The Tigris: A Witness to History

16 Views· 24/03/25

Sayed Mahdi Modarresi
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[0:12]one of the two great rivers that have historically defined ancient mesopotamia

[0:20]and because of its age and location deja as it's known in

[0:26]iraq this river has been a living witness to unspeakable atrocities it

[0:35]has seen things that put humanity to shame it has witnessed crimes

[0:43]and massacres the likes of which are impossible to find anywhere else

[0:50]bear with me for a few moments as i take you down

[0:54]a journey through some of the highlights that the tigris river has

[1:02]seen and has witnessed throughout history it is said that in the

[1:07]fall of baghdad at the end of the abbasid dynasty this river

[1:14]saw the mongol army come and one of the things that they

[1:22]did was that they took hundreds of thousands of manuscripts and books

[1:27]that were hand written that were held in the libraries of grand

[1:34]scholars like ashey hotusi known as the person after whom the shia

[1:45]are attributed they took all of these books they threw them in

[1:50]the river turning its pale blue color into dark black from all

[1:55]of the ink and part of the reason they did that was

[1:57]historians say they wanted to create these bridges for their horses and

[2:02]their armies so they used books to build bridges but that wasn't

[2:09]all they did they also began to massacre people on mass and

[2:12]so the color of the waters turned from dark black to red

[2:17]from all of the blood that was shed in it and this

[2:22]is only one snapshot one of the incidents that the tigris witnessed

[2:26]then you come to more recent times in 2005 during the pilgrimage

[2:34]to the shrine of imam al-qaram the stampede that occurred on what's

[2:42]called just the bridge that connects one part of baghdad to calvary

[2:47]a thousand people died during a terrorist incident when there were fears

[2:54]that an attack was imminent or that someone was there to try

[2:57]and blow themselves up the stampede occurred and a thousand people drowned

[3:02]right here in this river then you come to 2014 and what's

[3:07]known as the spiker massacre 1700 young shia army cadets were slaughtered

[3:16]by hand by isis and their agents and then their bodies were

[3:20]thrown inside the tigris and their blood was shed in these waters

[3:28]right here seventeen hundred young lives snapped and snatched and taken away

[3:34]forever 1700 grieving families but perhaps the biggest and most tragic incident

[3:42]that the tigris has witnessed is something that is being commemorated in

[3:48]these next few days in a week's time the people of baghdad

[3:54]will be commemorating the martyrdom of imam this commemoration is the biggest

[4:08]annual event in the iraqi capital baghdad over 7 million people flock

[4:12]from all across the country to baghdad in order to participate in

[4:16]this great pilgrimage we all know about the arbain pilgrimage it's been

[4:21]turned into an international event there's hardly anyone who doesn't know about

[4:25]it but this commemoration is something that also needs to be turned

[4:28]into an internationally recognized event seven million people is a massive number

[4:33]this is bigger than any olympics event this is bigger than hajj

[4:39]by multiple uh factors it's it's bigger than anything else out there

[4:43]save the ibrahim seven million people come here in order to commemorate

[4:46]on the 25th of rajab to commemorate the martyrdom of imam al-qaeda

[4:53]why the tigris river and the connection there because after they brought

[4:57]the sacred and oppressed and martyred body and battered body of imam

[5:05]al-qaeda alaihis from imprisonment they took his body and put it on

[5:12]which is one of the bridges across the tigris river they put

[5:19]that body there and then they called people to come so that

[5:23]they would take him away in a humiliating display trying to present

[5:30]imam al-qabam ali as someone who doesn't have any admirers or a

[5:36]tribe or a family or anything like that they brought out the

[5:45]body of the imam being carried by four porters instead of his

[5:50]family instead of his devotees instead of his admirers instead of his

[5:55]followers next week the commemoration will take place and what a big

[6:03]difference time has made thirteen hundred years ago or so the body

[6:07]of our master our imam al-qaeda was brought out all alone and

[6:12]now seven million people flock to this place so as to commemorate

[6:18]this tragedy to honor imam who is called the lion of baghdad

[6:24]by the locals here he is the savior of this city he's

[6:27]the he's the refuge in the darkest of times in the most

[6:34]difficult hours of baghdad the individual that people flock to in order

[6:46]to seek safety and to seek refuge from all of these very

[6:50]difficult times in the history of this city may allah grant us

[6:57]all his visitation and bring us so that we could also honor

[6:59]him and visit his shrine and be blessed by being in close

[7:07]proximity to him insha'allah

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