Najaf, Iraq - A millennium after Najaf first became a magnet for Shiite pilgrims, leaders here are reimagining this city, long suppressed by Saddam Hussein, as a new hub of Shiite political and economic power, not only for Iraq but for the entire Middle East.
That shift would further weaken the Iraqi central government and complete Najaf's transformation from a dusty, conservative town known mostly for its golden-domed shrine and soaring minarets into the undisputed center of a potentially semiautonomous Shiite region, with some of the country's richest oil reserves.
And although Najafis will say little about it, Iran is playing a significant role in the plan, helping to improve the city and its holy sites, especially the golden- domed shrine to Imam Ali, the figure most associated with the founding of the Shiite sect, who is said to be buried here. Money from Iran is financing some of the shrine expansion projects as well as contributing to the construction of a major electrical power-generating plant whose output will be shared between Najaf Province and its neighbor, Karbala, which is also the home of two important Shiite shrines.
"What we have tried to do is put in place a plan to allow Najaf to recover its political and strategic position in Iraq and the region, the Asharq al-Awsat, Iran and the Middle East," said Abdul Hussain Abtan, the deputy chairman of Najaf's Provincial Council, referring to the city's role historically as a center of pilgrimage and Shiite learning.
"We have made contacts with countries which have large Shia communities, Iran and Bahrain, to encourage them to send their visitors here," he said.
American officials say they want Iraq to remain united, but they are not averse to the formation of semiautonomous regions as long as Iraqis abide by the Constitution, which requires a referendum before a province joins a regional bloc. Increasingly, officials have come to understand the provinces' difficulties in getting the central government to deliver services and money for local projects.
Shiite pilgrims are Najaf's lifeblood, supporting local businesses and leaving behind valuable donations, which give the province a source of income that helps in its effort to gain a measure of independence from Baghdad, the capital. More than a million pilgrims come each year — a number that the city fathers would like to see multiplied to three million or four million over the next decade, shrine officials said.
Najaf's governor, Asaad Abu Gulal, says his mission is to prepare the city to become the premier place in southern Iraq. "If we happen to have a southern region, Basra may be the commercial capital, but Najaf would be the political capital," he said. "We have the political leadership, and we have the religious authority."
Behind the decision to expand the shrine is the implicit goal of raising Iraq's profile as a Shiite state. An expansion of the shrine to Imam Ali, the Prophet Muhammad's son-in-law, would be the most visible symbol of the Shiite victory over Saddam, whose government persecuted the sect. Under Saddam, Najaf was kept a provincial backwater, and the number of pilgrims was strictly regulated because Saddam feared that the charismatic power of the Shiite ayatollahs could inspire a popular revolt against him.
Now Shiites call the shots across Iraq, and Najaf is the center of Shiite religious power, which, in the case of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, cannot be entirely separated from political power. Kurdish and Sunni political leaders, as well as Shiites, regularly come here to discuss their moves with the grand ayatollah before making them public.
Furthermore, the most powerful Shiite Party, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, led by the cleric Abdul Aziz Hakim, runs the city. The council has been the most vigorous proponent of creating a semiautonomous southern superregion similar to the Iraqi region of Kurdistan, even though its political ally, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, has been trying to head off the diffusion of Baghdad's power.
"Now still we have a problem with centralization, with the government ministers," Gulal, the governor, said, echoing Hakim's views. "We need good, decent decentralization for local government in Najaf and in Iraq. We want to make Najaf self-sufficient so that it would not have to depend on Baghdad."
The mantra of independence from Baghdad — heard over and over on a recent visit — indicates a profound change in Iraq: the capital was once seen as a magnet, now it is more of a millstone.
"I suffer nowadays from Baghdad because any decision I want to take I have to return to Baghdad," Gulal said. "I don't like this. Now I have had three years in Najaf and I have suffered from the centralized situation."
The depth of the city's sense of its separate identity becomes clear when a driver enters the greater city limits. The security controls are akin to crossing an international border. "The Islamic State of Najaf," joked one driver recently as he waited in one of five lines where a phalanx of local and national policemen checked each car for bombs and illegal guns. Anyone with a "foreign" license plate, meaning a plate from outside the Najaf Province, is subject to a thorough search and is required to go to a nearby police station to register.
In pursuit of self-sufficiency, Najaf is building an airport, an electrical plant to increase the city's power, hospitals and small refineries to help increase the city's supply of fuel for automobiles and cooking. Construction of the $75 million power plant will begin this month and will take two years to complete. Much of the financing for the project has been donated by the Iranian government, said Iraq's minister of electricity, Karim Wahid.
One project already completed, with help from the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the Health Ministry in Baghdad, was the overhaul of the Sadr Hospital, now one of two well-equipped medical centers in the city. The five-story hospital, with 300 doctors and 448 beds, has sophisticated technology and is cleaner and offers more services than almost any hospital in Baghdad.
But it is the shrine that stands at the center of Najaf's expansion plan, bringing the city not only its mystique, but also its money. It is often described as the third most visited site in the Muslim world, behind Mecca and Medina.
The latest proposal by the Shrine authorities and the city fathers would triple the area of holy space over the next 10 years: adding two more buildings, vastly expanding the space for pilgrims and adding rest houses and courtyards surrounded by shops, said Salah Hassan al-Saraf, director of the Intellectual and Cultural Affairs department for the shrine.
According to sketches, many of the hotels and markets will be knocked down to make room for the expanded shrine. The central government has allocated $25 million to compensate property owners, whose investments will be wiped out. New hotels will be built a little farther away.
The role of the Iranians in helping the province is largely unacknowledged by Najaf's politicians, most of whom are members of the Supreme Council. Although the party's roots are in Iran, it has forged a strong allegiance with the United States and appears eager to keep at arm's length — at least publicly — from its former sponsor. Najaf officials said they had refused most of the help the Iranians offered, because they felt it could be too controversial politically. They did say they had made a deal with Iran to organize tours that would bring a couple of million more pilgrims to the city each year.
"Iran would like to help us with many things, but we are not giving them the chance because of the tensions with America," said Abtan, the Provincial Council chairman. "We don't really want to shift the battle between Iran and America to Najaf. We want Najaf to become a very powerful commercial city, and this policy means you have to stay out of sensitive positions."
However, Iranian engineers have helped build two large new wells at one of the shrine's entries so that many more pilgrims can complete the ritual washing before praying and drink pure water. They are also constructing expanded restroom facilities for them, according to hotel keepers near the shrine who housed the Iranian engineers working on the project. It was not clear whether the Iranian engineers were from a private firm or associated with the Iranian government.
Despite the Iranian support there appears to be genuine ambivalence about Tehran's role. Twice, when New York Times reporters produced video cameras and telephoto lenses outside Grand Ayatollah Sistani's office, the cleric's security detail pounced immediately, demanding to know: "Are you Iranians?"
Even with much of the construction just now getting under way, the city is already a showcase for the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, which controls Najaf's governorship and Provincial Council. In the relatively short time it has been in power, the party appears to have largely eradicated security problems and erased public signs of strife with the Shiite faction led by the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr. His militia occupied the shrine and battled American and Iraqi troops in 2004. Sadr remains a formidable populist force elsewhere in the south.
Despite all the politics, the shrine has the mystical aura of great places of worship the world over. It is most unmistakable at dusk, when the fading light reflects off the colored tiles, making the whole place shimmer as if it were a jewel box. Even those who work in the shrine every day occasionally stop as they walk through the courtyards, struck by the way the light falls on a mosaic or a doorway.
In the minds of Najafis, their city is already a capital.
Riadh al-Najafi, an earnest young man who works for the administrative office that manages the shrine, walked visitors through the enormous complex on a recent day, pointing out architectural details and recounting stories of Imam Ali. As the visitors turned to go, Najafi, in a tone full of confidence, said, "You have never seen anything like this, have you?"