Al-Maḏār

Al-Madar lies in the Basra region of southern Iraq, among the waterways and marshes leading toward the Persian Gulf.

Basra was an important port linking Mesopotamian river routes with the Gulf and the Indian Ocean. The Ottomans took the city in 1546, but authority remained contested among local leaders, tribal forces, the Ottomans and their Safavid rivals. Portuguese merchants traded in Basra, though they did not conquer the city. In the seventeenth century its commercial connections included Portuguese, Dutch and English trading establishments.