Samarra

The city of Samarra is situated on the bank of the river Tigris some sixty miles from the city of Baghdad. The city is of outstanding importance because of its two shrines. Beneath the golden dome are four graves, those of Imam Ali Al-Naqi (10th Imam) peace be up on him and his son, Imam Hasan Al-Askari (11th Imam) peace be up on him. The other two are of Hakimah Khatoon, the sister of Imam Ali Al-Naqi who has related at length the circumstances of the birth of Imam Al-Mahdi (as) and the fourth grave is of Nargis Khatoon, the mother of Imam Al-Mahdi (as), peace be upon him. The second shrine marks the place where Imam Al-Mahdi (as) went into concealment. It has a dome that is distinguished for the soft delicate design that is worked in blue tiles, and beneath it is the Sardab (cellar) where the Imam is said to have disappeared.

In Samarra the caliphs busied themselves building palace after palace, on both sides of the river, and at a cost that estimated as 204 million Dinars, which was too much. Samarra was so beautiful and modern.

Mustawfi who wrote in the fourteenth century, takes pain to mention with sympathy how the Caliph Mutawakkil enlarged Samarra, and in particular, how “he built a magnificent Kiosk  and gave it the title of the Ja'fariyyah (his name being Ja'far). Shortly after his death, his Kiosk was demolished, so that no trace of it now remains. Samarra itself, at the present time, only a restricted portion is inhabited.”

The restricted portion that was still occupied in the fourteenth century was approximately the same as the modern Samarra, and was part of the “Camp of Mu'tasim.” Here the Imams, Ali Al-Naqi and his son, Hasan Al-Askari were imprisoned and poisoned and hence they were called the Askariyan, or the “Dwellers in the Camp.” It was here also that both of them were buried.

On 22 February 2006, explosions occurred at the mosque, effectively destroying its golden dome and severely damaging it. At around 8 am on 13 June 2007, operatives belonging to terrorist group in Iraq destroyed the two remaining 36 m (118 ft)-high golden minarets flanking the dome's ruins. But now the golden dome and the minarets have been restored and the shrine reopened to visitors.