Also kufa; properly kuffah. [ad. Arab. quffah, circular basket or pannier, circular wicker boat.] A circular coracle of wickerwork covered with skins, used on the Euphrates. See Herodotus I. § 194.
1800. J. Rennell, Geogr. of Herodotus, 264. These [boats] were of a circular form, and composed of willows covered with skins…. The same kind of embarkation is now in use in the lower parts of the same river, under the name of kufa, that is, a round vessel.
1827. Tennyson, Poems by Two Brothers, 65. Where down Euphrates, swift and strong, The shield-like kuphars bound along.
