The city was founded at the beginning of the Islamic era in 636 and began as a garrison encampment for Arab tribesmen constituting the armies of the Rashid Caliph Umar. A tell a few kilometers south of the present city, still marks the original site which was a military site. While defeating the forces of the Sassanid Empire there, the Muslim commander Utbah ibn Ghazwan erected his camp on the site of an old Persian military settlement called "Vaheštābād Ardašīr", which was destroyed by the Arabs. The name Al-Basrah, which in Arabic means "the over watching" or "the seeing everything," was given to it because of its role as a military base against the Sassanid Empire. However, other sources claim the name originates from the Persian word Bas-rāh or Bassorāh meaning "where many ways come together."