Wāsiṭ

Wasit, 'the middle', was built around 702 by the Umayyad viceroy al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf on the west bank of the Tigris, halfway between the garrison cities of Kufa and Basra and across from the old town of Kashkar. In the 14th century Ibn Battuta found fine quarters, orchards and fruit trees there, and a town famed for its learned men. The ruins show a walled brick city some sixteen kilometres around, with a great mosque, a minaret with a tomb and school of the 13th century, and residential districts.

The marshes between Wasit and Basra were the home of the Rifa'i order, founded by Ahmad al-Rifa'i at the village of Umm 'Ubayda, whose following spread through Egypt, Syria and Anatolia and was greatest until the 15th century. In the 16th century the Tigris changed course and Wasit was abandoned, leaving its brick buildings standing in the dry plain.