Najaf Revered for Its Shiite Shrine

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040413/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_najaf&cid=540&ncid=1480

<snip>
Shiites in Iraq (news - web sites) and around the world revere Najaf, an ancient city of Islamic scholars. They also revere the gold-domed shrine at its center: the burial site of Imam Ali, Shiism's greatest saint.

The sensitivity of the site is so high that officials of the U.S.-led coalition and Shiite leaders struck a deal last year that coalition forces will not enter the neighborhood near the shrine, where an armed Shiite force is in charge of security.


Al-Najaf al-Ashraf, or Honorable Najaf as the more pious call it, has been a seat of Shiite Muslim learning since the 11th century. As the burial place of Imam Ali, cousin and son-in-law of Islam's 7th century Prophet Muhammad, even the soil of the city is considered holy by Shiites.

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A sign of the city's international status are the four "marjaas" — top Shiite clerics who live there. "Marjaa" means "object of emulation," the highest rank in the Shiite clerical hierarchy.

[Tempest]

1. $50 says the U.S. bombs it anyway n/t

[mmm]

2. That is an excellent article. Brief and informative.