Mausoleum of Imam Ali

Mausoleum of Ali
مقام علی
The shrine as photographed in 2012
Religion
Affiliation	Islam
Festivals	Nowruz Jahenda Bala ceremony
Ecclesiastical or organisational status	Mausoleum and mosque
Status	Active
Location
Location	Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh province
Country	Afghanistan
Location of the mausoleum and mosque in Afghanistan
Geographic coordinates	36°42′30″N 67°06′40″E / 36.70833°N 67.11111°E / 36.70833; 67.11111
Architecture
Style	Timurid
Completed	c. 10th–16th century CE
Specifications
Dome(s)	Two (maybe more)
Minaret(s)	c. 10 (maybe more)
Shrine(s)	One: Ali (r. 656–661)

The Mausoleum of Ali (Persian: مقام علی, romanized: Maqām ʿAlī), or Blue Mosque (مسجد کبود), is a mausoleum and mosque complex located in Mazar-i-Sharif, in the province of Balkh, Afghanistan. The complex purportedly houses the tomb of Caliph Ali, the first Imam of Shia Muslims (r. 656–661).

Many pilgrims annually celebrate Nowruz at the site. At the annual Jahenda Bala ceremony a flag is raised in honour of Alī. People touch the flag for supposed luck in the New Year.^[1][2]

The earliest surviving source stating Ali to be buried in Balkh is Tuhfat al-Albab of the Andalusian traveller Abu Hamid al-Gharnati (d. 1170).^[3] Abd al-Ghafur Lari wrote that Muhammad al-Baqir, the fifth Shia imam, assigned Abu Muslim the task of transferring Ali's body to the Khurasan, though this is likely apocryphal.^[4]

The first structure of the site dates back to the Seljuk era. It was built by Sultan Ahmad Sanjar in the 11th century. In the 13th century, the Mongols under Genghis Khan invaded Balkh, where they massacred the Balkhi population and destroyed their places of worship. The mosque built by Sanjar was destroyed by the Mongols in the year 1220.^[5]

In the 15th century, the Timurid amir, Sultan Husayn Bayqara, ordered a reconstruction of the destroyed building.^[5]

In later years, various rulers made repairs and endowments, including the Shaybanid emir Abd al-Mu'min ibn Abd Allah Khan, who built a dome. Later, Berdi Beg, the Khan of the Golden Horde who reigned from 1357 to 1359, added several decorations to the building. In the modern era, a plan was created to renovate the whole complex in 1910.^[5]

• 
  Men praying during Ramadan, 2012
• 
  Entrance to one of the buildings
• 
  Distant view of the mosque in 2011
• 
  White pigeons in the Blue Mosque's courtyard
• 
  Close up
• 
  Central Asian style tile work
• 
  A family feeding the pigeons

• Islam in Afghanistan
• List of mosques in Afghanistan

• McChesney, Robert Duncan (2014). Waqf in Central Asia: Four Hundred Years in the History of a Muslim Shrine, 1480-1889. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400861965.

Media related to Blue Mosque, Mazar-i-Sharif at Wikimedia Commons