Photo: Tomb of Ezra in the southern Iraqi town of Al-Azair near Basra

Fri May 1, 6:56 AM ET

Bashir Zaalan, a Shiite Muslim Iraqi who cares for the shrine of Ezra, in the southern Iraqi town of Al-Azair near Basra, points to Hebrew script etched on the doors of wall cupboards at the shrine which used to house the Jewish Torah scrolls, April 16. Ezra, the towering scholar of Jewish law, is said to have led several hundred Israelites back to Jerusalem in the 5th century BC. (AFP/File)

Fri May 1, 6:56 AM ET

Bashir Zaalan, a Shiite Muslim Iraqi who cares for the shrine of Ezra — the towering scholar of Jewish law said to have led several hundred Israelites back to Jerusalem in the 5th century BC — stands with a visitor in the main hall of the shrine, now a mosque, in the southern Iraqi town of Al-Azair near Basra, some 550kms from Baghdad. (AFP/File)