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IMAM AL-KADHIM'S AND AL-JAWAAD'S SHRINE  

     Anyone approaching Baghdad (Iraq) from north or west will be stirred and excited by the sight of the four golden minarets at Kadhimain, the shrine of Imam al‑Kadhim and Imam al‑Jawaad.  They are respectively the 7th and the 9th of the Twelve Imams, at whose tombs people implore their intercession with Allah on their behalf, for the forgiveness of our sins and the fulfillment of their needs.

      Preceded by structures gutted by fire, the present shrine dates back 500 years ago and has been kept in excellent repair. The edifice represents the restoration of Shah Ismail I (1502‑1524), though when the Turkish sultan, Suleiman the Great, captured Baghdad and remained there for four months in 941H (1534AD), he visited this sacred place, and is said to have contributed to the further ornamentation of the Shrine. The tiles for the massive double Domes, however, were provided in 1211H (1796AD) by Shah Muhammad Khan, who was the first of the Persian Qajar dynasty. In 1287H (1870AD), Nasr al‑Deen Shah had these golden tiles repaired on one of the domes and on the minarets. It is interesting that the dates of all these alterations are clearly indicated by inscriptions.

      Upon reaching the sanctuary, one finds himself in front of a boundary wall that surrounds massive wooden gates, then he enters an immense precinct (courtyard called Sahan صـحـن ) surrounded on the periphery by rows of rooms each called “Eewan” إيــوان  In this courtyard there exists the burial place of Al-Shareef Al-Radhi,  ألشــريف ألـرضي compiler of Nahjul Balaaghah, along with that of Sheikh Mufeedشـيخ مـفــــيد     , their graves are surrounded by a silver plated ironwork.

      Just as in Karbala shrine, the structure of the grave complex is located in the middle of the precinct, surrounded by large square shaped structures called “Rawaaq”.  From there you pass through another massive decorated door to enter the structure with the two high domes on top.  Inside, the domes are lined with geometrically arranged mirrors reflecting a dazzle of light in cleverly designed and befitting patterns.  In addition it boasts 4 gold plated large minarets along with another four petite minarets.  All are covered with gold.

      The enclosure of the grave is located in the middle of this grave-site.  It has golden windows around, with sparkling illumination.  It really is something to behold.

History and Highlights:  

      The Imams lived in the early days of Baghdad. There were cemeteries to the north‑west that went by various names —that at the Syrian Gate, that of the Abbasi Gate, or that of the Straw Gate.[1]  The two Imams were buried immediately to the west of this latter cemetery, but by the time Ya'qoobi wrote, the whole northern district was designated in a general way as the cemetery of the Quraish.

      A building of some sort was recognized at an early date as marking the tomb of Imam Al‑Kadhim and that it was surrounded by a wall.

      After the Abbasi Khilaafah had tumbled under the authority of the officers of their armies, )the Turkic mercenaries and soldiers of fortune(, there evolved a rising of the Buwayhis in Persia.  In 335H (946AD) the Buwayhi ruler, Mu'izz al-Dawla, set up al‑Muq'tadir as the nominal Khalifa while he exercised the actual authority himself. Ibn Atheer has related that “the Buwayhis, though Zaidi in orientation, were devotees of Ahlul Bayt.  They were firmly convinced that Benu Umayya and the Abbasi were usurpers of a throne that rightfully belonged to others."[2]    While retaining for themselves the authority and privilege of the government of the provinces, the Buwayhis saw to the following:

▪    They proclaimed the first ten days of the month of Muharram as a period of public mourning for Imam Al-Husain,

▪    They frequently enriched the sanctuary at Kadhimain with their gifts,

▪    The Khalifa Tai' is reported to have led the Friday Prayers in the Kadhimain mosque,[3] and it was during this period that the four Shi'a great works of the Tradition (Hadith, etc.) were compiled.  For instance:

      Kulaini, who died in Baghdad in 328H (939AD), compiled Al-Kaafi (the Compendium of the Science of Religion)

      Al-Siddooq came to Baghdad in 355H (966AD), devoting himself to teaching and writing. He wrote `Every Man His Own Lawyer' (Mun Laa Yah'dharhu Al-Faqeeh).

      Al‑Toosi also came to teach in Baghdad, where he wrote the remaining two of the four great books of Traditions that lie at the basis of Shi'a theology and jurisprudence, `The Purifying of the Rules (Tah'dheeb al‑Ah'kaam) and the `Insight into Differences in Traditions' (Al‑Istibsaar).

      During these times friction between the Shi’as and the Sunnis (mainly Hanbali) were not infrequent in Baghdad. In one of these disturbances in 443H (1051AD) the Sunni leader was killed in a fight that had ensued when the Shi’as ventured to put an inscription complimentary of Ali above one of the city gates. The Sunnis were aroused so much after their leader's funeral that they went as a mob attacking the hallowed Shrine of al-Kadhimain, plundering the tombs, and carrying off the gold and silver lamps and the precious curtains which adorned these sanctuaries.  The rioters continued their ruthless works next day by setting fire to the buildings. Thus the great teak‑wood domes standing so majestically above the shrines of the Imams Al-Kadhim and Al-Jawaad were burned to the ground.[4]  The fact that the domes were at first of teak‑wood has something to do doubtless with the number of times they were burned.  Beside the burning of the structure, houses of the Shi'a doctors, bankers, administrators, engineers (which were in the wealthy Karkh side of Baghdad) were plundered by the mob then put to the torch.  About 30,000 Shi'a were brutally slain in the process.  These Shi’as were the brains and  the cream of the society, the very educated.  Schools were not spared either.  The malicious attackers were bent on more destruction, now they went after the precious irreplaceable Shi'a Islamic libraries putting them to utter destruction, burning so many irreplaceable books (just imagine, no less than 80,000 volumes, written in Arabic, Persian, Greek, Hindi, and Chinese languages were lost!).

      It was shortly after the burning of the Shrine in 443H (1051AD) that the Seljuk Sultans displaced the Buwayhis rule as military autocrats in Persia, and “Protectors” of the Khalifa in Baghdad. The Seljuks  learned what they knew of Islam in the distinctively Sunni atmosphere of Bukhara.  Nevertheless, when they came to Baghdad, no injury was done to the Shrine at Kadhimain. And when Sultan Malik Shah visited it in 479H (1086AD), the shrine had apparently been repaired from the damages of the fire of thirty‑five years earlier.[5]

      About 100 years later the enormous domes of the shrine had again been destroyed by fire, we find that its repair was regarded as of such a great importance as to be the one and only enterprise that the short lived Khalifa Zahir had been able to undertake!  And Ibn Tiktaka who mentions the domes’ repair in his Kitab al‑Fakhri,[6] is known to have succeeded his father as supervisor of the sacred towns of the Shi’as in the vicinity of Baghdad, so that it is possible that the minority community, while by no means at liberty, may have enjoyed certain prescribed and restricted rights. Their headquarters however, were no longer in Baghdad but in Hilla, and greater importance was given to Najaf and Karbala as places of visitation.

The Mongol Terror   

      When the Mongols came with their overwhelming force in 656H (1258AD), they wrought almost complete devastation in and around Baghdad.  However, the holy cities of the Shi’as were spared except that of Kadhimain which suffered devastation.  It may have been during the subsequent siege of the fortress on the eastern side of the Tigris that the deputation of Shi’as from Hilla arrived and arranged with Hulagu Khan هـولاكـو خان  for the special protection of Najaf and Karbala. However that may be, we know that the city of Baghdad was utterly ruined by the Mongols, and that the tombs of Kadhimain were burned. “Nearly all the inhabitants, to the number, according to Rasheed ad‑Din, of 800,000 (Maqrizi says 2,000,000) perished; and thus passed away one of the noblest cities that had ever graced the East —the Cynosure of the Muslim world, where the luxury, wealth and culture of five centuries had been concentrated... The booty captured, we are told, was so great that Georgians and Tartars succumbed under the load of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, rich stuffs, gold and silver vessels, etc., while as to the precious vases and porcelain from China, and those made in the country of iron and copper, they were deemed of lesser value, and were broken and thrown away! The soldiers were so rich that the saddles of their horses and mules and their most ordinary utensils were inlaid with precious stones, pearls and gold. Some of them broke off their swords at the hilt and filled up the scabbards with gold, while others emptied the body of a Baghdadi, refilled it with gold, precious stones and pearls, and carried it off from the city.[7]

      The death of the last of the Abbasi Caliphs, Musta'sim ألمـسـتــــعـصـم  has been so celebrated in literature that what actually happened is obscure.  There are numerous accounts of how Hulagu Khan was disgusted when he saw that in his avarice the Khalifa had gathered gold which he had been unwilling to spend either in defense of the city or to effect favorable terms of capitulation. Marco Polo relates the story that when Hulagu Khan entered Baghdad he found to his astonishment a town that was filled with gold and silver, and in his indignation he gave orders that the avaricious Khalifa should be "shut up in this same town, without sustenance; and there, in the midst of his wealth, he soon finished a miserable existence." [8]

      But the life of Caliph's Wazir was spared and he retained his post as Wazir, the reward doubtless of his dubious loyalty.  Various prominent Persians, as distinguished from Arabs or Turks were appointed to important positions in the new administration of affairs, and among the first buildings to be rebuilt was the Shrine of the two Imams, at Kadhimain[9].

      After the fall of the last of the Abbasi Caliph, Baghdad was never rebuilt on its former scale of grandeur. The Il‑Khans, who were the descendants of Hulagu, held the city for 82 years, not as a capital, however, but merely as the chief town of the province of Iraq. It was near the close of their period of authority that the traveler Mustawfi visited Baghdad 740H (1339AD), and at that time he mentioned seeing the Shrines of al‑Kadhim and al-Jawaad.  He observed that Kadhimain was a suburb by itself, about six thousand paces in circumference.[10]

After the Mongol:  The horror of Timur Leng   تـيـــــمـور   

      About that time the Mongol tribe of Jula'ir wrested the power from the Il‑Khans, and their chief, Sheikh Hasan Buzurg, made his residence in Baghdad in 741H (1340AD), as the town best suited for his tribal headquarters.

      Fifty odd years later, in connection with his widespread conquests, Timur conquered Baghdad and spent three months in Baghdad. It happened to be in the summer that he besieged and captured the city.

      The horrors of Timur Leng's taking the city of Baghdad are described in graphic detail. So thoroughly had all avenue of escape been closed that when the wind accelerated the fire, flames filled the air, there were many people who threw themselves into the water, to escape the fire or sword.  Individual soldiers in bands and of the troops had been each commissioned to each get a head, but some who were not content with one head, they got all they could and tied the heads to their belts!  It is mentioned, however, that some of the men of learning and rank were granted Timur's protection and shared his bounty, but the general carnage was hideous. When the inhabitants had been thus almost annihilated, their habitations were dealt with. Only the mosques, the schools, and the dormitories were spared.  Accordingly, we read that Timur left Baghdad on account of “vile odor of the carcasses of the dead.” [11]

      Nevertheless, when Timur took his departure, we are told that he ordered that the city should be rebuilt. The shrine at Kadhimain, however, was not restored.  After the death of Timur, there was a brief reoccupation of Baghdad by savage tribes, the Jula'irs, who were displaced by the “Black Sheep”  ألـخـروف ألأسـود Turkomans, who held the city from 814-874H (1411‑1469AD). They in turn were driven out by their rivals, the “White Sheep” ألـخـروف ألأبـيـض   Turkomans.  It was therefore after a long period of neglect, when the city had been held by successive generations of semi-savage tribes, that Shah Ismail I, of the Safawi dynasty captured Baghdad in 914H (1508AD), and it was in 925H (1519AD) that he completed the rebuilding of the Shrine at Kadhimain much as it stands today.

      We are told that frequently several thousand visitors attend the Shrine in one day, sometimes up to 40,000. If viewed from a point of vantage, this Shrine with its twin domes of gleaming gold is one of the most beautiful sights in Baghdad; and if studied in its historical associations throughout the last eleven hundred years, it affords a thrilling resume of the changing fortunes of the far‑famed city of Arabian Nights.

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