Kadhimiya

Kadhimiya (also spelled Kadhimain or Kazimayn) is a district of northern Baghdad and one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam. It takes its name from the Al-Kadhimiya Shrine, a golden-domed mosque complex housing the tombs of the seventh and ninth Twelver Shia Imams, Musa al-Kadhim and his grandson Muhammad al-Jawad. The shrine draws millions of pilgrims each year and ranks alongside Najaf and Karbala among Iraq's principal Shia pilgrimage centres.

The district is also a longstanding stronghold of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF, known in Arabic as Hashd al-Shaabi), the Iran-aligned umbrella of mostly Shia militias formally incorporated into Iraq's security apparatus in 2016. Several PMF factions organise recruitment and religious mobilisation around Kadhimiya's shrine network, giving the district outsized political weight relative to its size.

Kadhimiya lay on the route of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's funeral cortege as it crossed into Iraq on 8 July 2026, passing through Baghdad and Kadhimiya before Najaf and Karbala, organised in coordination with the Hashd al-Shaabi . The routing marked the first time Baghdad was formally drawn into Iran's succession proceedings.