Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas

Founded in 638 CE as a military garrison, Kufa became one of the most consequential cities of early Islam — capital of Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib, birthplace of the Iraqi legal tradition, a center of Arabic grammar and hadith, and the city where the Abbasid revolution was launched.

Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas (c. 595–674 CE) was one of the earliest converts to Islam and the commander who led the Muslims to victory at al-Qadisiyyah in 636 CE, breaking the Sassanian Empire and opening Iraq and Persia. He founded Kufa and stayed neutral in the First Fitna.