page_title: Karbala
section_title: Early modern
hierarchical_section_title: Karbala / History / Early modern
caption_attribution_description: Mosque in Karbala (1932) Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection CALL NUMBER: LC-M31- 14369
context_page_description: Karbala or Kerbala is a city in central Iraq, located about 100 km southwest of Baghdad, and a few dozen miles east of Lake Milh. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Governorate, and has an estimated population of 700,000 people.
  The city, best known as the location of the Battle of Karbala in 680 CE, or the shrines of Imam Husayn and Abbas, is considered a holy city for Shi'ite Muslims, in the same way as Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. Tens of millions of Shi'ite Muslims visit the site twice a year, rivaling Mecca and Mashhad by the number of pilgrims annually. The martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali is commemorated annually by millions of Shi'ites. Up to 8 million pilgrims visit the city to observe ʿĀshūrāʾ, which marks the anniversary of Husayn's death, but the main event is the Arbaʿīn, where up to 30 million visit the graves. Most of the pilgrims travel on foot from all around Iraq and more than 56 countries.
context_section_description: Like Najaf, the city suffered from severe water shortages that were only resolved in the early 18th century by building a dam at the head of the Husayniyya Canal. In 1737, the city replaced Isfahan in Iran as the main centre of Shia scholarship. In the mid-eighteenth century it was dominated by the dean of scholarship, Yusuf Al Bahrani, a key proponent of the Akhbari tradition of Shia thought, until his death in 1772, after which the more state-centric Usuli school became more influential.
  The Wahhabi sack of Karbala occurred in 21 April 1802 (1216 Hijri) (1801), under the rule of Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad the second ruler of the First Saudi State, when 12,000 Wahhabi Muslims from Najd attacked the city of Karbala. The attack was coincident with the anniversary of Ghadir Khum event, or 10 Muharram. This fight left 3,000–5,000 deaths and the dome of the tomb of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of Muhammad and son of Ali bin Abi Talib, was destroyed.  The fight lasted for 8 hours.
  After the First Saudi State invasion, the city enjoyed semi-autonomy during Ottoman rule, governed by a group of gangs and mafia variously allied with members of the 'ulama. In order to reassert their authority, the Ottoman army laid siege to the city. On January 13, 1843 Ottoman troops entered the city. Many of the city leaders fled leaving defense of the city largely to tradespeople. About 3,000 Arabs were killed in the city, and another 2,000 outside the walls (this represented about 15% of the city's normal population). The Turks lost 400 men. This prompted many students and scholars to move to Najaf, which became the main Shia religious centre. Between 1850 and 1903, Karbala enjoyed a generous influx of money through the Oudh Bequest. The Shia-ruled Indian Province of Awadh, known by the British as Oudh, had always sent money and pilgrims to the holy city. The Oudh money, 10 million rupees, originated in 1825 from the Awadh Nawab Ghazi-ud-Din Haider. One third was to go to his wives, and the other two-thirds went to holy cities of Karbala and Najaf. When his wives died in 1850, the money piled up with interest in the hands of the British East India Company. The EIC sent the money to Karbala and Najaf per the wives' wishes, in the hopes of influencing the Ulama in Britain's favor. This effort to curry favor is generally considered to have been a failure.
  In 1915, Karbala was the scene of an uprising against the Ottoman Empire.
  In 1928, an important drainage project was carried out to relieve the city of unhealthy swamps, formed between Hussainiya and the Bani Hassan Canals on the Euphrates.
  Defense of the City Hall in Karbala - a series of skirmishes fought from April 3 to April 6, 2004 between the Iraqi rebels of the Mahdi Army trying to conquer the city hall (in the memories of Polish soldiers referred to as City Hall) in the center of Karbala, and the defending Polish and Bulgarian soldiers Multinational Division Center-South.
  In 2003 following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Karbala town council attempted to elected United States Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Lopez as Mayor. Ostensibly so that his marines, contractors, and funds couldn't leave.
  On April 14, 2007, a car bomb exploded about 600 ft (180 m) from the shrine, killing 47 and wounding over 150.
  On January 19, 2008, 2 million Iraqi Shia pilgrims marched through Karbala city, Iraq to commemorate Ashura. 20,000 Iraqi troops and police guarded the event amid tensions due to clashes between Iraqi troops and Shia which left 263 people dead (in Basra and Nasiriya).
caption: Mosque in Karbala (1932)
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