This project will investigate and write a comprehensive history of a politically contested shrine using documentary and oral sources from Iraqi Shia, local Iraqi and Iraqi Jewish communities. It will also recognize that the contested history of the shrine means that effective preservation requires community political mobilization from stakeholder communities. The project then also looks to the creation of a joint forum for both steering the research, so that competing narratives are negotiated and reconciled with the historical record and by both sides, and for creating and implementing an action plan for mobilizing to preserve the shrine in both its Jewish and Islamic role. The forum will prioritize sustainable development and create a model for future projects.