. As a commander for Hezb-e Islami Khalis he quickly became an important leader for the Pashai community. Hazrat Ali has also been described as an Afghan Army commander under the Soviet puppet regime. He fled Afghanistan to live in Mashad, Iran, where he is believed to have married an Iranian women.

During the war against the Taliban, Ali is said to have been aligned with Ahmad Shah Massoud. Following the fall of the Taliban Ali joined with two other leaders in the Jalalabad-Tora Bora region, Abdul Qadir and Mohammed Zaman to set up the Eastern Shura, a local provisional government. They were early backers of the first post-Taliban President Hamid Karzai.

The Asia Times reports that, after the fall of the Taliban, Ali's troops executed hundreds of captured Arab prisoners with the complicity of U.S. special forces.