When finishing this study it became clearly for us the following :-
Opinions for the meaning of the word Karbala have been varied , it is said that it is derived from ( Al – Karbalah ) which is the limpness in the ground or walking in mud , it is said also that is derived from( Al – Karbal ) which is the name of lemon plant , which might be grown in this area , some of scientists have seen that the word of Karbala is coming from the word ( Kur Babil ) which a group of Babylonian villages , some of the researchers have seen that the word Karbala is consisted of two Ashurian words ( Kurb ) which means the shrine and ( Aal ) which means a God so its meaning would be the Shrine of the God , whatever was the origin of the word and its derivative , all languages and opinions came in the origin of the nomination have agreed on the holy meaning of this blessed land .
The city of Karbala lies to the west of Euphrates next to the palace of Ibn Hbaira , its location included many villages such as Al – Ghadheiriya , Nineveh , Al – Nawawees , shfiyah and others , it also has an immemorial historical dimension which been clarified by many sayings of the greatest prophet ( pbuh ) and his pure pleasant households , one of them is the saying of Imam Al – Sadeq ( pbuh ) : (( Four lands clamored to Allah during the flood , Mecca so Allah raised it , Al – Ghari , Karbala and Toos )) .
Through our view to some historical texts , it became clearly for us that the conquest of Karbala was in ( 12 A.H. / 631 A.C. ) which means that it happened during the caliphate of Abi Baker , the martyrdom of Abi Abullah Al – Hussein , his households and supporters in the famous battle of Al – Taff on the ground of Karbala , and the crowding of pilgrims for the visiting of their shrines were the reasons behind the emergence of the city which witnessed changeable construction process according to the policy of the Amaween and Abbassian caliphs , but the city has obtained its revival during the buwaihi age , when Karbala being expanded and the number of houses reached about a thousand houses , which indicates the great number of residents besides the two holy shrines .
The city of Karbala filled with many historical signs which stills obvious till our current day , some belong to the pre – Islam age such as the church of Al – Qasir , the castle of Bardaweel and Shamoun Palace , some belong to the Islamic period such as mosques , the two castles of Ukhaidher and Atshan , Mujdah lighthouse and others . It clearly seems that there wasn’t any mentioning about the existence of Emirate house , courthouse and other official houses in Karbala during the historical period we are talking about .
One of the results that we’ve obtained though our research is the fence which been built around the holy shrine of Imam Hussein by the Minister Abi Mohammed Al – Rahmeharmazi in ( 403 A.H. / 1013 A.C. ) not in ( 400 A.H. / 1010 A.C. ) as Ibn Al – Jawzi , he has mistaken when he replced the name of Najaf to Karbala in period through the historical texts we have viewed .
The city of Karbala has included many construction models whose historical origins belong to the civilization of Mesopotamia , some of these mdels are Al – Hairi , Al – Rawaq , AL – Aiwan and Al – Saqeefah . We also have shed the light through this study on the most important construction elements that the buildings of Karbala has characterized with , including the entrances and the uncovered yard ( courtyard ) that the two shrines have characterized with , which considered the two holy shrines as the main core the uncovered yard and the rest vital utilities have been distributed around unlike the palaces of Muqatel , Ukhaidher and Atshan where its covered yard is considered as the main core in distribution of the different constructive units , We also showed the rest constructive elements such as columns , abutments stalactites , domes basements and arcs , we found the lobed arcs for the first time in the history of Iraqi architect in the Palace of Ukhaidher in Karbala in addition to the usage of different construction materials in buildings sush as stones , adobes , mud , gypsum and Noora .
