Najaf residents brace up for Ashuraa

NAJAF / IraqiNews.com: The people of the holy Shiite city of Najaf have been getting ready since the 1st day of Muharram, the first month on the Muslim Hegira calendar year, to revive the memory of Imam Hussein Ibn Ali, who was killed in Karbala on Muharram 10, 61 (October 10, 680 AD on the Gregorian calendar). “Clans in Najaf pitch pavilions all over the city where they serve foods and drinks for visitors taking part in the commemoration rituals,” historian Dr. Hayder al-Sayed Salman told IraqiNews.com news agency. Najaf, about 160 km south of Baghdad, has an estimated population of 900,600 in 2008, though this has increased significantly since 2003 due to immigration from abroad. The city is one of the holiest of Shiite Islam and the center of Shiite political power in Iraq. Najaf is renowned as the site of the tomb of Ali ibn Abi Taleb (also known as “Imam Ali”), whom Shiites consider to be the righteous caliph and first imam. 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 Imam Ali Mosque is housed in a grand structure with a gilded dome and many precious objects in its walls. “The foods served include timman and the Najafi qimiya (Minced meat with chick-peas and tomato paste) are being poured over rice cooked with saffron. Tea is being served round the clock,” Salman added. Red and black banners are fluttering everywhere atop the hotels, stores, houses and mosques. Roaming the city are funerary processions in what looks like preparations for the 10th day of Muharram, the zenith day of celebrations, in an order arranged by the Husseini Processions Organization to have these groups marching in a neat symmetric system. The processions are varied; part of them comprising dozens of marchers keep chanting poetry in praise of Imam al-Hussein, his brother al-Abbas and other loyalists who were all slain on Muharram 10. “Everyone is clad in black and brandishing their hands and swords in the air while uttering enthusiastic words indicating their willingness to march in the footsteps of al-Hussein’s revolution in the face of injustice,” Salman explained. Other groups of marchers included the procession of the zanjil (an instrument resembling a cat-o’-nine-tails but with sharp chains with which Shiites flog their own backs), the ritual of tatbir (in which Shiites hit their own heads with swords) and a simulation of the Taf battle, in which al-Hussein Ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and considered by Shiites as the third holiest Imam (religious leader), in addition to funerary pavilions and religious sermons. The battle of Taf in Karbala witnessed the killing of Imam al-Hussein, his brother, sons, nephews and friends – all numbering 72 – on the 10th of Muharram at the hands of the 30,000-man army of Yazid Ibn Muaawiya, the second caliph in the Umayyad Dynasty that ruled for more than 90 years. “These processions also include horsemen wearing military attire and helmets and holding swords in hands with infantrymen around them to simulate the army that fought Hussein. The simulating soldiers are clad in red to symbolize Shamar Ibn Thi al-Jawshan, the man who killed al-Hussein,” said Ali Abboudi Mohsen, 45, one of the participants in the festivities. Karbala, with an estimated population of 572,300 people in 2003, is the capital of the province and is considered to be one of Shiite Muslims’ holiest cities. The city, 110 km south of Baghdad, is one of Iraq’s wealthiest, profiting both from religious visitors and agricultural produce, especially dates. It is made up of two districts, “Old Karbala,” the religious centre, and “New Karbala,” the residential district containing Islamic schools and government buildings. At the centre of the old city is Masjid al-Hussein, the tomb of Imam al-Hussein. The Imam Hussien tomb is a