Kufa, Iraq
Al-Hannanah Mosque
Hussain ibn Ali
Al-Hannanah Mosque, also called the Mosque of the Head (Masjid ar-Ra's), stands on the road between Najaf and Kufa, Iraq, near the grave of Kumayl ibn Ziyad. Tradition holds that the ground here mourned the Ahl al-Bayt twice: once as the coffin of Imam Ali passed by during his funeral procession, and again when the severed head of Imam Hussain was set down at this spot on the journey from Karbala to Kufa after his martyrdom, at which point a sound like a grieving camel is said to have risen from the earth. The name Hannanah ("the weeping" or "the yearning") comes from this second tradition; other accounts hold that the mosque preserves skin removed from Hussain's body after Karbala. Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq is reported to have stopped and prayed at this exact spot whenever traveling between Kufa and Najaf, explaining that it was where his grandfather's head had rested. The current mosque was founded in 462 AH (1069-70 CE), with later Safavid-era patronage attributed to Shah Abbas I of Persia.
Al-Hannanah Mosque
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