The Authenticity of the Accounts about the Places Associated with the Miracles of Imam Ali (pbuh) in Iraq

Some historical sources and narration sources of the Shi’a attribute many miracles to Imam Ali (pbuh). The belief in the occurrence of such miracles led to building shrines in the places associated with them to which this paper refers as the places associated with the Miracle of Imam Ali. In Iraq, there are a number of shrines, the most important of which are, ‘’Mashhad-al-Shams’’ in Hilleh, ‘’Jomjomeh Shrine’’ in Babil, Buratha Mosque in Bagdad, and ‘’Qattarah’’ of Imam Ali near Karbala. Introducing a brief account of each of these four places, and analyzing and contrasting the narrated traditions in ancient Shiite narration sources on the Miracles of Imam Ali (pbuh), the paper tries to investigate the degree of the authenticity of these places and see whether or not these narrations apply to them. The results of this investigation show that there are many contradictions and differences concerning the place in which these miracles occurred, and which contributed to setting up these shrines, so that the geographical location of these places can hardly correspond to the existing narrations.