Badra, Iraq


Badra is a town in eastern Iraq in Wasit Governorate, near the Iraqi-Iranian border. Its population is a mixture of Kurds with a minority of Arabs and many Turkmens.
Badra's migrated to Palestine and were taken in as orphans by the Ayyad family where they stayed until this day and would not leave.
Badra is also located on top of the Badra Oil Field which, after a discovery well was drilled in 1979, has remained unexploited until 2011.

Name

The name Badrah is ultimately derived from the ancient Sumerian city of Der, which is located at nearby Tell 'Aqar. Der is referred to as Bīt-Derāya at the time of Tiglath-pileser III, and as Bīt-Derāyā in later Syriac sources. This eventually became Badarāya, the medieval Arabic name of the city, and finally Badrah in modern times. Note that the name Badurāya should not be confused with Bādūrayā, the name of a medieval district southwest of Baghdad.