'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎345r] (692/862)

PORTS AND INLAND TOWNS 537
in a.d. 680. The intolerant Caliph Mutawakkil sought to erase the original
shrine by flooding in a.d. 850, but the Buwayhid amir Adud ad Dawlah
built a magnificent shrine in a.d. 979. By the fourteenth century a little
town some 2,400 paces in circuit surrounded the shrine, and though the
quarrels of its factions nearly ruined Karbala at this period, it recovered in
Ottoman times by continuous benefactions from Persia and India, such as
the Oudh bequest. At times Karbala was dominated by beduin tribes, and
in 1801 it suffered a disastrous sack at the hands of the invading Wahhabis,
who looted the shrines. The religious leaders, mujtahids (p. 327), like
those of Najaf, were ever ready to conspire against the government of
Baghdad, whether Ottoman or British, and the town was ever an asylum
for political offenders and criminals. Faction fights and mob rule often
prevailed, and in 1843 the town suffered its exemplary chastisement by the
Turks and a Turkish garrison was installed. In 1915 Karbala rebelled
against the Turks and remained aloof from the Turko-British war until the
British entered Baghdad. The mujtahids played a great part in the organi
zation of the 1920 rebellion, and of the early opposition to the rule of the
Sunni king Faisal.
General Description (fig. 84).
There is an old town with a new town or quarter to the south. The old
town, which rises slightly to the north-west, is open on the south but sur
rounded on the other three sides by a wall of brick 20-30 feet high with
some twenty-five towers at intervals as bastions, and pierced by five gates.
The streets or lanes are narrow and twisting, and the buildings crowd round
the two great shrines, the Sahan al Husain and the Hadhrat al Abbas,
which are west and east respectively of the great line of shops, formerly a
covered Suq, which forms the principal bazaar traversing the town from
north to south. The Sahan al Husain, containing the tomb of Husain, con
sists of a great courtyard with seven gates and of the Haram or sanctuary
proper within it, which has a gilded dome flanked by two minarets. There
is a third and larger minaret within the outer courtyard, from which a
smaller courtyard juts out. The Hadhrat al Abbas contains the tomb of
Abbas, the half-brother and fellow martyr of Husain; its dome is of glazed
brick and its minarets are gilded. South-west of the Sahan al Husain on
the outskirts of the old town there is the Khaimgah or Khaimehgah, a small
building which marks the site of Husain’s tent before the fatal battle.
The new town immediately adjoins the old and is laid out in rectangular
blocks divided by open streets 20-30 feet broad, running north-north-east to
south-south-west and west-north-west to east-south-east. It contains the
modern buildings such as the sarai, municipal offices, two schools, a small
hospital (80 beds), and police barracks.
Many inhabitants are cultivators in the market-gardens and orchards
round the city, and the extensive bazaars have a considerable commerce in