History of the Holy City of Karbala

Ahlam Hassan Jassim Abdul Karim
Supervised by Asst. Prof. Dr. Fawaz Hamdan Abboud

The city of Karbala was founded in ancient times, and is famous for its sacred location in Islam as the place of the shrine of Imam Hussein, peace be upon him, after the events of the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD. The city has developed throughout history as an important religious and cultural site in the Islamic world.
The city dates back to the Babylonian era and this area was a cemetery for Christians before the Islamic conquest. Some researchers believe that the word Karbala means (near God), a word that originated in ancient Babylonian. Some of them believed that reaching knowledge of the ancient history of Karbala may come from knowing the word’s origin and linguistic analysis. It was said that it was derived from the Arabic word (Kor Babylon), meaning a group of ancient Babylonian villages, including Nineveh near the Hindiya Dam, including Ghadiriyah, which is called today (the lands of Al-Hussainiya), then Karbala or Aqar Babylon, then Al-Nawawees, then Al-Ha’ir, which is known today as Al-Ha’ir, as the water heated up around the site of the grave of Imam Al-Hussain when Al-Mutawakkil Al-Abbasi ordered the demolition and irrigation of the grave. Others believe that the history of Karbala dates back to the history of the cities of Tasuh Al-Nahrain, located on the banks of the Balakobas River (the ancient Euphrates of Zatm), and on its land there is an ancient temple for prayer. The word Karbala is composed of the two Assyrian words (Karb), meaning sanctuary, and (Ayl), meaning God, and their meaning is (the sanctuary of God). Others went so far as to say that it is a Persian word of compound origin. From two words: (Kar) meaning work and (Bala) meaning the highest, so their meaning is (the highest work). One of its names is (Al-Taf). It is possible that the word Karbala is derived from the word “karbah” meaning softness, so since the land of this place was soft, it was named Karbala. Or from purity, and it is said that you shake and clean wheat. So it is possible based on this that this land is clean of gravel and weeds, so it was named that. Karbal is the name of the sorrel plant, so it is possible that this type of plant is abundant there, so it was named that way.