KUFA, a city of Irak Arabi, once a large and populous city, founded by Omar after the ruin of Ctesiphon, and the residence of the caliphs, until, owing to the vices of the inhabitants, the seat of government was removed to Bagdad. Little is left of this place but the mosque where Ali was assassinated, a plain edifice, in the form of a square, with a court in the centre, surrounded by a cloister. There is but one entrance, through an elegant gateway; and the walls being high, and flanked with bastions, give it more the appearance of a castle than a place of worship. The Mahomedans hold in high veneration the spot on which this mosque has been built; and their imams or priests, to add to its sanctity, have invented many wonderful stories concerning it. Four miles north of Meshed Ali.