Imam Husayn Mausoleum
— — a courtyard the long walk arrives at.
Not only on a wall.
“A great walled shrine in the old city of Karbala, holding the tomb of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of the Prophet, who fell on this ground in 680. The gold dome and twin minarets show first from the date palms outside town, then the courtyard opens, paved in pale stone and shaded against the desert sun. For Arba'een at the end of Safar, pilgrims walk in from Najaf, eighty kilometres south, and the city fills past counting. Inside, the silver lattice around the cenotaph is dark with the prints of hands.
Imam Husayn Mausoleum, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Imam Husayn Shrine stands at the centre of the old city of Karbala in central Iraq, in the Karbala Governorate about a hundred kilometres south-west of Baghdad. It marks the burial place of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and third Shia Imam, who was killed at the Battle of Karbala on the tenth of Muharram in the year 680 CE (61 AH). The shrine complex of dome, twin minarets, prayer halls and outer courtyard has been destroyed and rebuilt many times across the centuries, and is administered today by the Imam Hussain Holy Shrine board.
Two dates govern the shrine's calendar. Ashura on the tenth of Muharram commemorates the death of Husayn, with black banners and mourning processions through the city. Forty days later, on the twentieth of Safar, the Arba'een pilgrimage closes the mourning period. Walkers come from across southern Iraq and especially from Najaf, eighty kilometres to the south, on foot along the highway. The annual gathering is among the largest peaceful assemblies in the world, with estimates in recent years running past twenty million across the week.
Inside the courtyard, pilgrims circle the central cenotaph chamber, which is enclosed in a silver lattice known as the zarih. The chamber holds the tomb itself; the silver lattice was renewed most recently in the 2010s by Iranian craftsmen and is dark in places with the prints of hands. Men and women enter through separated gates, and the courtyard offers shaded prayer space, cold-water fountains and free meals from charitable kitchens. The shrine of Husayn's half-brother Abbas stands about four hundred metres east, and pilgrims commonly visit both in one walk.