NEJEF, or MESHED

This article appears in Volume V19, Page 352 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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NEJEF, or MESHED 'ALI, a town of Asiatic Turkey, in the pashalik of Bagdad, 50 M. S. of Kerbela and 5 or 6 m. W. of the ruins of ancient Kufa, out of the bricks of which it is chiefly built. It stands on the eastern edge of the Syrian desert, on the north-eastern shore of a deep depression, formerly a sea, the Assyrium Stagnum of the old geographers, but in latter years drained and turned into gardens for the town. It is a fairly prosperous city, supplied with admirable water by an under-ground aqueduct from the Hindieh canal, a few miles to the north, which also serves to water the gardens in the deep dry bed. of the former lake. The town is enclosed by nearly square brick walls, flanked by massive round towers, dating from the time of the caliphs, but now falling into decay. Outside the walls, over the sterile sand

plateau

, stretch

great

GREAT

fields of tombs and

graves

GRAVES, ALFRED PERCEVAL (1846— )

, for Nejef is so holy that he who is buried here will surely enter paradise. In the centre of the town stands Meshed (strictly Meshhed) `Ali, the shrine of `Ali, containing the reputed tomb of that caliph, which is regarded by the Shiite Moslems as being no less holy than the Ka'ba itself, although it should be said that it is at least very doubtful whether `Ali was actually buried there. The

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)

of the shrine is plated with gold, and within the walls and roof are covered with polished silver, glass and coloured tiles. The resting-place of `Ali is represented by a silver tomb with windows grated with silver bars and a

door

DOOR (corresponding to the Gr. Bbpa,. Lat. fores or valvae; the English word, with other forms common in allied languages, comes from the same Indo-European stem as the Gr. Obpa and Lat. fares)

with a

great

GREAT

silver lock. Inside this is a smaller tomb of damascened ironwork. In the court before the

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)

rise two minarets, plated, like the dome, with finely beaten gold from the height of a man and upward. While the population of Nejef is estimated at from 20,000 to 30,000, there is in addition a very large floating population of pilgrims, who are constantly arriving, bringing corpses in all stages of decomposition and accompanied at times by sick and aged persons, who have come to Nejef to die. At

special

SPECIAL

seasons the number of pilgrims exceeds many times the population of the town. Nejef is also the point of departure from which Persian pilgrims start on the'journey to Mecca. No Jews or Christians are allowed to reside there. The accumulated treasures of Meshed `Ali were carried off by the Wahhabites early in the 19th century, and in 1843 the town was deprived of many of its former liberties and compelled to submit to Turkish law; but it is again enormously wealthy, for what is given to the shrine may'never be sold or used for any outside purpose, but constantly accumulates. . Moreover, the hierarchy derives a vast revenue from the fees for burials in the sacred limits.
See W. K. Loftus,

Chaldaea

CHALDAEA

and Susiana (1857) ; J. P. Peters, Nippur (1897); B. Meissner, Hirau Huarnaq (1901). (J. P. PE.)

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