This morning we left Halabja and headed to Byara, the village where both my parents were born, and where my father was raised. He loves that village very much, and his fondest memories were there. The village is a 10 minute straight road, and a 10 minute mountain road from Halabja. ten minutes after we left, we made a stop at a small village in between Byara and Halabja, called Bakha kon, whose literal translation means "old orchard". It is the burial place of sheikh Hussam al Deen, one of four very influential and brilliant shiekhs from that area, and some of the most influential of that time. With their deaths, even news channels in places like yemen and the gulf countries mourned their deaths.
The grave of the sheikh we visited had built an Islamic college there up in the mountains, and he trained future imams and sheikhs for decades to come. He did many charitable things, including opening a free bakery with his sheikh colleagues. The old college buildings still stand, and people visit them in flocks daily to make dua, including people from Iraq, like the owners of this van, whose license plate says its from Baghdad!
The old college was perched on the side of a mountain, where right beneath it an orchard of pomegranates and berries was. The old college used to be surrounded by a bustling village, but in the 1980's Saddam Hussein and his army destroyed the entire area, including that village and dozens of others. Even though all the other buildings had been destroyed, this one had remained intact.
Inside the old college building is where the Sheikh who taught there is buried. He is surrounded by the graves of other sheikhs that greatly influenced the area, most of which are his pupils. We found interesting creature on the Masjid pole as well, sorry for anyone scared of spiders!
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