The Bedouin Arab tribe of Al-Mughamis, a branch of the Banu'l-Muntafiq inhabiting the area between Kufa and Basra, established their rule over Basra in the early fifteenth century.[3] From 1436 to 1508 de facto control was in the hands of the Moshasha, a tribal confederation of radical Shi'ites found mainly on the edges of the marshes at the border of the Safavid province of Arabestan (present-day Khuzestan).[3]