Al-Najaf is considered sacred by Shi'a Muslims.
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The city is now a center of pilgrimage throughout the Shi'ite Islamic world. It is estimated that only Mecca and Medina receive more Muslim pilgrims. As the burial site of Shi'i Islam's second most important figure, [9] the Imam Ali Mosque is considered by Shiites as the third holiest Islamic site.
Nearby is the Wadi-us-Salaam cemetery, the largest in the world. The Al-Najaf seminary is one of the most important teaching centres in the Islamic world. Ayatollah Khomeini lectured there from to Najaf, alongside Karbala , is considered a thriving pilgrimage destination for Shia muslims and the pilgrimage industry in the city boomed after the end of Saddam Hussein's rule. The average annual temperature is Archaeological discoveries show the existence of a populace dating back to the 1st century BC.
Najaf possesses one of the largest burial grounds in the vicinity for Christians.
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The centuries following have proven this to also be a city with a multicultural and religious people. Mohammed al-Mayali, director of Inspectorate Effects of the province of Najaf, states "the excavation on the graves, which we have been working on for years, confirm that "Najaf" contains the largest Christian cemetery in Iraq, with a cemetery area of acres.
We have found indications of Christianity on the graves through representations of crosses and stones with Christ-like engravings. There are also relics that date back to the Sassanid period. Also discovered in the excavation was proof of a thriving glass industry. Pots were decorated with the cross. Wadi-us-Salaam in Najaf was a holy cemetery for Jewish and was Najaf called at that time Baniqia, and could be this is the first name of Najaf area. The name Baniqia also was found in some texts which tell that in one day Abraham visited this village and stayed couple of days, then he continued in his journey from Mesopotamia to Arabia.
In Islam , the city is considered to have started with Ali who instructed that his burial place should remain a secret, as he had many enemies and he feared that his body might be subjected to some indignity. According to legend, the body of Ali was placed on a camel which was driven from Kufah.
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The camel stopped a few miles west of the city where the body was secretly buried. It is narrated that more than a hundred years later the Abbasid Caliph, Harun al-Rashid , went deer hunting outside Kufah, and the deer sought sanctuary at a place where the hounds would not pursue it.
During this period Najaf was called Meshhed Ali. It is a handsome place and well peopled; all the inhabitants, however, are of the Rafiza or Shiah sect. There is no governor here, except a sort of tribune. The inhabitants consist chiefly of rich and brave merchants. About the gardens are plastered walls adorned with paintings, and within them are carpets, couches and lamps of gold and silver.
Within the city is a large treasury kept by the tribune, which arises from the votive offerings arrived from different parts: for when anyone happens to be ill, or suffer under any infirmity, he will make a vow, and thence receive relief. The garden is also famous for its miracles; and hence its believed that the grave of Ali is there.
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Of these miracles the "night of revival" is one: for, on the 17th day of the month Rejeb, cripples come from different parts of Fars, Room, Khorasaan, Irak, and other places, assemble in companies from twenty to thirty in number. They are placed over the grave soon after sun-set. People then, some praying, some reciting the Quran, and others prostrating themselves, wait expecting their recovery and rising, when about night, they all get up sound and right.
This is a matter well known among them: I heard it from a creditable person, but was not present at one of those nights. I saw, however, several such afflicted persons, who had not yet received, but were looking forwards for the advantages of this "night of revival". In the 16th century, Najaf was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. The Safavid dynasty of Iran maintained continuous interest to this Shia site. During the Ottoman—Safavid War —39 , they were twice able to capture the city, but lost it again to the Ottomans in Under the rule of the Ottoman Empire , Najaf experienced severe difficulties as the result of repeated raids by Arab desert tribes and the Persian army with acute water shortages causing lack of a reliable water supply.
The number of inhabited houses in the city had plummeted from 3, to just 30 by the start of the 16th century. When the Portuguese traveller Pedro Texeira passed through Najaf in , he found the city in ruins, inhabited by little more than people. The water shortages were finally resolved in when the Euphrates made its way to the city once again.
The shift in the river's flow was the product of a century-long effort by the Ottomans to shift the flow of the river, so as to deprive marsh-dwelling tribes like the Khaza'il of the watery environment that allowed them to evade state control. These long-term efforts rendered successful the construction of the Hindiyya Canal in , which further shifted the flow of the Euphrates. These hydrological shifts were to have religious implications. Most notable was the consolidation and spread of Shi'ism. As the shrine city of Najaf gained access to water again, its notables and holy men began to wield considerable power in the area.
The Ottomans were expelled in an uprising in , following which the city fell under the rule of the British Empire. But the military has previously said that looting would have been far worse had it not been for the presence of its troops. The military also said in that it had discussed setting up the base with Iraqi archaeologists in charge of the site.
The site has been closed to the public since Facing mounting criticism from archaeologists in Iraq and around the world, troops vacated it in summer It was reopened this June, despite warnings from experts that the ruins might suffer further damage unless they were first restored and given proper protection.
It was all destroyed and looted. He recited the history of ancient Babylon with the enthusiasm of someone who had been waiting for years to share his knowledge. The gates of the museum were locked. The king turned Babylon into one of the wonders of the ancient world. Historians say he was prouder of his construction projects than he was of his many military victories. Several efforts to restore Babylon have been announced in the past six years, but none has made progress. State Department to restore the site.
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The United Nations is also trying to name the place a World Heritage site , a designation that would provide support and protection. American troops and contractors caused substantial damage to the archaeological site at Babylon in Iraq after the invasion, a new UN report says. But UN cultural officials stress the damage did not begin when the Americans arrived, or end when they left.
The US says looting while Babylon was under their control would have been worse had they not been there at all. It comes after five years of investigations by Iraqi and international academics, some of whom have previously been critical of damage caused when US troops were based at Babylon in and The 4,year-old city south of Baghdad was once home to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The Unesco report says troops and contractors dug long trenches through the ancient ruins, bulldozed hilltops and drove heavy vehicles over the fragile paving of pathways which were once held sacred.
He said dragon carvings from the Ishtar Gate seemed to have been vandalised by looters while the area was under the control of American forces.
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Looting and trading on the black market have continued since the site was handed back to Iraqi control in late , Unesco says. The organisation has pledged to move towards naming Babylon a World Heritage Site — though officials say the extent of the damage means it is too early to assess how much restoration and protection work will cost.
Unesco previously declined to list Babylon as a World Heritage Site on the grounds that restoration and rebuilding work carried out there under the regime of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had badly distorted the original ruins. The Iraqi government plans to open Babylon to visitors on 1 June, according to news reports. The reopening of Babylon also coincides with suggestions that modern additions to the site introduced by Saddam Hussein should eventually be removed. Iraqi deputy prime minister Dr Barham Saleh criticised the reconstruction of Babylon during a trip to London.
The Art Newspaper was the only media representative present when digitised historic records about Iraq were handed over to Dr Saleh and future cooperation with Iraqi archivists and curators was discussed. Some of these bricks bear the name of Saddam Hussein, following in the footsteps of Nebuchadnezzar II, who stamped his inscription on the original bricks in around BC. Many archaeologists regret the s reconstruction of Babylon, although the modern walls do now help to protect the foundations of the ancient structure and give visitors an impression of the site.
Babylon was recently visited by British Museum curator Dr John Curtis, who was there on February, with transport and armed protection provided by American forces. The trip was under the auspices of Unesco, which is expected to release his report very shortly. Dr Curtis found considerable evidence of damage caused by the occupation by US military forces in and subsequent neglect. Meanwhile, in Baghdad, the Iraqi government has transferred responsibility for the state board for antiquities and heritage from the ministry of tourism to the ministry of culture. This follows a row in February when minister of tourism Dr Qahtan al Jibori ordered the reopening of the National Museum, against the advice of Dr Amira Edan, who was chairman of the state board of antiquities and heritage and also director of the museum.
She was then sacked as chairman, while retaining her position as museum director. The museum was partially reopened, although access is still normally restricted to VIPs and groups.
Last month rumours circulated that Dr Edan had received a threatening telephone call, telling her to resign as director of the National Museum. BABYLON, Iraq — After decades of dictatorship and disrepair, Iraq is celebrating its renewed sovereignty over the Babylon archaeological site — by fighting over the place, over its past and future and, of course, over its spoils. Time long ago eroded the sun-dried bricks that shaped ancient Babylon, the city of Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar, where Daniel read the writing on the wall and Alexander the Great died.
Colonial archaeologists packed off its treasures to Europe a century ago. Saddam Hussein rebuilt the site in his own megalomaniacal image. American and Polish troops turned it into a military camp, digging trenches and filling barricades with soil peppered with fragments of a biblical-era civilization. Now, the provincial government in Babil has seized control of much of Babylon — unlawfully, according to the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage — and opened a park beside a branch of the Euphrates River, a place that draws visitors by the busload.
It has begun to charge a fee to visit the looted shell of the grandiose palace that Mr. Hussein built in the s, along with the hill it stands on. And it has refurbished a collection of buildings from the Hussein era and rented their rooms out as suites. The fight over ancient Babylon is about more than the competing interests of preservation and tourism.
Rashid said. The agencies clashed over the reopening of the National Museum in Baghdad in February, and then as now, the tourism ministry, which favored reopening, prevailed. His government made control of ancient sites a provision in the security agreement with the United States that took effect in January.