Najaf

                 Najaf

Najaf  or Al-Najaf al-Ashraf  is a city in central-south Iraq about 160 km (100 mi) south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2013 was 1,000,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate. It is widely considered the third holiest city of Shia Islam, the Shi'ite world's spiritual capital, and the center of Shi'ite political power in Iraq.

Al-Najaf is considered sacred by Shi'a Muslims. An-Najaf is renowned as the site of the tomb of Caliph ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib. Sunnis consider ‘Ali the fourth Rashidun (rightly guided Caliphs). The city is now a center of pilgrimage throughout the Shi'ite Islamic world.  As the burial site of Shi'i Islam's second most important figure, the Imam Ali Mosque is considered by Shiites as the third holiest Islamic site.

 The Imam ‘Ali Mosque is housed in a grand structure with a gold gilded dome and many precious objects in the walls. Nearby is the Wadi-us-Salaam cemetery, the largest in the world. It contains the tombs of several prophets and many of the devout from around the world aspire to be buried there, to be raised from the dead with Imām ‘Alī on Judgement Day. Over the centuries, numerous hospices, schools, libraries and Sufi convents were built around the shrine to make the city the center of Shīʻa learning and theology.

The area of An-Najaf is located 30 km south of the ancient city of Babylon, and 400 km north of the ancient city of Ur. The city itself was reputedly founded in 791 [AD], by the Abbasid Caliph Harūn ar-Rashīd, as a shrine to ‘Alī bin Abī Ṭālib. Najaf, alongside Karbala, is considered a thriving tourist destination for Shia muslims and the tourism industry in the city boomed after the end of Saddam Hussein's rule.




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