Najaf
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Location of Najaf, Iraq |
Najaf ( ) is a city in
Iraq about 160 km south of
Baghdad, located at 31.99°N 44.33°E. Its estimated population in 2003 was 585,600 people, though this has increased significantly since 2003 due to immigration from abroad. It is the capital of
Najaf province. It is one of the holiest cities of
Shia Islām and the center of Shia political power in Iraq.
Najaf is renowned as the site of the tomb of (also known as "Imām Alī"), whom the Shia consider to be the righteous caliph and first
imām; however, some believe he is buried at
Mazar-e Sharif in
Afghanistan. The city is now a great center of
pilgrimage from throughout the Shiite
Islamic world. It is estimated that only
Mecca and
Medina receive more Muslim pilgrims.
The
Imām Alī Mosque is housed in a grand structure with a
gilded dome and many precious objects in the walls. Nearby is the
Wādī as-Salām "
Wadi of Peace", claimed to be the largest
cemetery in the Muslim world (and possibly the largest in the entire world), containing the tombs of several prophets. Many of the devout from other lands aspire to be buried here, to be raised from the dead with Imām Alī on
Judgement Day. Over the centuries, numerous hospices, schools, libraries and
Sufi convents were built around the shrine to make the city the centre of Shīˤa learning and theology. Many of these were badly damaged during the rule of
Saddam Hussein, with a highway being driven through the middle of the Wādī'u s-Salām.
Many great Shia scholars both old and contemporary (such as
Allameh Tabatabaei,
Ayatollah Khomayni, and Grand
Ayatollah Alī al-Hussaynī as-Sīstānī) studied in Najaf. This city, along with
Qom in Iran, is considered the centers of the Shia
fiqh "school of faith."
The Najaf area was situated near the
Sassanid city of
Suristan and at the time of the Sassanids was a part of the
Middle Bih-Kavad province of
Persia. The city itself was reputedly founded in 791 by the
Abbasid Caliph Harūn ar-Rashīd.
Under the rule of the
Ottoman Empire, Najaf experienced severe difficulties as the result of repeated raids by Arab desert tribes and acute water shortages caused by the lack of a reliable water supply. The number of inhabited houses in the city had plummeted from 3000 to just 30 by the start of the 16th century.
The city was besieged by the
Wahhabis in the late 18th century. The water shortages were finally resolved in 1803 with the construction of the Hindiyya canal, following which the city's population rapidly doubled from 30,000 to 60,000. Even so, Najaf lost its religious primacy to the
Iranian city of
Qom in the 19th century and was not to regain it until the late 20th century.
The Ottomans were expelled in an uprising in 1915, following which the city fell under the rule of the
British Empire. The sheikhs of Najaf rebelled in 1918, killing the British governor of the city and cutting off grain supplies to the Anaza, a tribe allied with the British. In retaliation the British besieged the city and cut off its water supply. The rebellion was put down and the rule of the sheikhs was forcibly ended.
Najaf under Saddam Hussein
Because of the common religious affinities between Iraq's Shia majority and the Iranians, Najaf was regarded with suspicion by the
Sunnī-dominated regime of
Saddam Hussein, which severely restricted Shia religious activities. (However, a great many Iraqi Shiites fought against Iran in the 1980s and continue to publicly express skepticism about Iran's intentions in their country.) A mass revolt broke out at the end of the
Gulf War in 1991, which was put down by the Iraqi military with considerable brutality and damage to the city. Much of the damage was repaired fairly quickly but great resentment against Saddam's regime lingered for a long time afterwards.
In February 1999, Najaf's most senior cleric,
Muħammad Sādiq as-Sadr, was murdered along with his two sons in Baghdad - the third killing of Shiite clerics in less than a year. Although the Iraqi government claimed to have caught and executed the supposed killers, all Shīia, one of whom was reportedly in prison at the time, many opposition figures and ordinary Shia blamed the killings on Saddam's regime, which was said to be systematically attempting to suppress independent voices in the Shia community. Grand Ayatollah Alī as-Sīstānī succeeded as-Sadr as the city's most senior cleric, but one of his surviving sons,
Moqtada al-Sadr, has assumed a prominent political role despite his relative paucity of formal theological credentials.
Najaf after the fall of Saddam
During the
2003 invasion of Iraq, Najaf was a key target of the invading
United States forces. The city was encircled during heavy fighting on
March 26,
2003 and was captured on
April 3,
2003 by 1st and 2d Battalions,
327th Infantry Regiment, units of the
101st Airborne Division.
The clerical authorities of the
Shīa enclave of
Saddam City in
Baghdad, which claimed autonomy in April 2003 after the
fall of Baghdad, claimed to be taking their orders from senior clerics in Najaf.
On
August 29,
2003 a car bomb exploded during prayers outside the Imām Alī Mosque just as weekly prayers were ending. More than 80 people were killed, including the influential
cleric Ayatollah
Sayyid Muħammad Bāqir al-Ħakīm, the Shīia leader of the
Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). Dozens of others were injured. Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack - Saddam himself, in hiding at the time, denied any involvement in a taped message.On
April 4,
2004, the Mahdi Army attacked the Spanish-Salvadoran base in Najaf, part of a coordinated uprising across central and southern Iraq in an apparent attempt to seize control of the country ahead of the
June 30,
2004 handover of power to a new Iraqi government. This uprising led to the 1st Armored Division's Task Force 2nd Battalion, 37th Armor (2-37 AR) attached to the 2 Armored Cavalry Regiment (2ACR) arriving in the city in the wake of the Spanish withdrawal. The situation aroused grave concerns among the Shia community of Iraq and Iran, as firefights took place within yards of the Kufa Mosque. Some mosques suffered superficial damage in the process, mostly due to Mahdi Army fighters mishandling explosives stored in the Kufa Mosque. Firefights between the Mahdi Army and Badr Brigades took place in May as tensions rose over the Mahdi Army's occupation of the Ali Shrine, looting of the mosques in their control, and illegal prisons and Sharia courts. The Najaf cemetery, the largest cemetery in the world, became a battle ground in May 2004 as M1A1 tanks from 2-37 AR fought Mahdi Army elements on the outskirts of the cemetery. The Mahdi Army stationed several three man rocket propelled grenade
RPG teams in the cemetery, who lived in large tombs to avoid detection from U.S. helicopters and
UAVs.
In August 2004, fighting broke out again between American troops of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, the 1st Cavalry Division's 1st Battalion, 5th US Cavalry Regiment and 2nd Battalion, 7th US Cavalry Regiment and as-Sadr's Mahdi Army. The battle, which was mostly centered around Wādī' as-Salām Cemetery and the southwestern portion of the city, lasted three weeks and ended when senior Iraqi cleric Ayatollah Alī as-Sīstānī negotiated an end to the fighting. Thousands of Mahdi Army guerrillas were killed and considerable damage was inflicted on the old town and cemetery. The main shrines again suffered only superficial damage.
*
Imam Ali International Airport*
List of places in Iraq*
List of holy cities*
Interactive Guide: Najaf -
The Guardian*
Satellite Map of Hazrat Ali mosque in Najaf, Iraq - GoogleAmerican, Interrupted: 14 Months in Iraq by former Army corporal Dan Thompson. Book written by 1st Armored Division soldier while stationed in Najaf, Iraq during the Mahdi Army uprising on FOB Baker and Kufa. [
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