Introduction

In April 2003, as stunning images of crowds congregating in Firdos Square in Baghdad to pull down Saddam Hussein's iconic statue beamed across the world, an unanticipated phenomenon was taking shape just further south. The American-led invasion was launched only a week after the tenth day of the Islamic month of Muharram – the day of commemoration for the martyrdom of Husayn ibn ‘Ali, Shi‘ism's third Imam, and his companions on the plains of Karbala in 680 ce (al-Modarresi 2014; Paton 2017). Almost immediately, the fall of Saddam Hussein led to an explosion in pilgrimage – or ziyarat – to the Shi‘a holy shrine cities in Iraq, opening the doors for Shi‘ites to visit sacred sites that had been closed to them for decades. Ziyarat to these Shi‘a shrines was seen as a life-threatening activity for Iraqis under the Baath regime, and strict restrictions meant that few from outside Iraq were able to undertake the pilgrimage. Yet in the weeks and months after the fall of Saddam Hussein, reports were published on the sea of pilgrims arriving in Iraq, undeterred by a still-lingering threat of instability, fostering the sense that Shi‘a Muslims, so long deprived of the important centres of their narrative historiographies, could return ‘home’. ‘The pilgrims’ path was walked in secret for over three decades. Hiding in alleyways and skirting fields, once a year Shi‘ites would try to make their way to the holy city of Karbala under threat of arrest and persecution. But no more,’ one report celebrated (Santora 2003: 11).

Indeed, the numbers back this sense of renewed vigour for ziyarat to Iraq, with many millions multiplying each year that passed. In April 2003, American news reported that up to 2 million people were converging on Karbala, though some senior clerics did not publicly perform rituals due to security concerns (Holgun 2003). By 2017, reports placed the numbers at up to 20 million pilgrims for the commemoration of Arba’in, which marks forty days after the death of Husayn ibn ‘Ali.

As the volume of pilgrims arriving in Iraq grew, so too did the focus around the world on what pilgrimage and sacred sites mean to Shi‘a Muslims. In particular, American newspapers – many of which were consumed by local American Shi‘ites – revealed a mix of awe and confusion at the new spectacle emerging, one that had never been experienced or witnessed at such a scale.