Dr. Noor Zaidi Leads Major Project to Preserve Sayyida Zainab Shrine Archives

The Shia Muslim Foundation commends Dr. Noor Zaidi for leading an important international effort to preserve, restore, and digitize the Sayyida Zainab shrine archives in Damascus. The project brings serious academic scholarship together with the knowledge and stewardship of the families and institutions that have protected this history for generations.

A recent UMBC feature details the work of Dr. Zaidi, an assistant professor of history at UMBC whose research focuses on the Middle East and South Asia, gender, sectarianism, and Shi’a Islam. Her current project centers on the Makam of Sayyida Zainab, one of the most important sacred sites in Shi’a Islam and one of the comparatively few major Islamic shrines associated with a woman.

Dr. Zaidi is working with Father Columba Stewart and the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library in Minnesota, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik in Lebanon, and the Mourtada family of Damascus. UMBC reports that the Mourtada family has served as custodians of the shrine for more than 800 years. The result is an international interfaith preservation effort that respects scholarly standards and the local custodianship that kept these records alive.

Years of patient scholarship

Dr. Zaidi first visited the shrine with her family more than two decades ago and has researched it for about fifteen years. She began archival work at the shrine in 2012. During the conflict, Hani Mohsen Mourtada opened the family archive to her, including photographs and legal records. After his death, Sayed Mazen Al Mourtada continued that cooperation and preserved materials that had been moved to Beirut for safekeeping.

“The Makam (Shrine) of Sayyeda Zainab in Damascus is not merely a religious site; it is a historic institution whose significance extends across centuries, borders, and communities. Associated with Zainab bint ‘Ali, the granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad, the shrine has preserved traditions, archives, and religious practice that constitute an important part of the cultural and historical heritage of Syria and the wider Islamic world.”

Her persistence is visible throughout the project. War in Syria, threats to the shrine, difficult travel, and the pandemic interrupted the research. Zaidi returned to the work when conditions allowed.

“The continued independence of the Shrine of Sayyeda Zainab is of profound historical importance. Its autonomy allows the shrine to remain a living religious and cultural institution rather than becoming an instrument of changing political interests or state agendas.”

Recording what was lost

The digitization project will not treat the surviving archive as complete. UMBC reports that missing or destroyed documents will be identified as such. Future scholars will be able to see not only what survived, but where war, displacement, and time broke the record.

"Shia sacred history is too often discussed in public only through conflict or geopolitics. This project preserves another record: religious life, community memory, legal documents, craftsmanship, architecture, and the people who cared for the Makam across generations. It also gives students and scholars a stronger basis for studying Sayyida Zainab as a religious, historical, and cultural institution."

UMBC notes that the shrine has attracted visitors across communities and that renovations at the Makam preserved local Damascene tilework and craftsmanship. Zaidi’s work takes that layered history seriously. It does not reduce the shrine to a single political era or a single modern narrative.

Dr. Zaidi deserves real credit for staying with this research through years of instability and for building a project that places Shi’a history within serious academic study while respecting the people who preserved the archive. Her work also shows what can happen when universities, religious institutions, archivists, and local custodians cooperate with care and transparency.

SMF congratulates Dr. Zaidi and the full project team. The digitization of the Sayyida Zainab shrine archives can become a lasting resource for scholars, students, and communities seeking a fuller understanding of one of Shi’a Islam’s most significant sacred sites.

Read the full UMBC feature on Dr. Noor Zaidi and the Sayyida Zainab archive project.

American Shia Muslims Observe Arbaeen in Peaceful Rememberances Thrroughout the United States

August 4, 2026

Washington DC -- The Shia Muslim Foundation (SMF) marks the observance of Arbaeen, which falls this year on August 4, 2026. Arbaeen, an Arabic word meaning "forty," commemorates the fortieth day after the martyrdom of Imam al-Husain ibn Ali, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him and his family, and the massacre of his companions on the plains of Karbala on the 10th of Muharram, 61 AH (680 CE). It is among the most profound and widely observed occasions in the Shia Muslim tradition, and it draws what is consistently documented as the largest annual peaceful human gathering on earth.

Arbaeen in America

American Shia Muslim communities mark Arbaeen with gatherings, Majalis, and commemorative walks in cities across the United States. For those who are unable to make the pilgrimage to Karbala, these local observances serve as a spiritual connection to the global community of mourners and a reaffirmation of the principles of the Imam. In recent years, symbolic Arbaeen walks have been organized in American cities, drawing participants of diverse backgrounds who find in the event a powerful expression of solidarity and conscience.

The Shia Muslim Foundation calls upon civic leaders, interfaith partners, and the broader American public to recognize and respect the significance of Arbaeen for the American Shia Muslim community. We also invite all people of goodwill, regardless of faith or background, to reflect on the enduring human message of Karbala: that justice is worth standing for, that the voice of conscience must not be silenced, and that solidarity with the oppressed is among the highest expressions of our shared humanity.

The Tradition of the Fortieth Day

In many cultures and faith traditions, the fortieth day after a death carries special spiritual significance as a period of mourning, remembrance, and communal solidarity with the deceased and their family. In Shia Islamic practice, this principle finds its most powerful expression in Arbaeen, the fortieth day after Ashura.

Classical Shia tradition holds that on the 20th of Safar, 61 AH, the surviving members of the Prophet's household, led by Imam al-Hussain's sister Lady Zainab bint Ali and his son Imam Zayn al-Abidin, were making their way back from captivity in Damascus toward Medina. The great companion of the Prophet, Jabir ibn Abdullah al-Ansari, is recorded as having traveled from Medina to Karbala to be among the first to visit the grave of Imam al-Hussain on this day, accompanied by Atiyya al-Awfi. This visit is regarded as the origin of the Arbaeen pilgrimage, a tradition of Ziyarat, of traveling to honor and commune spiritually with Imam al-Hussain, that has continued unbroken across fourteen centuries.

The Arbaeen Walk: A Global Phenomenon

Every year, tens of millions of pilgrims converge on the city of Karbala, Iraq, to mark Arbaeen. The pilgrimage is notable not only for its extraordinary scale but for its character. Millions of people walk on foot from the city of Najaf, site of the shrine of Imam Ali, to Karbala, a journey of approximately 80 kilometers, or roughly 50 miles. Along this route, local Iraqi families and volunteers set up thousands of stations offering food, water, medical care, and rest to the walkers at no charge, an expression of hospitality and devotion that has no parallel in scale anywhere in the world.

The gathering has been estimated in recent years to draw upward of 20 million participants, surpassing every other recurring human assembly on the planet. Pilgrims travel from Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan, India, Azerbaijan, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, the United States, and dozens of other nations. The Arbaeen walk is notably diverse, drawing not only Shia Muslims but Sunni Muslims, Christians, and people of other faiths who are moved by the story and the spirit of Karbala.

What Arbaeen Means for Shia Muslims

For Shia Muslims, Arbaeen is more than a commemoration of grief. It is an annual renewal of allegiance to the values for which Imam al-Hussain gave his life: justice, dignity, the refusal to submit to tyranny, and the willingness to stand for truth even at the greatest personal cost. The act of walking to Karbala, of choosing hardship as an expression of love and solidarity, reflects the Shia conviction that the message of Imam al-Hussain must be actively lived, not merely remembered.

Imam al-Hussain himself is quoted in Shia tradition as having declared on the day of Ashura: "If you do not believe in any religion and do not fear the hereafter, at least be free in your present life." This appeal to the universal human conscience, to the inherent dignity of every person and the moral obligation to resist oppression, is what Shia Muslims carry with them to Karbala on Arbaeen and what they bring back to their communities around the world.

About the Shia Muslim Foundation

The Shia Muslim Foundation is a national organization dedicated to the civic, legal, and community advancement of Shia Muslims in the United States. SMF engages with government officials, civil society, and interfaith partners to ensure that the voices and rights of Shia American communities are represented and protected.

MPAC Says Meta Political Ads Are Monetizing Islamophobia Ahead of the 2026 Midterms

MPAC says anti-Muslim political messaging is being amplified through paid ads on Meta platforms ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

According to MPAC's Sharia Scare tracker, its Center for Security, Technology, and Policy identified 214 Facebook and Instagram political ads that portrayed Muslim communities or Islamic practices as threats. MPAC says the ads generated an estimated 11.8 million to 13.8 million impressions and cost between $172,600 and $212,525 across nine states. MPAC labels the section "Paid to Hate" and says a fuller report is forthcoming.

The finding sits at the intersection of civil rights, public safety, and election integrity. Meta says in its own 2026 midterm elections update that advertisers running political, election, or social-issue ads must complete authorization and include a paid-for-by disclaimer. Meta also says those ads are stored in the public Ad Library for seven years.

Transparency, however, does not answer the whole question. A disclaimer can show who paid for an ad, but it does not undo the effect of repeated messages telling voters that Muslims, mosques, Islamic schools, or Sharia are threats to American life. MPAC's concern is that platforms profit when candidates and committees buy fear-based messaging at scale.

MPAC has been tracking the same narrative in Congress and state legislatures. Its Sharia Scare tracker lists a Sharia Free America Caucus, federal bills targeting Sharia, and state measures that frame Islamic religious practice as a legal danger. In its May 16 iMPACt newsletter, MPAC said Texas had become a flashpoint for coordinated anti-Muslim harassment and that CSTP was tracking anti-Muslim political ads on Meta platforms.

For SMF, this is not only a national politics story. SMF's mission includes promoting awareness about contemporary Shia religious, political, and social issues to the broader American community. SMF has also worked on anti-Muslim hate, mosque security, immigration policy, and government engagement. When paid political narratives present Muslim civic participation as a threat, they can make local advocacy harder and community safety more fragile.

The danger is cumulative. An individual ad may be framed as commentary on immigration, land use, foreign law, or national security. But when hundreds of ads repeat the same imagery and claims, they can build a climate in which ordinary Muslim religious life appears suspicious. That climate can spill into school-board meetings, city councils, congressional hearings, mosque zoning disputes, and law-enforcement interactions.

Meta's public election policies offer a starting point for accountability. The company says it will block new political, electoral, and social-issue ads during the final week of the campaign, require AI disclosures in certain political ads, and add more information to ads detected as created with third-party AI tools. Civil-rights groups will likely ask whether those systems are sufficient when the issue is not only false voting information but also paid demonization of a religious minority.

MPAC's data gives Muslim organizations a practical task: monitor ads, preserve examples, report policy violations, and alert local partners when digital messaging targets specific communities. For policymakers, the question is whether election transparency rules should also measure how paid platforms profit from bigotry. For communities, the answer must include civic participation, media literacy, and a refusal to let paid fear define Muslim public life.