Hundreds of thousands of Shi'ite Muslims swarmed on the Iraqi holy city of Najaf on Wednesday to mark the death of the Prophet Mohammad, freely making the pilgrimage for the first time in decades.
The pilgrimage to the tomb of Imam Ali, the son-in-law and cousin of Prophet Mohammad, was the second show of Shi'ite might in a week and highlighted the country's newfound religious freedom since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Last week, hundreds of thousands of Shi'ites made the pilgrimage to the nearby southern city of Kerbala in a fervent display -- beating their chests, slashing their scalps with swords and whipping themselves with chains.
In contrast to the noisy procession through Kerbala, Wednesday's pilgrimage in Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, was a much tamer affair.
Crowds of men, wearing headbands proclaiming loyalty to Imam Ali and his son Imam Hussein, slapped their chests and chanted. One man climbed on the shoulders of his companions, gesturing to worshippers in the streets to follow him in prayers.
But others marked the occasion by silently standing around the mosque, their hands raised to the sky.
"We came by foot for two days from Kerbala to Najaf," said Um Zahra, dressed in the enveloping black dress of a religious Shi'ite.
Next to her, other women settled down to rest across from the gold-domed shrine, their robes and veils flowing around them and draping into black puddles of cloth as they sat on the sidewalk.
"In previous years the regime did not allow us to make the pilgrimage in such large numbers and so freely," said Um Zahra.
The Iraqi cities of Najaf and Kerbala are home to shrines revered by the world's Shi'ite Muslims. Both are magnets for pilgrims from Iraq's Shi'ite majority.
Under the secular Baath party, Shi'ites say they were thrown in jail or executed for saying Shi'ite prayers or marking pilgrimages in which they revere their sect's early leaders.
GREATER ROLE
After Saddam was toppled, Shi'ite clerical leaders in the two holy cities were free to play a greater role in providing services from food and water to medical care to the pilgrims.
In Najaf, banners were strung up along the streets announcing times for speeches by clerics. Flyers with photographs of missing Shi'ite men, one of whom had not been seen for two decades, were displayed on electricity poles.
An impromptu group of volunteers, calling themselves the Najaf Visitors Administration, circulated in the crowds of thousands, keeping cars from the shrines, facilitating ambulance services and ensuring the processions went unhindered.
Religious authority in Najaf has been guided by schools of prominent clerical leaders, among them the son of Ayatollah Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr, a senior clerical figure assassinated with his two sons in 1999 in an attack blamed on Iraqi security forces.
In the past few days, tensions have risen over raids conducted by the new governor, Abdul-Munim Aboud, and his security forces into Najaf's religious schools in search of weapons.
"Despite all its oppression, the previous regime did not even violate the sanctity of the religious schools," Sadr said in a statement. "It serves the interests of the infidel West only."
Last week hundreds of thousands of Shi'ites descended on Kerbala, about 80 km north of Najaf, for a pilgrimage to mourn the martyrdom 13 centuries ago of Imam Hussein.