Masses of food are prepared in outdoor kitchens which have been set up to cater to the communal iftaar dinners popular with hundreds of devout Shiite Muslims pilgrims in the southern city of Najaf some 160 kms from Iraq's capital Baghdad.

Favourite foods during Ramzan in Iraq are Baqlawa (a pastry filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey), Zlabia (an Iraqi version of Jalebis that uses honey), Qatayef (a Ramzan special -- a pancake stuffed with cheese and/or nuts), Al Dolma (grape leaves stuffed with a mixture of beef or lamb mince mixed with rice spiked with pomegranate juice), Kebbat Halab and of course Biryani! Iraqi Biryani may have pine nuts, carrots, vermicelli, potatoes, peas in it in addition to cardamom, cloves, black pepper and chicken or lamb. Photographs: Qassem Zein/AFP/Getty Images