Imam Ali shrine (Najaf)

The Imam Ali shrine at Najaf, the Haydariyya sanctuary over the grave of Ali ibn Abi Talib ¹.

The court measures 84 m on its east and west sides, 74 m north and 75 m south; the north and east sides carry fifteen iwans each, the west and south fourteen, every iwan holding a cell built to lodge students. Five gates serve it: the great east gate, the main one, facing Najaf's Souk al-Kabir; the Bab al-Tusi to the north, named for Shaykh al-Tusi (d. 460 AH) and leading to his street, mosque and tomb; the Bab al-Qibla south; and the Bab al-Sultani west, opened in 1279 AH under Sultan Abdülaziz ¹.

The grave bears a teak chest inlaid with carved mother-of-pearl, ringed by a steel grille then a silver one, and above it a dome rising 35 m on a base some 50 m around and nearly 16 m across. The golden iwan door was set up about 1219 AH at the cost of Haj Muhammad Husayn Khan al-Isfahani, later replaced by an enamelled gold door; two more doors were installed in 1283 AH at Lutf Ali Khan's expense and in 1287 AH during Naser al-Din Shah's visit, both replaced in 1376 AH by two gold doors funded by Haj Muhammad Taqi al-Tihrani. Inside the haram stand two silver doors of 1316 and 1318 AH at the head side, and a sixth gold-mounted door of 1341 AH ¹.

Behind the riwaq lies a treasury of precious gifts; in 1934 Agha Oghlu, professor of Islamic history at the University of Michigan, proposed opening it as a public museum, opposed by Ayatollah Abu'l-Hasan al-Isfahani for fear of tampering. Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi commissioned the sanctuary's mirror-work at his own expense for some 12,000 dinars ¹.