Cities of Iraq: En-Najaf

The city of En-Najaf (An-Nezzhef, Novartf) is located in the south of the country, about 160 km south of Baghdad.

According to the chronicles, it was founded by Khalifa Harun Al-Rashid in 791. N. NS. This is another sacred city of Muslim-Shiites and the location of one of the main shrines Islam – the tomb of the Califa and the first Imam Shiites Ali, the adoptive son and the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad. Ali and his son Hussein (who is his mausoleum located in Kerbel) were spiritual heirs and successors of the Prophet, so Shiites worship them almost the same as Muhammad himself. It is not surprising that Enzaf is a recognized object of religious pilgrimage (by the number of pilgrims, the city is inferior only to Mecca and Medina) and one of the most important centers of Shiism.

The main monument of the city is an obscured ornamented wall with quotes from the Quran Mausoleum Imam Ali with a luxurious library of religious texts and a meeting of jewelry and carpets. The Mosque Imam Ali Mausoleum complex is considered one of the most beautiful in the East, and the Giant Cemetery of Wadi As-Salaam (Valley of the World) – the largest in the Islamic world (and perhaps beyond him too). Nearby are the graves of several other Islamic prophets, many hospitals, schools, libraries and Sufi monasteries, which turned the city to the center of Shiite theology. However, during the reign of Hussein, many historical buildings were destroyed or badly damaged – it was enough to say that the highway was laid through the Wadi center.