'GROUND PLAN OF THE GREAT MOSQUE OF NEJEF MESHED ALI' [‎31r] (1/2)

IN MESOPOTAMIA, ETC.
31
Health Council (a body recently created at Nejef) to put up a steam disinfect
ing stove, in which the labads could be disinfected and then sold.
It seems that some years ago, before the system of incineration was intro
duced, there actually was a considerable trade in cofiQn-w ood and labads and in
the cotton-wool many bodies are wrapped in. Later an attempt w r as made to
disinfect them before selling, and the concession for such disinfection was given
to an individual, w ho paid £T. 200 for a three months' concession. But^ still
later, owing to the abuses that arose, this was put a stop to and the system of
burning introduced.
The Commission definitely condemned a return to the former system. The
practical difficulties in the way of properly disinfecting a large number of
coffins and labads would be great; abuses w ould be certain to arise, and inci
neration is obviously the only proper fate for such objects. When it is remem
bered that most of the bodies brought in coffins are “ fresh ” ones, that the
coffin would must be fouled with discharges from these bodies, and that, if sold,
it would be made not only into furniture but also into boxes in which rice,
fruit, flour and other eatables are exposed for sale in the bazars, the necessity
for such a conclusion becomes obvious.
The bodies remain in the morgue until the ceremonial washing, the pay
ment of taxes and other formalities are completed. It is forbidden to take any
body into a house in the town ; but many pilgrims—notably those from Baku,
already mentioned—are so attached to their relatives’ remains, that nothing
will prevent them taking these with them into the towm. #
The majority of bodies—from 80 to 85 per cent, of the whole—before being
interred, are carried to the mosque in the centre of the town, where they make
the tour of the Sahn-i-Sherif, or principal court of the mosque. This ceremony
is the equivalent, for the deceased, of a ziaret, or religious visitation during
life. The hamals (porters) wTio carry the bodies are paid a sum which varies
from one or tw 7 o piastres up to one or two Turkish pounds (one Turkish pound
is of the value of 18 shillings), according to the w ealth and generosity of those
accompanying them. If the relations come w ith the body, they generally
carry it themselves round the mosque. In the case of dry bodies, several are
usually thus carried together, in large coffins lent by the defnieh.
After the ziaret and other formalities are accomplished, the bodies are
finally interred either in the serdabs around the mosque, in one of the many
private tombs which are found scattered through the town of Nejef, or in the
great cemetery outside the town.
The Nejef cemetery extends into the desert to the north and east of the
town walls. The tombs cover an area of about. 2,400 metres in length and 800
metres in width. This area is not surrounded by any wall or railing, and each
year it tends to stretch farther and farther into the desert. It contains many
thousands of tombs, many of which are merely small mounds of earth or stones,
while others have a small brick or stone cupola over them, and still others take
the form of small mosques, of considerable size, richly ornamented with
coloured tiles and paintings, with inscriptions in Persian or Arabic. Several,
of these large tombs are built in the middle of a garden, surrounded by a wall,
and not infrequently there is a house of some size in the same enclosure, where
the relations of the deceased may spend the day, or even reside for several days.
Between the cemetery and the w alls of the town, there has grow r n up a
mound, some 30 or 40 feet in height, entirely formed of the earth thrown up in
excavating the tombs inside the town, alluded to above.
The burial taxes have already been mentioned ; they are called defnieh or
turrabieh taxes. The right to collect them is usually conceded by the Evkaf
(or inistry of pious foundations) to some private person. The actual conces
sionaire is (in 1914) a Jewish inhabitant of Bagdad, who had paid the sum of
£T. 13,000 (£11,700 sterling) for a concession lasting three years, covering the
interments both at Kerbela and Nejef. His predecessor had paid £T. 22,000
for a concession also of three years, but at that time the bodies of Turkish
subjects were not exempted from the taxes, as they were later.
Por burial in the Nejef cemetery, whether of fresh or dry bodies, the
defnieh tax was 50 piastres ( 85 . 4d.), with an additional charge of 10 piastres,