The global tour | I was in Iraq
Hello everyone, I am Shen Dianqi, a field traveler who travels the world and pays attention to Chinese people around the world.
On Friday afternoon, I headed to kadhimiya, one of the most important Shiite mosques in Baghdad.
Before I went, I looked up the bombings of the mosque in previous years, and there have been nearly 10 since 2003.
This can't help but make my chrysanthemums tighten... In hesitation, I decided to go and see the mosque again.
1. Head to the old city of Shiite Baghdad, where bombings are common
On Friday afternoon, I headed to kadhimiya, one of the most important Shiite mosques in Baghdad.
Before I went, I looked up the bombings of the mosque in previous years, and there have been nearly 10 since 2003.
This can't help but make my chrysanthemums tighten... In hesitation, I decided to go and see the mosque again.
On the way to the mosque, you will see photos of various Shiite militias, photos of Iranian Shiite leaders, photos of Iran's General Suleimani, and feel that Iran has a deep influence in the region.
This is Baghdad's version of "Octagon Street", the early old city of Baghdad, but also around the point-centered, spreading outwards of the urban pattern, so each road can quickly lead to the mosque.
There are many commercial shops along the way, and judging from the clothing of people on the streets, it is mainly the iraqi people in the middle and lower classes.
Entering the interior of this mosque, I went through a total of 5 security checks.
The first and second lanes are road gates, where soldiers will roughly check the passengers in the car, glance at it, and then let the minibus driver in.
With trepidation, we reached the door of the mosque.
Then enter the second and third security checks, which is an ordinary body search, touch whether you have a knife on your body, and then check that your backpack is open to check whether there are dangerous items...
Finally, I entered the fifth gate, which was the security check to enter the mosque, requiring that I could not bring mobile phones, charging treasures, and all electronic devices, so I put all the equipment in the storage room, and finally entered the mosque naked (without any electronic equipment). As a result, I didn't take a single photo in the mosque, and it really looked good inside. More elaborate and prettier than Iranian mosques (Iranians are characterized by their large scale and spectacularness).
2, Shiite mosque - Kadimiya
Due to security checks, I was unable to bring my phone inside the Kadimiya Mosque.
But after I read it, I feel that it is very exquisite and very beautiful.
I looked for some photos of the Kadimiya Mosque on the web, all in all, beautiful.
But what makes me feel uncomfortable is that because summer is coming, the weather is nearly 40 degrees, and there is not enough ventilation system in the temple, and the density of people is also very large, so as soon as I enter the temple, I can smell a heavy smell of sweat.
Remember, I emphasize that it is not pungent, the adjective I use is "heavy", which is a kind of smell when you first come in, you can faintly smell a smell, but it is not strong and pungent, but after a minute or two, your head is gradually a little dizzy, this thick smell is like a glass of aged red wine, just entered is not exciting, but full of staying power.
Once inside the hall, you can see the super brilliant ceiling, blue as the main color, Persian style pattern.
(I feel that the Shiite mosques in Iraq are greatly influenced by Persia, including the Shiite mosques I went to in Lebanon and Bahrain before, which are very close to the Iranian style.)
Xiao Mo said, I first went to get a Quran, then took a small stone, and went to worship.
I asked, wait, aren't you Sunni?
He said, yes, but I can also pray in Shia.
So Xiao Mo went to worship for ten minutes, and I sat on the carpet to take a little rest, and there were Iraqis around me who saw me as a foreign face and were very interested in talking to me.
Unfortunately, I don't speak Arabic, and Iraq is the country with the lowest english penetration rate I've ever seen. Almost the locals thank you, how are you can't understand.
So communication here is a huge obstacle, and then Xiao Mo found me after the prayer, saw me communicating with a person, helped me translate, this man asked me where? I said It's Chinese. He said why Chinese came to Iraq and came to the mosque from afar. I said, I'm traveling around the world, I've been to 52 countries, I'm interested in the culture of any country...
Next, we went to the various rooms in the temple, the carvings, the ceiling, the dazzling...
But 99% of the people in the audience did not wear masks, and occasionally one in a hundred people would wear a mask, and it was also a black mask, not a medical mask, which was strange, and the Shiites liked black very much.
Then you can see that everyone will kiss the gate of the mosque, and kiss desperately on the railing outside the coffin, as if it no longer exists.
3, I felt as if I had participated in a sports event
From 5:30 p.m., on this main road from outside the city to the mosque, a large number of people began to pour in in the direction of the mosque. People are more orderly, according to the city as a unit, in front of each team will be held up a sign, the name of each city is written on the sign, and the crowd of each team is from this city.
I said, it's like the flow of the school sports day...
People would walk and pat themselves on the chest in memory of their saint, Hussein Ben Ali.
The crowd slowly moved towards the mosque, and there were constantly colorful flags waving, and the different colors of the flags represented different meanings: love, peace, hatred, revenge, martyrdom...
There will also be some people dressed like religious leaders imams in the crowd, some of whom will wear a green scarf around their necks, some of which will be red and white...
Xiao Mo told me that the Shia favorite color is black, and the Sunnis also like to wear white clothes. Therefore, if you usually look at the dress on the street, you can roughly distinguish between people of different sects.
My biggest feeling is that I still like these Shia rituals, people seem friendly, everyone enjoys them. But there will be no very intrusive attitude, and you must be like them.
(1) The meaning of the different colors of Shia
I asked Xiao Mo (he was a Sunni) why Shiites have so many colors of flags, what do they mean?
Xiao Mo explained to me:
1) White represents love
2) Blue represents martyrdom, or following Hussein into heaven.
3) Green represents peace
4) Black represents revenge, and today Shia men still like to wear black clothes to commemorate Hussein's death and remember and even take revenge.
5) Red represents pain, and Xiao Mo said that red represents the blood that Hussein was stabbed to death
Among them, the Shiites prefer the color of black, which represents revenge.
(2) Because of the conflict of inheritance rights
As to why these two denominations have such a deep hatred.
The whole story begins more than 1,000 years ago in Hussein (the son-in-law and grandson of YSL founder Muhammad) because he did not recognize the status of the new caliph (supreme leader of the YSL world), and then infighting broke out.
In 680 AD, on the 10th day of the month of Muhamma in the ysl calendar, Hussein was killed along with his entire army, a day that was designated by the Shiites as the "Ashura Festival", which was commonly known as the "Beheading Festival" by the Chinese in Bahrain, that is, people would use various sharp tools to cut their skin in the streets, covered in blood (in short, it looked terrible) to commemorate Hussein's death.
Hussein's death symbolizes a radical break between Shia and Sunnis, opening a thousand-year feud between the two denominations.