673 the Places of Ahl Al-Bayt in Bilad Al-Sham: the Making
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ARAM, 18-19 (2006-2007) 673-693.A. doi:EL SANDOUBY 10.2143/ARAM.19.0.2020752 673 THE PLACES OF AHL AL-BAYT IN BILAD AL-SHAM: THE MAKING OF A “SHRINE”1 Mrs. ALIAA EL SANDOUBY, PhD Candidate (University of California at LA) Most Muslim tourists traveling to Syria today enjoy performing ziyara (pi- ous visitation) to the many places there commemorating the presence of Ahl al-bayt (family of the Prophet Muhammad). Those tourists who participate in organized tours to Damascene and other Syrian ziyara places are continuously conscious of Syria’s sacred geography and the opportunities for religious con- tact with Ahl al-bayt that most Syrian cities provide.2 This sense of conscious- ness of the places that could bear evidence of an Ahl al-bayt presence was what brought visitors and pilgrims to Damascus and other cities in the Bilad al-Sham region for centuries.3 While this sense of spiritual awareness and the overall religious experience of today’s tourists and that of medieval pilgrims may not differ much (the set of behaviors, rituals and beliefs are as best as we can tell substantially similar), their visual experience of the spaces of Ahl al- bayt has certainly changed with time. This paper is concerned with some of the aspects that contributed to the making of “shrines” for Ahl al-bayt in Bilad al- Sham. The dynamics that were involved in the making and remaking of these places included the set of narratives that were usually displayed within these places and that were often activated through sustained ritual participation. This sustained engagement between narrative, form and ritual continue to de- fine these places until today. The choice of terminology for this inquiry is challenging. The use of the term “shrine,” like many other terms borrowed from the Christian and western understanding, is problematic in the context of Islam.4 More problematic is 1 This paper is part of my larger inquiry into the history and use of the Ahl al-bayt shrines in Cairo and Damascus from the medieval to the modern period. 2 Several travel agencies offer packaged tours of the Ahl al-bayt shrines and other popular ziyara destinations in Syrian cities, mainly for Iranian visitors. The establishment of the Tehran- Damascus train route in 2002 has provided an alternative cheap method for Iranian pilgrims, who would otherwise travel by bus to Damascus. Most tours include the shrines of Zaynab and Ruqayya in Damascus, then offer bus tours to either the shrine of Abu Dharr al-Ghifari in Hims, the shrine of al-Husayn in Aleppo, or that of ‘Ammar Ibn Yasir and other Companions in Raqqa and a return by bus to Damascus. 3 Damascus was part of the Bilad al-Sham region or Greater Syria which once included what is today Syria, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon. 4 “Saint” is another problematic term that cannot be applied to the Islamic context. For a full discussion of the variety of terms used to denote the spiritual status of revered holy figures in Islam, particularly in the Indian Subcontinent, see: P. M. Currie, The Shrine and Cult of Mu'in al-Din Chishti of Ajmer (Delhi: 1992), 1-15. 06-8819_Aram 18-19_34_Sandouby 673 06-26-2007, 18:44 674 THE PLACES OF AHL AL-BAYT IN BILAD AL-SHAM selecting one word in the English language that translates the variety of terms used in medieval Arabic sources to denote such places. Arabic terms such as: mashhad, maqam, darih, mazar and masjid were interchangeably used in me- dieval Arabic texts to denote such places.5 Each of these words present com- plex ranges of meanings relating to distinct forms and practices that developed over time. The term “mashhad, pl. mashahid” was generally used to refer to a commemorative structure that contains or marks the tomb of a holy figure, or to refer to a site of religious visitation.6 According to Ibn Sida (d. 458/1065-6), al-mashhad is the place where people are assembled or gathered, and mashahid Makka are the places of gatherings at Mecca.7 Ibn Manzur (d. 711/ 1311-2) identifies al-mashhad as a place where a martyr (shahid) or a holy fig- ure had died.8 “Maqam, pl. maqamat” is another term commonly used in ref- erence to the Ahl al-bayt shrines. Medieval Arabic dictionaries identify the maqam as a place of the feet, a place of stationing, and a place of continuance, stay or residence. Maqam Ibrahim at the Ka‘ba is the place of his footprints (mawdi‘ qadamuh).9 al-Maqam al-karim (the noble maqam),10 promised in the Qur’an to believers in Heaven, has been identified as a minbar (pulpit), or a manzila hasana (distinguished position), or a majlis (assembly).11 The word “darih, pl. adriha” refers to a trench in the middle of the grave, or to the grave altogether.12 The term “mazar, pl. mazarat,” comes from the same root of ziyara and refers to a place, and time, of visiting. “Masjid, pl. masajid” (lit. the place of prostration, place of prayer) often refers to the shrines when mosques are attached to them.13 The Ahl al-bayt shrines and other revered places were presumably named after their most striking functions; they were places of witnessing (mashhad), visitation (mazar) and prostration (masjid). Apparently “shrines” in this con- 5 The terms qabr, turba and marqad were also used. 6 Reinhart Pieter Anne Dozy, Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes, 2 vols. (Beirut: Librairie Liban, 1968), 1: 794. See also: Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed. (hereafter, EI2) (Leiden, 1956 – ), s.v. “Mashhad.” 7 Abi'l Hasan ‘Ali Ibn Isma'il Ibn Sidah, al-Muhkam wa-al-muhit al-a'zam, 11 vols. (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-’Ilmiya, 2000), 4:182. See also, Majd al-Din Muhammad al-Fayruz Badi, al- Qamus al-muhit, 4 vols. (Cairo: al-Babi al-Halabi, 1952), 1: 317. 8 Muhammad Ibn Mukarram Ibn Manzur, Lisan al-'arab, 15 vols. (Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1955), 3: 241. 9 'Ali Ibn Abi Bakr al-Harawi, Kitab al-isharat ila ma’rifat al-ziyarat (Damascus: al-Ma’had al-Firinsi bi-Dimashq, 1953), 86. 10 Qur’an, 44: 26. 11 Ibn Manzur, Lisan, 12: 498, 506. Ibn Sidah, al-Muhkam, 6:589, 595. 12 Ibn Manzur, Lisan, 2: 526-527. Ibn Sidah, al-Muhkam, 3 127. 13 See: Ibn Manzur, Lisan, 3: 204-205. For a discussion of the use of the terms “mashhad” and “masjid” in the context of the Ahl al-bayt shrines built by the Fatimids in Cairo, see: Thomas Leisten, “Dynastic Tomb or Private Mausolea: Observations on the Concept of Funerary Structures of the Fatimid and ‘Abbasid Caliphs,” in L'Egypte fatimide, son art et son histoire, ed. Marianne Barrucand (Paris: Presse de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 1999), 478, f.n. 107. 06-8819_Aram 18-19_34_Sandouby 674 06-26-2007, 18:44 A. EL SANDOUBY 675 text were perceived to be places where people would assemble for ritual prac- tice. The presence and movement of pilgrims and ritual participants is indeed central to the continuity of such places.14 Yet, in the collective perception of a “shrine,” architecture plays a crucial role. It represents the visual and physical signifier of the shrine’s space. A building recognized as mashhad in khitat and fada’il sources often, but not always, had a dome (qubba), usually placed on top of the specific place that marks the burial within the larger structure.15 Both of these aspects of the shrines’ space (ritual and physical form) were sus- tained through the conscious use of narrative.16 Without an active narrative testifying to the “truthfulness” of these shrine places, as this paper will dem- onstrate, pilgrims and visitors often abandoned these places, and eventually, their physical manifestations fell into neglect. Ahl al-bayt in the sacred geography of Bilad al-Sham: The special reverence that all Muslims hold for Ahl al-bayt is based on the obvious textual endorsement of their love and devotion in the Qur’an and the hadith.17 The support for this special standing in the Qur’an is found mainly in verse 33:3318 (God wishes only to remove filthiness away from you ahl al- bayt and to cleanse you completely).19 Different interpretations of the precise 14 Robert S. Nelson and Margaret Rose Olin, Monuments and Memory, Made and Unmade (University of Chicago Press, 2003), 11. 15 Qubba is another term that was used in reference to shrines and mausolea. For a discussion of the architectural connotation of this term in the palatial context, see: Nasser Rabbat, “Mamluk Throne Halls: Qubba or Iwan,” Ars Orientalis 23 (1993): 202. 16 May al-Ibrashy, “Re-Shaping Memory, Re-Shaping Space: The Periodic Re-Invention of Cairo's Cemeteries,” in Spaces and Places of Virtue: The Dynamics of Sanctification. (The Center for Near Eastern Studies, UCLA International Institute Roundtable: 2003). 17 For the virtues of love and devotion to Ahl al-bayt, see: ‘Abdallah Ibn Muhammad al- Shubrawi, Kitab al-ithaf bi-hub al-ashraf (Cairo: al-Matba'a al-Adabiya, 1896), 4-5, 83-84, 99- 109, Taqiyy al-Din Ahmad Ibn ‘Ali al-Maqrizi, Ma’rifat ma yajib li-al al-bayt al-nabawi min al- haqq ‘ala man ‘adahum, 2e ed. (Cairo: Dar al-I’tisam, 1973), 19-79, Muhammad Ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sakhawi, Istijlab itriqa' al-ghuraf bi-hub aqriba' al-rasul wa dhawi al-sharaf, 2 vols. (Beirut: Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyya, 2000). 18 Another Qur’anic endorsement of the Prophet’s family is found in verse 42: 23; “Say: No reward do I ask of you (for this) except the love of those near of kin.” Other interpretations of this verse refer to Quraysh (the Prophet’s own relatives and tribe) as the Prophet’s near of kin (qurba).