BASRA (also spelt BTJSRA, the BASSORAH of the Arabian Nights), the name of a vilayet (pop. [ 1920] 785,600) and of the third most important town in `Iraq and its port (pop. [1927], 85,000) . The original city was founded by Caliph Omar in A.D. 636 at Zobeir, about 8m. from the modern town. Bassorah was famous in the time of Harun al-Rashid but declined in impor tance with the decay of the Abbasid caliphs. As time went on the canals were neglected and finally as the silt accumulated all communication with the Persian gulf was cut off. The town was taken by the Turks in 1668 and has since undergone many changes of fortune till, finally during the World War, Basra once more came to its own as the port whereby communication was kept up between Mesopotamia and India. Many improve ments have been effected since, and both town and port are grow ing in importance.
In the following table we give the tonnage figures for the port of Basra in thousands of tons, the trade of Abadan being about three times as great. Apart from these two outlets Iraq has no trade channel on the gulf, other merchandise passing either by caravan, car or aeroplane. The principal export from Basra is dates, but there is growing trade in wheat from Mosul, which is likely to increase when communications by rail in the north are improved.
Year Imports Exports Total Tonnage192o-21 455 7 462 1921-22 374 66 400 1922-23 354 3o6 66o 1923-24 400 488 888 1924-25 313 685 1925-26 594 An aeroplane service is being developed, for Basra lies on the air line from Europe to India ; it is also one of the links in the Imperial wireless chain, and is in touch with Cairo. Much atten tion has been paid to the health of the city, which now possesses a well equipped hospital (the Maude Memorial hospital), and some progress has been made in rebuilding and paving the town and also in carrying out a survey of the neighbourhood.
See besides the general works of reference and the annual Colonial Office reports, F. E. Crow, The Cultivation of Dates in Mesopotamia.
(L. H. D.-B.) a department of eastern France, formed origin ally after the French Revolution and resuscitated in 1919. From the war of 1870-71 until that of 1914-18 it was included in the German imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine (q.v.), of which it formed the north-eastern portion. It is bounded on the east by the Rhine, which runs in a general north-north-easterly direction, north by the Bavarian Palatinate, north-west by the department of Moselle, west by that of Vosges and south by that of Haut-Rhin.
The Rhine is joined within the department by the I11, which fol lows a long northward course parallel to the main river and is joined at Strasbourg by the Bruche, the fertile valley of which cuts to the west of the Hochfeld massif (1098 metres) in the south-west corner of the department. Beyond Saverne, the Zorn comes in from Moselle, and flows east until joined by the Moder, when it turns north-east parallel to the Rhine before joining it. A similar tendency is to be seen in the lower course of the Sauer which rises over the northern border in the Palatinate. Here also rises the Lauter, which forms the northern frontier for some twelve miles. Structurally the area is best understood as part of Alsace, the region between the Vosges and the Rhine, with this important point of difference from Haut-Rhin—that the hills to the west, and with them the boundary, are nothing like so definite. From the south-west corner at Saales, it is true, the steep wooded Hanks of ancient hills that form a prolongation of the Vosges reach heights of over I,000 metres (as in the Donon), but beyond the Zorn valley begins the broken country which constitutes the north-western portion of the department, including the rectangular lobe which it pushes west to embrace a portion of the upper Saar valley. Historically this region, with its heavily forested Triassic sandstones, has ranked as a thinly peopled "zone of difficulty"; and the importance of the pass by Saverne to Lorraine was there fore greatly enhanced. A wide strip between the hills and the Rhine is composed of rich alluvial soils, with fertile stretches of loess (Kochersberg) between Saverne and Strasbourg. Notably the ancient thoroughfare from Bavaria around the north of the Black Forest finds its natural end here in the patches of loess, the last of a long series from Central Europe.
Population is densest in and about Strasbourg which, with its unique system of canals, is the great industrial, commercial, educa tional and administrative centre of the department : it is scantiest in the Forest of Haguenau, in the Vosges and along the north-west border. Strasbourg (q.v.) derives its importance from its site at the natural limit of Rhine navigation (though it lies west of that river, on the Ill) and within reach of the historic routes to Lor raine and the Paris Basin. The Col de Saverne concentrates canal, road and rail traffic along this line. To the north the Moder valley carries the railway from Haguenau to the Saar. The Rhine is fol lowed, though at a distance of from 2-5 m., by the main line to Mannheim, with branches to Haguenau and Karlsruhe. Most of the towns of the department are either on the plain or at the edge of the hills, but all are dwarfed by the capital. Strasbourg had 170,794 inhabitants in 1931 : other chief towns are Schiltigheim Haguenau Bischheim (10,432), Selestat (9,377), Bischwiller (7,590) and Saverne (7,487) . The depart ment is divided into 8 arrondissements, 35 cantons and 561 com munes. The area is 3,508 sq.km.; pop. (1931) 688,242.