Shia Islam in Iraq 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 two decades after the death of Muhammad. Today, Shia Muslims make up around 55% of the Iraqi population.
Iraq is the location of the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, pilgrimage sites for millions of Shia Muslims.
Imam Ali Mosque, Najaf. One of the holiest sites in Shia Islam.
The Great Mosque of Kufa, formerly the home of Imam Ali, also contains the shrine of Muslim ibn Aqil
Hamdanid territory in 955 during the rule of Sayf al-Dawla
Ayatollah Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei is brought in front of Saddam Hussein after Shia uprisings in 1991.
Al-Kadhimiyya Mosque is a Shi'a Islamic mosque and shrine located in the Kādhimiya suburb of Baghdad, Iraq. It contains the tombs of the seventh and ninth Twelver Shī'ī Imāms, respectively Mūsā al-Kādhim and his grandson Muhammad al-Jawad. 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 and Sayyid Murtadā and Qadi Abu Yusuf al-Ansari.
An illustration of the mosque from 1861.
Al-Kadhimiya Mosque as seen in 1932.
Zarih over the qabr (graves) of al-Kadhim