The components of the urban fabric in Najaf (The old city):

First: The Shrine of Al-Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb, which is located in the center area.

Second: Religious schools which are closed to the shrine.

Third: Markets by type of market

Fourth: Baths and Khans

Fifthly: The alleys and streets

Sixth: The houses

The traditional urban fabric in Najaf has its peculiarities, as the traditional Arab Islamic fabric is
the result of environmental and climatic stresses for the entire urban fabric within the framework
of social, cultural, and religious components and customs. Traditional housing or traditional fabric
ensures adequate and comfortable housing in hot and dry areas, through which the language of the
age and preparation for the future can be defined, efficiently by understanding the past and lessons
from it, as well as the possibility of developing heritage vocabulary and reformulating it in new
ways that suit the requirements of the times and its techniques. Traditional fabric physical health,
as well as ensuring the rules of social life that are customary in those societies, as well as ensuring
the rights of neighbors, as well as ensuring private property rights. Preserving mutual relations
between the public area, semi-public, semi-private, and private. Ensuring privacy and the rights of
safety and public peace through the right of way.

The global model or the so-called formal globalization of buildings all over the world led to a
change in the concept of total life, where the technological and economic production led to the
imposition of control over the global economy in an attempt to erase the private culture and turn
it into a general culture through Western culture and the emergence of the language of
globalization to which many of the people belong. Architects and planners are replacing it with
local architecture.

It is possible to rely on the accelerating scientific, technological, and industrial developments in

our contemporary world and turn them into new sources that our local architecture adheres to and
incorporates them with its urban and traditional components and characteristics to become part of
our societal and cultural norms and values in a new local flavor that carries with it an architecture
that we are proud of its authentic Arab components. The positive components of the Najaf heritage
that emerged through previous ages and a historical depth of more than five thousand years.

The heritage material forms in Arab civilization differ in essence from the forms resulting in
Western civilization, especially the culture of the Arab desert in particular, and the culture of the
Islamic world extended in Central Asia in general, as it is a mixture of Arab and Islamic cultures.
The most important basic components of the Iraqi house, whether it is the Najaf, Baghdad, or
Mosul house, are:

First: The entrance(Al-majaaz), which is the broken entrance that consists of the door, which is
wooden and contains inscriptions, as well as a bench in front of the door.

Second: The courtyard of the house, which is called the (Al-hosh) in the colloquial language, may
be composed of one part, which is in the homes of other non-Islamic religions, as in Christianity
and Judaism, as well as the homes of medium and few financial situations. Which is intended for
men and their uses and is close to the door of the house which contains courtyard for animals. The
inner part is called the sanctuary for women, and it contains bedrooms, a kitchen, and other spaces.

Third: The number of bedrooms varies according to the area of the house and the number of
families living in the house.

Fourth: The kitchen

Fifthly: The Iwan

Sixth: the basement

Seventh: Al-Kafshkan, which is a small room that is used to store extra bedding and household
needs that are used on occasions.

Eighth: Al-Ursi, which is a large room on the second floor with three walls, and the fourth is a
large glass window overlooking the courtyard of the house. It is decorated with colored glass and
wood carved with beautiful Arabic inscriptions.

Ninth: Al-Shanasheel, which is the place that overlooks the road and serves as an extension to the
space of the house and is used as sitting areas for the people of the house, where tea is taken after
lunch. It's made by wood, steel, or block.

Tenth: The bed house, which is a small room on the roof, which is often next to staircase. It's used
to collect the bed in the morning to protect it from sun and dust, this room is used in the summer.

Eleventh: The bathrooms consist of three parts. The outer room is called the stripper, and the
second is used for washing. The bathroom floor is covered with either alabaster or tar so that a
person cannot enter it while he is barefoot, and there is another part which is the (W.C).

These are the basic components of homes in Iraq, whether in the north, south, or center, but they
differ according to the place and according to the environment, such as the materials used in
construction, as well as may differ in the structural as a result of the different uses of local
materials.
Figure 1 Some of the inscriptions used in the houses Figure 2 Ursi in the Najafi house
of Najaf

Figure 3 Columns with a crown bear the (tarma) in Figure 4 The rooms overlook the inner courtyard
the half-open part of the inner courtyard