About
About Ziyarat Guide
A free guide for people visiting the holy sites of Iraq, especially those visiting for the first time. It covers what to understand, and what to prepare.
How we write and check content
Each statement in a guide is labelled by the kind of claim it is, so you can tell well-established history apart from tradition, reflection or practical advice. Statements that have not yet been checked are marked as needing review.
How to read this guide
Each statement is labelled so you can tell what kind of information it is.
- Historical record
- Widely documented in historical sources.
- Shia belief
- Religious belief held in the Twelver Shia tradition.
- Accounts differ
- Sources disagree. We note this openly.
- Practical
- Visitor logistics. These can change.
We only publish a page as “Reviewed” after a named reviewer has checked it against its sources. Until then, pages are shown as Draft or Awaiting review, and each page lists what still needs checking.
No reviewers have been appointed yet, so no page is currently marked as Reviewed.
Sources we draw on
- al-Shaykh al-Mufīd, Kitāb al-Irshād: The Book of Guidance into the Lives of the Twelve Imams, trans. I. K. A. Howard (London: Balagha Books & Muhammadi Trust, 1981).
- The History of al-Ṭabarī, Vol. XIX: The Caliphate of Yazīd b. Muʿāwiyah, trans. I. K. A. Howard (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990).
- Wilferd Madelung, “Ḥosayn b. ʿAli i. Life and Significance in Shiʿism,” Encyclopædia Iranica, vol. XII (2004).
- Moojan Momen, An Introduction to Shiʿi Islam (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985).
- Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Kitāb al-Manāqib (Book of Virtues).
- Ibn Qūlawayh al-Qummī (d. 368 AH), Kāmil al-Ziyārāt.
- Shaykh ʿAbbās al-Qummī (d. 1359 AH), Mafātīḥ al-Jinān.
- Ziyārat ʿĀshūrāʾ (زيارة عاشوراء), vowelled Arabic text, Arabic Wikisource. Marked as a public-domain text. Accessed 14 October 2026.
- ʿAllāma Muḥammad Bāqir al-Majlisī, Biḥār al-Anwār.
- Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb al-Kulaynī, al-Kāfī, Kitāb al-Ḥujja.
- Shaykh al-Ṣadūq, Kamāl al-Dīn wa Tamām al-Niʿma.
- Shaykh al-Ṭūsī, Kitāb al-Ghayba.
- Abdulaziz Abdulhussein Sachedina, Islamic Messianism: The Idea of Mahdī in Twelver Shīʿism (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981).
- Sunan Abī Dāwūd, Kitāb al-Mahdī.
- The Qurʾān.
- Ziyarat Guide (existing website), ziyaratguide.com, accessed 13 October 2026.
- al-ʿAtaba al-Ḥusayniyya al-Muqaddasa (Imam Hussain Holy Shrine), official website, imamhussain.org, accessed 13 October 2026.
- al-ʿAtaba al-ʿAbbāsiyya al-Muqaddasa (al-Abbas Holy Shrine), official website, alkafeel.net, accessed 14 October 2026.
- al-ʿAtaba al-ʿAlawiyya al-Muqaddasa (Imam Ali Holy Shrine), official website, imamali.net, accessed 14 October 2026.
- Amānat Masjid al-Kūfa al-Muʿaẓẓam (Secretariat of the Great Mosque of Kufa and its shrines), official website, masjed-alkufa.com, accessed 14 October 2026.
- Public map data (OpenStreetMap contributors). Coordinates not yet checked on site.
Contact
Corrections, first-hand updates from the shrines and offers to review content are very welcome.
- info@ziyaratguide.com
- Based in
- Karbala, Iraq