The Tradition of Pilgrimage of the Holy Shrines as a Part of the Spiritual Rites of Hajj

The holy shrines of Imam Ali (AS), Imam Hussein (AS), and other Imams buried in Iraq with the construction of great buildings for their graves in the 3rd and 4th centuries AH have gradually attracted all Muslims’ attention.At that time, Baghdad and Kufa were two important departures for the Hajj pilgrimage; and traveling from the eastern Islamic lands such as Iran, Khorasan, and Central Asia, many caravans used to pass through Iraq on their way. Sometimes, they were visiting the two holy shrines of Imam Ali and Imam Hussein. The present descriptive study, enriched with maximum historical evidence including written texts and sources (e.g. Hajj guidelines and travelogues) and ancient pictorial documents (e.g. Hajj certificates and Shiite pilgrimage scrolls), aims to reveal that the pilgrimage of the holy shrines has gradually become associated with the Hajj pilgrimages of some Muslims of the Muslim lands and many of the Hajj caravans passing through Iraq visited the Imams’ shrines in Iraq, especially those belong to Imam Ali and Imam Hussein, as a part of their spiritual rites of the Hajj pilgrimage.