With passage of time...

With passage of time, instead of saying al-Ghariyyayn, the people started calling the place as al-Ghari. Even Najaf in the early days was called al-Ghari because of being adjacent to it. When the Shi`ah of `Ali (a.s) became the attendants of the Shrine, they started constructing shacks and rooms in the surroundings of the shrine for their residence. The population of the place kept increasing and soon it assumed the proportion of a city.

From Najaf to Syria there was a desert track and the danger of brigands was always there for the wayfarers. Because of this danger, the emirs and monarchs had constructed imparts around the city. This way renovated and improved as the need arose. Therefore, the first one to construct the Mausoleum of Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s) was `Adud al-Dawlah Fanakhusrow during the years 367 to 372 H and the boundary wall for the city.

In 400 H, the vizier of Sultan al-Dawlah al-Daylami, Abū-Muhammad ibn Sahlan, demolished the first rampart and constructed a wider and stronger compound wall. Ibn al-Athir writes: “Abū-Muhammad Sahlan fell ill. When the sickness increased he made a vow that if he was restored to health, he would build a compound wall around the Mausoleum of Amir al-Mu’minin (a.s). Therefore, he recovered his health and he issued orders for the construction of the wall.

The project was completed the same year, 400 H.”[1] The last time the rampart was renovated in the period of Fath `Ali Shah Qajar (expired 1250 H) by his vizier Nizam al-Dawlah al-Isfahani, but most of this wall has been demolished because of the expansion of the city. The population of Najaf consists of mainly the Shi`ah. A major portion of the population consists of the students of the disciplines of Islamic Studies who come from various countries in the world.

Although Najaf had always been the center for learning, but when Shaykh al-Ta’ifah Abū-Ja`far al-tūsi shifted his residence from Baghdad, because of trouble from the people there, to Najaf, the foundations for the Najaf were laid and with the felicity of madinat al-`ilm it remained the center of imparting knowledge! [1] Al-Kāmil fit-Tārīkh, Vol 7, Page 942 Previous…