Kūfa, located on the banks of the Euphrates River in southern Iraq, was founded by Sa‘d b. Abī Waqqāṣ (d. 55/675) following the Muslim victory over the Sassanian army at Qādisiyya in the year 17/638. Originally intended to house Arab tribesmen in seclusion from subject populations, the settlement also served as a base for future conquests in northern Mesopotamia and Iran. In the 1st/7th century, Kūfa witnessed dramatic urban growth accompanied by a well-documented rise in tension that pitted early-comers, who had participated in the initial conquests, against tribal elites (ashrāf) and late-comers (rawādif), who clamored for a larger portion of the state’s newfound wealth. The early-comers had profited from the policies of Abū Bakr (d. 13/635) and especially ‘Umar (d. 23/644) who allotted economic benefits and political posts primarily on the basis of Islamic precedence (sābiqa). When ‘Uthmān became caliph in 23/644, however, the early-comers were politically and economically marginalized and replaced by tribal elites who could command (or purchase) the loyalty of their fellow tribesmen. Over the next decade, Kūfa witnessed a substantial influx of late-arriving tribesmen, the establishment of financial procedures that favored the tribal elites, and a halt in territorial expansion on the two Kūfan fronts of Azerbaijan and Rayy. The volatile environment that resulted from these factors contributed to Uthmān’s murder at the hands of Egyptian early-comers in 35/656 and facilitated ‘Alī’s (d. 40/661) subsequent assumption of the caliphate.

The same political alignments that destabilized Kūfa in the first half of the 1st/7th century persisted into the Umayyad period. Mu‘āwiya (rl. 41–60/661–80) confirmed the authority of the tribal elites and essentially ruled through their auspices, further undermining the political position of the early-comers and accelerating their general economic disempowerment. Over the next century, it was clan leaders with significant wealth and tribal status who dominated Kūfa with the backing of the Umayyad caliphs in Syria and their governors in Iraq (see ). The early-comers continued to clamor for a socio-political order based on Islamic precedence, which they expected would restore their economic rights.They were joined by a growing non-Arab Muslim (mawālī) population that felt systematically discriminated against by Umayyad fiscal policies. The resulting coalition coalesced behind the political claims of the descendants of ‘Alī. The reasons for the particular prominence of the ‘Alids ranged from a belief in the superiority of their knowledge by virtue of their descent from the Prophet (i.e., the early Shī‘a) to a fond remembrance of ‘Alī’s support of early-comer rights and his decision to make Kūfa the caliphal capital.