On August 29th, 2003, a huge car bomb went off in the central Iraqi town of Najav, killing more than 100 people, including the Shi’ite cleric Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim. Coming hard on the heels of an equally devastating explosion at the UN headquarters in Baghdad, it emphasised the dangers inherent in the reconstruction of Iraq, and the tensions within the country, many of them derived from the country’s political and religious past.
It was in this region, then known as Mesopotamia, that some of the most significant and tragic events of early Islam occurred. The three towns of Kufa, Najav and Kerbala, which all lay relatively close to each other, south of Baghdad, became pivotal to what is now known as the Shia branch of Islam.
The Sunni-Shia schism in Islam can be traced back to the issues that arose over the leadership of the Muslim community shortly after the death of the Prophet Mohammed in AD 632.
Since Mohammed’s only daughter, Fatima, could not step into her father’s shoes, three caliphs (deputies) assumed control for the brief period AD 632-656. Some, however, refused to recognise them. Known as the Shias, they were followers of Mohammed’s charismatic son-in-law, Ali ibn Abi Talib (AD 600-661).
The word ‘Shia’ is an abbreviation of the phrase ‘Shiat Ali’, meaning the ‘partisans of Ali’. Arguing that only the blood line could be the recipient of Mohammed’s divine guidance, they believed the Prophet had designated Ali as his political successor and had imparted to him the power of interpreting religious knowledge. Ali and his descendants were therefore the only rightful successors of the Prophet.
Their opponents, the Sunnis, supported the view that the Prophet’s legitimate successor could be chosen by man and should be an elected member of the Prophet’s own tribe.
In AD 656, after the assassination of Uthman, the third caliph, Ali ascended to the caliphate. Seven months after taking charge, he moved the capital of the caliphate from Medina in Arabia to Mesopotamia.
Apart from Mecca and Medina themselves, the most important urban centres of the empire at this time were Basra and Kufa in Mesopotamia, and Damascus in Syria.
Mecca was not an option for the new capital: a volunteer army of 3,000 warriors had been raised there to oppose Ali. This army then captured and occupied Basra in southern Mesopotamia, a city which had originally acknowledged Ali’s authority. Damascus too became a centre of strong opposition to Ali.
Ali would not choose Medina for his capital, fearing that the City of the Prophet, which already had been plunged into a storm of civil strife, would be plundered, its people massacred and its government would collapse. He also wanted it to be saved from from destruction or desecration in future wars. If Islam was to remain in pristine condition, then Medina, the fountain head of the teachings of the Koran, needed to remain a spiritual capital only. In any case, although Medina had pledged allegiance to his cause, support for Ali there was minimal.
In Kufa, though, on the western bank of the Euphrates, about 170 km from Baghdad, Ali had a strong following. His choice of this city as the new capital was in particular a recognition of the efforts made by the people of Kufa in restoring law and order to the region and for their success in recapturing Basra after sending reinforcements at a critical time in Ali’s career. As a result, he took an unpretentious residence there in 657, transferring his government from Medina to Kufa. Kufa now became the new capital of Islam.
Yet his actions in abandoning the Prophet’s city for Kufa were called into question. Ali proposed to Muawiyah, his rival in Damascus, a compromise solution for the succession, to which the latter appeared to agree. The two leaders would each nominate a suitable successor, who would subsequently resign to leave room for a third man, acceptable to both sides. Ali’s nominee resigned, but Muawiyah refused to withdraw his own nominee for the caliphate. Then Muawiyah instigated the murder of Ali, who was stabbed to death while praying at a mosque in Kufa. In this, the second-oldest mosque in Iraq, can still be seen the pulpit where Ali was murdered.
Following their master’s instructions for his burial place, Ali’s followers tied his body to a camel and let it roam in the desert until it finally rested 11 kilometres north-east of Kufa, in Najav.
Here Ali was buried and a shrine erected. It was to become one of the most famous in the Muslim world. The town, today with a population of about 560,000, has been a pilgrimage centre ever since.
The divide between the Sunnis and Shias was to amplify between Ali’s second son, Hussein, and Muawiyah’s son, Yazid I, who succeeded his father in AD 680. Hussein refused to swear allegiance to Yazid. To Hussein, Yazid, the son of his father’s assassin, could never represent Islam as it would have been blasphemous to accept a situation arising from the power of brute force. This scenario threatened to jeopardise the survival of the whole religion. Recognising that Islamic unity was at stake, Hussein decided to confront Yazid’s army. Expecting to gather support for his views, he trekked across the desert with seventy or so followers until he came across Yazid’s 4,000 supporters near Kerbala. After attempting to force him to surrender and cutting him off from water, Hussein and his followers were killed by Yazid’s men.
Hussein, defiant to the end, died with a sword in one hand and a Koran in the other. According to tradition, his decapitated body was buried in a spot near the battlefield. There is also a sanctuary in honour of one of Hussein’s followers, Abbas, who attempted to breech the enemy and fetch water.
To Shi’ite Muslims, the battle at Kerbala exemplifies the clash of good and evil, the virtuous battling against the wicked. Hussein exposed and challenged the illicit means of gaining power in the empire but he did this at the expense of his life.
Each year, in the Muslim month of Muharran, large numbers of pilgrims gather at the Kerbala shrine and perform processions, passion plays and other commemorations of Hussein’s martyrdom.
Shias therefore regard Sunnis as secular usurpers whilst Sunnis see Shias as heretics.
Today, the Shia towns of Iraq remain a huge magnet for pilgrims flocking from all over the world; and they remain flashpoints, tragic reminders of the past.
Corinne Atkins travelled with Geoff Hann from Hinterland Travel. Tel: 01883 743 584.