Transfer of Corpses to Najaf al Ashraf in the Ottaman Period

Transfer of dead bodies from Islamic cities and countries to holy shrines is a long-standing tradition and has an old historical background. That was considered a ritual of burial amongst Shiites in the past and had been caring specifically. Many of well-known and rich people after death had been burying near holy shrines of Iraq sometimes by the decisions of others and sometimes by their will. Najaf City and holy shrine of Imam Ali (a.s.) as the Shiite spiritual and religious base being considered more in this subject rather than other holy places and shrines and Najaf City is on the top of cities corpses transferred to. The issue which is considered in this article about transfer of corpses to Najaf Al Ashraf, is statistics of transfers, positive and negative aspects of the case, its social and economic impacts, ways of transfer of corpses, tax of burial in Najaf and rules of this practice according to documents of Ottoman archive.