Al-Kadhimiya Mosque

Shrine complex in the Kadhimiya suburb of Baghdad holding the tombs of the seventh and ninth Shia Imams, Musa al-Kadhim and his grandson Muhammad al-Jawad. The site began as a cemetery for the family of the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur, founded alongside the original Round City of Baghdad in 762 CE; Musa al-Kadhim was buried there in 799, followed by al-Jawad in 834. Also entombed within the complex are the noted scholars al-Shaykh al-Mufid and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, with the brothers al-Sharif al-Radi and al-Sharif al-Murtada buried in adjoining shrines. The present structure dates to a restoration by the Safavid Shah Ismail I in the early 16th century, further embellished after the Ottoman conquest of Baghdad in 1534. Its two matching gold-covered domes and four large gilded minarets, rising 35 meters above the roofline, make it one of Iraq's most recognizable landmarks. The mosque has repeatedly been targeted during the sectarian violence of the 2000s, including a March 2004 Ashura bombing that killed over 75 people and further attacks in 2007–2009 that killed well over 100 pilgrims combined.

Photographs

Al-Kadhimiya Mosque (shrine of Imam Musa al-Kadhim and Imam Muhammad al-Jawad) in Baghdad, Iraq.

Photo by Jafaralshamma (English Wikipedia), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons