Holy Shrine of al-Abbas (a): Difference between revisions

The shrine of 'Abbas (a) is located 378 meters north-east of the [[Holy Shrine of Imam al-Husayn (a)]] and [[Bayn al-Haramayn]] is the place connecting the two shrines. The burial place of 'Ababs b. Ali (a) is located in the middle of the shrine and over it a gifted exquisite Khatam box is placed on which some repairs have been made over time.

Over the box, the silver [[darih]] is placed which was made using four hundred thousand Mithqals (a unit of mass equal to 4.25 grams) of pure silver and eight thousand Mithqals of gold after three years by Iranian artists and the help of [[Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim]] and was installed in 1385/1965. There are four symmetric rawaqs at the four sides of the shrine which are joined at their ends. The ceiling and all the walls the shrine and rawaqs have mirror-works on them made by Iranian artists. Over darih, a great dome is built gold plating which was finished in 1375/1955.

On the two sides of the south portico, there are two minarets. On the south part of the shrine, there is a roofed portico in the middle of which there is a golden door having Mina-works on it made in Isfahan and on its east and west sides, there are two small doors and all the three doors open to the south rawaq.

==== The Golden Portico ====

==== The Courtyard ====

The area of the courtyard of Abu l-Fadl's (a) shrine is 9300 square meters and the area of the whole shrine including rawaqs, the place under the dome and the portico is 4370 square meters. The great courtyard has four porticos. At the top of the north portico there is an epigraph which includes the date 1304/1886. The courtyard has four sides and at each side, there are small rooms which are totally 75.

In 1375/1955, the dome was gold-plated. In that year, Shaykh Muhammad Khatib sent a telegram to the prime minister of Iraq, Muhammad Fadil Jamali and asked to plate the dome with gold. Consequently, gold-plating the dome was done and based on documents available in Awqaf management of Karbala, 6418 bricks of gold have been used on the dome. In the interior of the dome, some verses of the Qur'an are inscribed with mirror-works. The height of the dome is 39 meters from the ground.

There is a water spring surrounding and under the grave of 'Abbas (a). From 50 years ago, the water level has been intact and using its water does not change its level. The water level is one meter above the grave but it does not enter the grave area. The entrance to water channel in the shrine of 'Abbas (a) is currently closed.

Management of the shrine is among important positions between the time of [[Buyid]]s and [[Safavid]]s and at the time of Safavids, it became much more important. Since 10th/16th century , some people living in Karbala have orders from Safavid kings for management of the shrine. During the rule of [[Ottoman]]s in Iraq, names of some managers and servants of the shrines of Imam al-Husayn (a) and 'Abbas (a) were registered in a special record. However sometimes, when the managers are [[Sayyid]], they also have the position of leadership of Alavis and thus become the ruler of Karbala and sometimes they are only managers of the shrine and the leader of Alavis would be someone else. Only towards the end of the rule of Safavids and the beginning of the rule of Ottomans over Iraq, there were non-Alavi managers for the shrine.

* The material for this article is mainly taken from {{ia|[http://fa.wikishia.net/view/%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%85_%D8%AD%D8%B6%D8%B1%D8%AA_%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B3_(%D8%B9) (حرم حضرت عباس (ع]}} in Farsi WikiShia.