KERBELA

This article appears in Volume V15, Page 754 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: JUN-KHA

KERBELA , or MESHED-IJOSAIN, a town of Asiatic Turkey, the

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

of a sanjak of the Bagdad vilayet, situated on the extreme western edge of the alluvial river plain, about 6o m. S.S.W. of Bagdad and 20 M. W. of the Euphrates, from which a canal extends almost to the town. The surrounding territory is fertile and well cultivated, especially in fruit gardens and palm-groves. The newer parts of the city are built with broad streets and sidewalks, presenting an almost European appearance. The inner town, surrounded by a dilapidated brick

wall

WALL (O. Eng. weal, weall, Mid. Eng. wal, wane, adapted from Lat. vallum, rampart; the
original
- ORIGINAL
O. Eng. word for a wall was wag or tenth)
WALL, RICHARD (1694-1778)

, at the gates of which octroi duties are still levied, is a dirty Oriental city, with the usual narrow streets. Kerbela owes its existence to the fact that IJosain, a son of `Ali, the fourth caliph, was slain here by the soldiers of Yazid, the rival aspirant to the caliphate, on the loth of October A.D. 68o (see CALIPHATE, sec. B, 2). The most important feature of the town is the

great

GREAT

shrine of Ilosain, containing the tomb of the

martyr

MARTYR (Gr. pimp or ľaprvs)

, with its golden

dome

DOME (Lat domus,
house
- HOUSE
- HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
  Gothic
  - GOTHIC
  it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)
; Ital. duomo, cathedral)

and triple minarets, two of which are gilded. Kerbela is a place of

pilgrimage

PILGRIMAGE (Fr. pelerinage, Lat. peregrinatio)

of the Shi'ite Moslems, and is only less sacred to them than Meshed `Ali and Mecca. Some 200,000 pilgrims from the Shi'ite portions of Islam are said to journey annually to Kerbela, many of them carrying the bones of their relatives to be buried in its sacred soil, or bringing their sick and aged to die there in the odour of sanctity. The mullahs, who fix the burial fees, derive an enormous revenue from the faithful. Formerly Kerbela was a self-governing hierarchy and constituted an inviolable sanctuary for criminals; but in 1843 the Turkish
government undertook to deprive the city of some of these liberties and to enforce conscription. The Kerbelese resisted, and Kerbela was bombarded (hence the ruined condition of the old walls) and reduced with

great

GREAT

slaughter. Since then it has formed an integral part of the Turkish administration of Irak. The enormous influx of pilgrims naturally creates a brisk trade in Kerbela and the towns along the route from Persia to that place and beyond to Nejef. The population of Kerbela, necessarily fluctuating, is estimated at something over 6o,000, of whom the principal part are

Shiites

SHIITES (from Arab. shi`a, a party, and then a sect)

, chiefly Persians, with a goodly mixture of British Indians. No Jews or Christians are allowed to reside there.
See Chodzko, Theatre persan (Paris, 1878) ; J. P. Peters, Nippur (1897). (J. P. PE.)

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