This mosque is also called Masjid ar-Raʾs (Arabic: مَسْجِد ٱلرَّأْس), meaning "Mosque of the Head" (of Husayn ibn Ali), because Husain's head was kept in its middle, while being taken to his opponent Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad, according to a hadith (narration) attributed to his descendant, Ja'far al-Sadiq.

[3][4] According to Shaykh Al-Mufid, Sayyed Ibn Tawus and Shahid Awwal, when people arrived at the Al-Hannanah Mosque, they should recite two-unit prayers.

Al-Buraqi believed that this mosque was built by order of Abbas I of Persia, and due to this, he was known amongst the people of Najaf.

According to Mohammad Hirz Eddin and Mirza Hadi el-Khurasani, Ghazan ibn Hulagu Khan ordered its construction.

[2] According to a narration of Ja'far al-Sadiq, after Ali ibn Abi Talib died, his sons, Hasan and Husayn, carried his body from Kufa to Najaf.