The accounts of the foundation of the misrs of Baṣrah, Kûfah, and Fusṭâṭ throw a vivid light upon the requirements, spiritual and architectural, of primitive Islâm. It is recorded that the khalif ‘Umar gave orders to the respective governors of the three places, Abû Mûsâ, Sa’d ibn abi Waqqâs, and ‘Amr ibn al-’Âṣ, that a masdjid al-djamâ’ah should be provided, while each tribe was to have a small mosque for its particular use. At Baṣrah the mosque was marked out (_ikhtaṭṭa_) but not built, and Balâdhuri is careful to add that the people prayed in it without buildings.[395] It was subsequently enclosed with a fence made of reeds, and this fence Abû Mûsâ replaced by a wall of sun-dried brick and roofed it (presumably the qiblah side) with reeds. Ziyâd ibn Abîhi, Mu’âwiyah’s powerful viceroy, enlarged it considerably. His building was of burnt brick and gypsum mortar, and he roofed it with teak.[396] Five columns (the word used is _sawâri_ = masts, the columns were therefore presumably of wood) supported the roof of the qiblah wall; the side walls were of stone, and columns are not mentioned there. The columns were probably of teak like the roof; some of them had four _’uqûd_ = ties, which I take to mean the metal collars which were used to fasten together the different sections of wooden or marble columns. Ziyâd was the first to introduce a maqṣûrah, and he is said to have built a minaret of stone. Al-Hadjdjâdj or his son put in columns made of stone from the mountains of Ahwâz.[397] At Kûfah the mosque was marked out on a high spot before any part of the city had been built. On three sides the ṣaḥn was bounded by a ditch; on the fourth, that which faced towards Mekkah (the front side as it is called by the Arab writers), there was a covering roof (_ẓullah_) which had neither side nor end walls; it was 200 ells long, and was supported by columns of marble which were taken from churches built by Chosroës. The ceiling was like the ceiling of Greek churches.[398] ‘And such’, says Ṭabari, ‘was the mosque (at that time), with the exception of the mosque at Mekkah which they would not imitate.’