The new roofing the holy sanctuary of Aba al-Fadl al-Abbas (peace be upon him) within the expansion project of his holy shrine: Reasons, objectives and the philosophy of its design.

Why the project is implemented?

In 2007, the General Secretariat of the al-Abbas's (p) holy shrine had the idea of creating a project that increases the services at the holy shrine of our master of Aba al-Fadl al-Abbas (peace be upon him) without compromising its archaeological architectural heritage, but because of its tightness the sanctuary can accommodate only small numbers of the visitors and is not able to embrace the millions of visitors in the special Ziyarat.

As the number of visitors began multiplying rapidly in the last few years, because of the openness of the holy shrines to all countries of the world, and since their management is given to the supreme religious authority after the fall of the dictatorship regime in the 9th of April, 2003, that has neglected Iraq and its holy shrines, and did not even given them the minimum of their prestige but dominated the shrines for decades for its own interests and whims.

All of which required the completion of an expansion of the shrine, which is its first expansion since 690 AH, to achieve what follows:

1- The added part should not be different from the decorative features and the architecture design of the old part, which was built according to the old Iraqi models used in the second until the seventh century - the opening date of the current shrine -, which includes Baghdadi Muqarnas, in addition to what was added later from the Iraqi authentic arts, such as Karbala'i kashi and mosaic mirrors.

2- Not touching the original archaeological construction of the shrine, neither by demolishing it nor by a change.

3- Accommodating the large increasing numbers of the visitors, to make the visitor feels that he is in the shrine through the apparent construction features and the other services.

4- Accommodating the increasing numbers of the visitors in the Ziyarat of millions taking place in the holy city of Karbala.

5- Providing the maximum comfort and tranquillity to the visitor, who is there to perform the prayer, supplication and the rest of the worship acts, away from the climate fluctuations either in winter or in summer, which was the case in the old sanctuary.

6- Achieving the balance between the convenience of the visitor, the expansion of the shrine's services, and keeping the spirituality and the aesthetic feature especially when the visitor watches the minarets and the holy dome when entering the holy sanctuary.

7- The roofing of the new expansion that was an open space, to form with the parts of the old sanctuary a coherent and unified architectural design, making all holy sanctuary with both its old and new parts like one construction including the entire al-Abbas's (p) holy shrine with its parts:

A/ Its old shrine

B/ Its old sanctuary that was covered and has become similar to the old shrine in terms of form and services.

C/ The facilities of its old wall.

D/ Its new expansion around the old wall is within the adopted expansion project.

8- The design philosophy includes spiritual meanings related to this sacred place.

Design Philosophy:

To give a distinctive philosophy to the design of the project that is commensurate with the shrine's owner (peace be upon him), taking into account the following points:

1. The design of the glass tents has a spiritual significance as each of them represents the tents of the children whose protector and guardian was Aba al-Fadl al-Abbas (peace be upon him), and it also represents his age (peace be upon him).
2. Each corner of the old sanctuary has large four domes, one of them represents the great Lady Oum al-Baneen (peace be upon her) and the three others represent the three brothers of Aba al-Fadl al-Abbas (peace be upon them) who were martyred with him in the timeless tragedy of at-Taf, and who were buried with their brother Imam al-Hussayn (peace be upon him) in the martyrs cemetery, and they are: Abdullah, Ja'far and Othman (peace be upon them).
3. The design includes 14 smaller tents representing the 14 infallible starting by the holy Prophet (Allah's prayers be upon him and upon his holy Household), Lady Az-Zahra (peace be upon her) and the twelve Imams (peace be upon them) first the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) and ending by the Imam al-Mahdi son of al-Hassan (may Allah hasten his holy reappearance.)