Najaf's hawza — the network of Shia seminaries clustered around the Imam Ali Shrine — is one of the great centres of religious learning in the Muslim world, and the Al-Yazdi Madrasa is among its more atmospheric corners. Built in the late nineteenth century by Sayyid Muhammad Kazim al-Yazdi, the school has some seventy student cells around an inner courtyard, deep cellars to escape the summer heat, and brick-lined wells that drop nearly thirty metres down to the water table.
Young divines from Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon and India fill the cells with their books. Pale from years of indoor study, they sit reading, debating, or performing ablutions before prayer. If you visit, do so quietly and ask permission before photographing students or interiors.