Az Zubayr (Arabic: الزبير) is a city in and the capital of Al-Zubayr District, part of the Basra Governorate of Iraq. The city is just south of Basra.
The name is also sometimes written Al Zubayr, Al Zubair, Az Zubair, Zubair, Zoubair, El Zubair, or Zobier.
The city was named al-Zubayr because one of the Sahaba (companions) of Muhammad, Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, was buried there.[citation needed]
By 2008, the city of Zubayr had a population of around 240,000 people and had grown to merge into the Basra metropolitan area with nearly 3 million inhabitants in total. As in Basra, the municipality of Zubayr currently has a Shia majority and is barely distinguishable from Basra itself. But, contrary to Basra, Zubair is still home to a large Sunni minority and they are still living peacefully and in coexistence with the majority Shia Muslim population.[2]
Az Zubayr has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWh). In winter there is more rainfall than in summer. The average annual temperature in Az Zubayr is 24.5 °C (76.1 °F). About 139 mm (5.47 in) of precipitation falls annually.
| Climate data for Az Zubayr | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 17.5 (63.5) |
19.9 (67.8) |
24.8 (76.6) |
31.1 (88.0) |
37.2 (99.0) |
40.9 (105.6) |
43.1 (109.6) |
43.6 (110.5) |
41.0 (105.8) |
35.4 (95.7) |
26.7 (80.1) |
19.4 (66.9) |
31.7 (89.1) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 6.5 (43.7) |
8.0 (46.4) |
12.2 (54.0) |
17.0 (62.6) |
23.1 (73.6) |
25.7 (78.3) |
27.6 (81.7) |
26.5 (79.7) |
22.7 (72.9) |
18.2 (64.8) |
13.2 (55.8) |
8.1 (46.6) |
17.4 (63.3) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 26 (1.0) |
18 (0.7) |
17 (0.7) |
15 (0.6) |
6 (0.2) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
2 (0.1) |
22 (0.9) |
33 (1.3) |
139 (5.5) |
| Source: Climate-Data.org, Climate data | |||||||||||||
Media related to Az Zubayr at Wikimedia Commons
