Although the commemoration of the dead is a universal and a long-standing tradition, early Islam is widely known to have resisted it. After a relatively long period of observing prevention, such a persistent practice found its way to...
moreAlthough the commemoration of the dead is a universal and a long-standing tradition, early Islam is widely known to have resisted it. After a relatively long period of observing prevention, such a persistent practice found its way to Islamic culture. It is true that celebrating the dead was introduced to the realm of Islam before the Shīʿī Fatimids founded their caliphate in Egypt in 358/969, but it was under them that this praxis reached the zenith. The Fatimids were succeeded by the Ayyūbids who, in spite of being a zealous Sunnī dynasty, upheld the tradition of celebrating the departed notables, particularly the pious ones (awliyāʾ). The aim in this paper is to explore how such an observance, which is mainly deemed unorthodox in the eye of Sunni Islam, was maintained in Egypt under the Ayyūbids (567/1172-648/1250). In particular, the paper attempts to give an insight into: (i) the types of the dead dignitaries that were celebrated in Ayyūbid Egypt; (ii) the features needed for their biographies to be canonized―in the Islamic sense; (iii) the architectural expressions that were employed to celebrate their memory; (iv) and the meaning of such a procedure.
Keywords: The dead, Ayyūbid, mausolea, Egypt, funerary, pious, celebration, public.