Al-Kadhimiya Mosque ( ar, مَسْجِد ٱلْكَاظِمِيَّة, Masjid Al-Kāẓimiyyah) or Al-Kadhimayn Shrine ( ar, حَرَم ٱلْكَاظِمَيْن, Ḥaram Al-Kāẓimayn) is a
Shi'ite
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most n ...
Islamic
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the mai ...
mosque
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
and
shrine
A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy sacred space, space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor worship, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, Daemon (mythology), daem ...
located in the
Kādhimayn suburb of
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
,
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
. It contains the tombs of the seventh and ninth
Twelver
Twelver Shīʿīsm ( ar, ٱثْنَا عَشَرِيَّة; '), also known as Imāmīyyah ( ar, إِمَامِيَّة), is the largest branch of Shīʿa Islam, comprising about 85 percent of all Shīʿa Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers t ...
Shī'ī Imāms, respectively
Mūsā al-Kāẓim and his grandson
Muhammad al-Jawad
Muhammad ibn Ali al-Jawad ( ar, محمد بن علي الجواد, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Jawād, – 29 November 835) was a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the ninth of the Twelve Imams, succeeding his father, Ali al-Rida. ...
. Also buried within the premises of this mosque are the historical scholars
Shaykh Mufīd and
Shaykh Naṣīr ad-Dīn aṭ-Ṭūsi.
Directly adjacent to the mosque are two smaller shrines, belonging to the brothers
Sayyid Raḍī (who compiled
Nahjul-Balāghah) and
Sayyid Murtadā and Qadi Abu Yusuf al-Ansari.
History
The mosque is built on the site of the Qureish cemetery, which was created with the original
Round City of Baghdad
The Round City of Baghdad is the original core of Baghdad, built by the Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur in 762–766 CE as the official residence of the Abbasid court. Its official name in Abbasid times was City of Peace ( ar, مدينة السلام, M ...
in 762 AD. This cemetery became the burial site of the seventh
Twelver
Twelver Shīʿīsm ( ar, ٱثْنَا عَشَرِيَّة; '), also known as Imāmīyyah ( ar, إِمَامِيَّة), is the largest branch of Shīʿa Islam, comprising about 85 percent of all Shīʿa Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers t ...
imam
Musa al-Kadhim
Musa ibn Ja'far al-Kazim ( ar, مُوسَىٰ ٱبْن جَعْفَر ٱلْكَاظِم, Mūsā ibn Jaʿfar al-Kāẓim), also known as Abū al-Ḥasan, Abū ʿAbd Allāh or Abū Ibrāhīm, was the seventh Imam in Twelver Shia Islam, after hi ...
in 799 AD, followed by his grandson, the ninth imam
Muhammad al-Jawad
Muhammad ibn Ali al-Jawad ( ar, محمد بن علي الجواد, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Jawād, – 29 November 835) was a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the ninth of the Twelve Imams, succeeding his father, Ali al-Rida. ...
, in 834 AD. The current building dates to the restoration carried out by the
Safavid
Safavid Iran or Safavid Persia (), also referred to as the Safavid Empire, '. was one of the greatest Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia, which was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often conside ...
shah
Ismail I
Ismail I ( fa, اسماعیل, Esmāʿīl, ; July 17, 1487 – May 23, 1524), also known as Shah Ismail (), was the founder of the Safavid dynasty of Safavid Iran, Iran, ruling as its King of Kings (''Shahanshah'') from 1501 to 1524. His re ...
from 1502–1524. It was further ornamented by the
Ottoman sultan
Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman I ( ota, سليمان اول, Süleyman-ı Evvel; tr, I. Süleyman; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the West and Suleiman the Lawgiver ( ota, قانونى سلطان سليمان, Ḳ ...
after he
conquered Baghdad in 1534. Since then, it has continued to be kept in a state of good repair.
Repairs and maintenance
Inner structure
Repairs to the crumbling structure of the main courtyard of the mosque and its surrounding rooms were carried out in three phases, spanning a period of four months, before the end of 2007.
The project entailed the stripping off of the old crumbling walls throughout the courtyard, the addition of various reinforcements to the walls and ceilings, as well as maintenance on the electrical wirings throughout the mosque.
Once the inner structure was completed, the floors and walls were then plated in various kinds of marble.
Updates to the cooling units of the mosque began in late 2008, and new water filtration units were installed on November 28, 2008.
Construction on the new ladies entrance to the mosque, that is ''Bāb al-
Fāṭimah'' ( ar, بَاب ٱلْفَاطِمَة), began in late 2008, along with the construction work for new rooms to the mosque meant for serving refreshments to
pilgrim
A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) who is on Pilgrimage, a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journey (often on foot) to some place of special significance to the a ...
s.
Outer structure
Among the earliest of repairs done to the mosque, after the fall of the regime of
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...
, were repairs done to one of the entrance gates of the mosque known as ''Bāb al-
Qiblah
The qibla ( ar, قِبْلَة, links=no, lit=direction, translit=qiblah) is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, which is used by Muslims in various religious contexts, particularly the direction of prayer for the s ...
'' ( ar, بَاب ٱلْقِبْلَة).
The gate and the outer wall had to be entirely refurbished because of the severe neglect they had withstood, and took seven months to complete, having started in early September 2006.
The golden dome over the grave of
Muhammad at-Taqī
Abū al-Ḥusayn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ( ar, أحمد بن عبد اللّه بن محمد بن إسماعيل), better known as Muḥammad al-Taqī (born , died , Salamiyah, Syria, Imam: –) is the ninth Ismāʿ ...
was re-gilded and unveiled to the public in March 2008, during the birthday celebrations of
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
and his descendant,
Ja‘far as-Sādiq.
Repair work on the dome over the grave of
Mūsā al-Kādhim
Musa ibn Ja'far al-Kazim ( ar, مُوسَىٰ ٱبْن جَعْفَر ٱلْكَاظِم, Mūsā ibn Jaʿfar al-Kāẓim), also known as Abū al-Ḥasan, Abū ʿAbd Allāh or Abū Ibrāhīm, was the seventh Imam in Twelver Shia Islam, after h ...
began in early August 2008, during the birthday ceremonies of
Husayn ibn ‘Alī,
‘Abbās ibn ‘Alī, and
‘Alī ibn Husayn.
Recent timeline
Gallery
See also
*
Holiest sites in Shia Islam
Both Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims and Shia Islam, Shia Muslims agree on the three holiest sites in Islam being, respectively, the Masjid al-Haram (including the Kaaba), in Mecca; the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, in Medina; and the Temple Mount, Al Aqsa Mosqu ...
*
Iraqi art
Iraqi art is one of the richest art heritages in world and refers to all works of visual art originating from the geographical region of what is present day Iraq since ancient Mesopotamian periods. For centuries, the capital, Baghdad was the Med ...
*
List of mosques in Baghdad
Baghdad, located in Iraq, was once the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate and a center of Islamic advancements. This is a list of mosques in Baghdad from different dynastic periods. Today, there are 912 Jama Masjids in Baghdad which conduct Friday ...
*
Mesopotamia in the Quran
Karbala or Kerbala ( ar, كَرْبَلَاء, Karbalāʾ , , also ;) is a city in central Iraq, located about southwest of Baghdad, and a few miles east of Lake Milh, also known as Razzaza Lake. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Governorat ...
*
Shia Islam in Iraq
Shia Islam in Iraq ( ar, الشيعة في العراق) has a history going back to the times of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first imam of Shia Islam and fourth caliph of Sunni Islam who moved the capital of the early caliphate from Medina to Kufa (or ...
References
External links
History of the Shrine at Kadhimayn
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kadhimiya
Shia shrines
Kadhimiya
Kadhimiya ( ar, ٱلْكَاظِمِيَّة, al-Kāẓimiyyah, ) or Kadhimayn (, ) is a northern neighbourhood of the city of Baghdad, Iraq. It is about from the city's center, on the west bank of the Tigris. 'Kadhimiya' is also the name of on ...
Mausoleums in Iraq
Tourist attractions in Iraq
Mosques in Baghdad
Safavid architecture
Islamic holy places
Shrines in Iraq
Al-Kadhimayn