There are 2 different accounts as to how the revolt began: According to the first account, after Ottoman troops forced women to lower their veils while turning over every last rock in pursuit of the absent men, resentments finally boiled over on 22 May as rebels laid siege to government buildings and the army barracks, erected checkpoints, and even tore up the telegraph poles for several miles to prevent any relief from reaching the garrison.

[4] According to the second account, a survivor of the Battle of Shaiba, Karim al Haji Sa'ad, entered the town, which was under martial law at the time, with 30 men through a hole in the wall and resisted Ottoman attempts to retake Najaf for 24 hours, before help allowed him to secure the city, leading the Ottoman troops present to withdraw.

[5] Charles R. H. Tripp notes that although the revolt was anti-Ottoman in a broad sense, the uprising was not in support of the British war effort and instead intended to grant the city higher administrative autonomy.

[5] According to Keiko Sakai, the pro-British Anaza tribe migrated to the vicinity of Najaf in October 1917, and when they were attacked by the Najafis for refusing to pay taxes, the British sent a force to directly assume control.

[7] In early January 1918, a small number of British troops arrived in Kufa, which likely led the Najafi sheikhs to believe they were hard-pressed in other fronts.

[5] Since the sheikhs were unable to mobilize popular support in Najaf, the British were able to swiftly recapture the city on 19 January, ending the first revolt.

[9] In the morning of 19 March 1918, a number of Najafis led by Haji Najm al-Baqqal disguised as Shabanah, the British-employed Arab police, entered the citadel of Najaf where they murdered Captain William M. Marshall, who had been stationed in the city since 1 February 1918.

[10] It was not desired to treat the city, which contains one of the most holy shrines of the Shiahs and is surrounded by a very high wall, in an ordinary way, i.e., by shelling or by direct assault.

A strict blockade was, therefore, ordered [...] The firmness with which the situation was handled, the fairness with which the law-abiding inhabitants were treated and the scrupulous care which was taken to avoid damage to holy persons and places, created a most favourable impression on all the surrounding tribes and contributed in no small degree to the subsequent establishment of friendly relations.

[4] The Najafis took possession of a group of mounds, collectively known as Tel Huwaysh, and manned the city walls and bastions with troops armed mainly with abandoned Turkish rifles.

[4] On 7 April, the British launched a large artillery barrage and captured the Huwaish mounds dominating the town with 2 Indian battalions[2] and evacuated officials.

[5] After the failure of the revolt, one of the uprising's ringleaders wrote the following poem prior to facing execution:[10] [...] We [rebelled] with the strongest of determination, Forbidding us from fearing death or from compromising.

In 2015, a basic historical outline of the Najaf revolt entered the Iraqi educational curriculum, becoming part of the national history textbook for twelfth graders.

However, this view is contested by Haddad (2012), who states that the "Najafi rebellion was a localized affair that fed off the anti British sentiments of the jihad movement.