successfully repelled a Wahhabi siege later on. The water shortages were finally resolved in 1803 with the construction of the Hindiyya canal, following which the city's population rapidly doubled from 30,000 to 60,000.
The Ottomans were expelled in an uprising in 1915, following which the city fell under the rule of the British Empire. The sheikhs of Najaf rebelled in 1918, killing the British governor of the city by Sayed Mahdi Al-Awadi and cutting off grain supplies to the Anaza, a tribe allied with the British. In retaliation the British besieged the city and cut off its water supply. The rebellion was put down and the rule of the sheikhs was forcibly ended. A great number of the Shia ulema were expelled into Persia/Iran where they set the foundations for the rise of the city of Qom as the center of the Shia learning and authority in lieu of Najaf. Najaf lost its religious primacy to Qom and was not to regain it until the 21st century and the establishment of a Shia-majority government in Iraq after 2003.
Saddam Hussein period
Part of a series on Shia Islam
Twelvers
The Fourteen Infallibles
Muhammad � Fatimah � and
The Twelve Imams:
Ali � Hasan � Husayn
al-Sajjad � al-Baqir � al-Sadiq
al-Kadhim � ar-Ridha � al-Taqi
al-Naqi � al-Askari � al-Mahdi
Concepts
Fourteen Infallibles
Occultation (Minor � Major)
Akhbar � Usul � Ijtihad
Taqleed � 'Aql � Irfan
Mahdaviat
Principles
Monotheism
Judgement Day � Justice
Prophethood � Imamate
Practices
Prayer � Fasting � Pilgrimage
Charity � Taxes � Jihad
Command Justice � Forbid Evil
Love the family of Muhammad
Dissociate from their Enemies
Holy cities
Mecca � Medina
Najaf � Karbala � Mashhad
Samarra � Kadhimayn �
