Celebrating Dead in Ayyūbid Egypt: and A Survey intoVolume Meaning and2,Architectural Journal of Association the of Arab Universities for Tourism Hospitality, 11, No. December 2014, 77 – 96 Celebrating the Dead in Ayyūbid Egypt: A Survey into Meaning and Architectural Manifestation Essam S. Ayyad Suez Canal University Abstract 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, this antique practice found its way to Islamic culture. It is true that celebrating the dead was introduced to the realm of Islam before the Shīʿī Fāṭimids founded their caliphate in Tunisia in 296/909, but it was under them that this praxis reached the zenith. The Fāṭimids were succeeded by the Ayyūbids who, in spite of having been 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 a practice, which is widely deemed unorthodox in the eye of Sunnī 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 departed dignitaries that were celebrated under the Ayyūbids; (ii) the features that ought to exist in their biographies so as 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. ..................................................................................................................................................................................... Introduction Islamic Sunnī law developed a clearly pejorative stance against funerary architecture. Such a stance is based on quite a big number of prophetic traditions. All accentuate that a grave must not be underscored by any given means, including: tajṣīṣ, ‘treatment with lime-mortar’, taṭyīn, ‘covering with clay’ and kitāba, ‘inscription’.1 First and foremost, mosques must not be built on a tomb or at a graveyard. 2 Islam’s condemnation of putting up structures, particularly religious ones, over sepulchres is typically assumed to mirror a static opposition to idolatry and polytheism: both are believed to have developed from exalting the graves of the departed ancestors, principally the pious amongst them.3 This situation, as believed by a majority of Muslim scholars, represented a genuine menace to early Islam and an enormous challenge for the Prophet and the early religious authorities who were concerned that the same practice would allure the adherents of the new religion. This may explain the huge corpus of tradition in which the Prophet, followed by early ṣaḥābīs and tabiʿīs, expresses conspicuous censure to any sort of celebrating the dead. 4 Narrated ʿĀʾisha: Umm Ḥabība and Umm Salama [two of the Prophet’s wives] mentioned a church they had seen in Abyssinia. In which there were pictures. They told the Prophet about it and he said: ‘If any pious man dies amongst those people they would build a place of worship at his grave and make such pictures in it. Those will be the worst creatures in the sight of God on the Day of Judgment.’5 Such a tendency was strong enough to guarantee the prevention of erecting any funerary structures for at least several decades. This assumption is backed up by the absence of any reliable archaeological evidence for tombs or mausolea dating to the time of the Rāshidūn or the Umayyads. Some ascribe the lacking Umayyad funerary structures to mutilation done to them by the ʿAbbāsids who wanted to wipe out the history of their political opponents. According to this point of view, the Umayyads’ tombs were obliterated, their graves were exhumed and their bones were buried in unknown places.6 It may be for this reason why the burial places of the majority of the ʿAbbāsid caliphs were reportedly hidden.7 We are told, for instance, that a hundred graves were made for Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr, lest his body should be desecrated if tracked down by adversaries. This hypothesis, however, is doubtful still, for it fails to explain why we could not find in the sources any reference to an Umayyad tomb, in case any once existed. The most acceptable theory is that the Umayyads did not fundamentally erect funerary domes. In keeping with this line of thinking, Creswell states that the prohibition of building domes on graves was observed until the third/ninth century. The first caliph to let his burial place revealed was al-Muntaṣir (r. 861/247862/248), son of al-Mutawakkil (r. 847/232-861/247). A dome, known as Ṣulaybiyya, was built for him in Samarra in 248/862 by command of his Greek mother. 8 Oleg Grabar, providing a useful chronological listing for the early Islamic mausolea,9 theorizes that the Qubbat al-Ṣulaybiyya was followed by that of Ismāʿīl al-Sāmanī in Bukhara (295/907). According to him, the tomb of imām ʿAlī at Najaf was topped with a dome for the first time in 289/902.10 The reports on the comrades of the ṣaḥābī ʿUtba b. Usayd (whose epithet was Abū Baṣīr) building a mosque on his grave in 6/627-8 is deemed by a majority of art historians as antedated. 11 There are reports, however, that funerary domed structures were introduced to Islam in the late second/eighth century; that is even before the Ṣulaybiyya. We are told that when the mother of the vizier al-Faḍl b. Yaḥyā b. Barmak died, Hārūn al-Rashīd (r. 170/786-193/809) ordered that a dome should 78 Essam S. Ayyad be built on her grave. It was later known as the Barmakid Dome. 12 Further, al-Maʾmūn (r. 198/813-218/833) erected a dome over the tomb of al-Rashīd and another on that of ʿAlī b. Mūsā al-Riḍā (d. 203/819).13 Pl. (1): Qubbat al-Ṣulaybiyya In Islamic Egypt, funerary architecture is said to have been known even before the advent of the Fāṭimids. It began as an aristocratic display. The Mashhad of Āl Ṭabāṭabā (334/943) from the Ikhshīdid period is widely believed to be the earliest example of a domed funerary structure in Islamic Egypt.14 According to some, such precedence goes to the Seven Domes (400/1010).15 We shall see below that even these are said to have been preceded by older examples. In what follows, we will try to investigate the terminology and connotations related to funerary structures in Ayyūbid Egypt. The paper will then look into the places where the Muslim Egyptians usually buried their dead. It will also look into the nature of the observances that took place in such necropolises. This will be followed by an attempt to identify those departed ones whose tombs were celebrated in the same period of time. We will further explore the rationale behind such a selection. Also, there will be an inquiry into how the graves of those departed notables were accentuated architecturally. It should be noted, here, that this paper does not aim to discuss the architectural evolution of the Ayyūbid mausolea in Egypt, for this has been copiously dealt with by recent research. Rather, it will try to explore which forms prevailed and why. In this regard, the mausoleum of imam al-Shāfiʿī will be dealt with as a model. Fig.(1): Map of Ayyūbid Cairo (Yeomans, 2006) Celebrating the Dead in Ayyūbid Egypt: A Survey into Meaning and Architectural 79 Terminology and usage It seems that in the fourth/tenth century, the term mashhad was used to denote, in addition to purely funerary structures, the mosques beneath which the pious dead were allegedly buried. Both words, mashhad and masjid, were used interchangeably and both were conceived as blessed places. Al-Ḥasan b. Ibrāhīm al-Laythī, best known as Ibn Zulāq (d. 387/997), used the subheading: ‘the blessed mosques and the great mashhads’ to relate his reports on the mosques which were built on the graves of the notable ṣaḥābīs and tabiʿīs.16 For Ibn Zulāq, such places were known for the high prospect that supplication at them was likely to be fulfilled.17 In this sense, mashhad is used to specify any place that is visited (literally witnessed) by the masses, particularly in search of benediction and blessings. Even before the advent of the Ayyūbids, there were generally two types of mashhads: real ones and cenotaphs. In medieval Islam, the latter―usually referred to in the sources as mashāhid al-ruʾyā― proved to be a workable device for the Fāṭimids’ popularity. They continued to be employed under the Ayyūbids. It usually happened that the supreme religious leader (al-shaykh al-ajall) in a certain district would declare that he saw in a dream a sacred figure asking that a commemorative tomb should be dedicated to him in a particular place. Sometimes, such a sacred figure is ‘canonized’ by the Prophet himself through a dream or a vision. For example, al-Fakhr al-Fārisī (d. 622/1225), whose titles included: ‘the greatest shaykh of Islam and the conqueror of heretics’, is said to have seen the Prophet Muḥammad in a dream asking him to build a mosque at the tomb of shaykh Abū al-Khayr al-Tīnātī.18 Likewise, the tomb of Shihāb al-Dīn al-ʿUmarī (d. 629/1232) is said to be marked out for him by the Prophet in a dream. 19 Also, a tomb attributed to an anonymous repentant young man was said to be a place where supplication was to be accepted. It is said that one of the pious people, ‘ṣāliḥūn’, saw the Prophet in dream while praying and supplicating God towards it.20 Such reports, even if not verified, were enough for the plebs to have belief in the divine privilege of such places.21 Pl. (2): Grave of Abū al-Khayr al-Tīnātī The most common expression used by the medieval Muslim sources to connect such sacred figures to the shrines dedicated to them in Egypt, a place which none of them is known to have once visited, was: ‘raʾawhum fi-l manām’, or ‘ruʾū fi-l manām’, ‘they have been seen in dream’.22 Some of such pseudo-burial places were dedicated to the Prophet himself, such as the one at Qūṣ in Upper Egypt. Also in the same village, a cenotaph was devoted to ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib.23 In Mahalla, there were cenotaphs for Fāṭima, her husband ʿAlī and son al-Ḥusayn. Similar cenotaphs were found in Shata, Tanis, and Tuna.24 The funerary structures of statesmen, who for their most part lacked the needed religious prestige, are usually referred to in the literature using terms like ḍarīḥ and qubba, but not mashhad. The latter, it seems, had to be linked with frequent visits of those seeking blessings―perhaps intercession (see below). Linguistically, the term ḍarīḥ is so called on account of it being dug in earth. According to Ibn Manẓūr, ‘ḍarīḥ’ is used when the crevice (where the dead is interred) is located in the middle of the grave; if it is made on one side of it, then it is called ‘laḥd’. Just like qabr, the term ḍarīḥ was later used to specify both the grave and any topping structure.25 Other Arabic synonyms include maqbara, madfan and maqām. The latter is commonly used―alongside mashhad―to exclusively denote the tombs belonging to the Muslim saints (i.e. ashrāf and ṣūfīs, together referred to as awliyāʾu-llāh, ‘those devoted to God’). The graveyard, on the other hand, was commonly referred to as turba. It was further known as ḥūsh and zarbiyya. Examples of the former are the ḥūsh of al-Fāsī,26 and that of al-Zaʿfarānī.27 An example of the latter is the zarbiyya, ‘lit. pen’, of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Fārisī.28 It encloses a number of other tombs for people who died in the Ayyūbid period, such as al-Fārisī’s emancipated slave shaykh Bilāl (d. 631/1234) and Karīm al-Dīn al-Aʿjamī, the shaykh of the well-known Khanqā of Saʿīd al-Suʿadāʾ.29 Where did the Muslim Egyptians bury their dead? According to al-Maqrīzī, in the beginning―since the Muslim conquest and the foundation of Fusṭāṭ―the Muslims of Egypt used to bury their dead near their dwellings in the eastern part of Miṣr, i.e. in the place later known as al-Qarāfa 80 Essam S. Ayyad al-Kubrā, ‘the Great Necropolis’. 30 Al-Qarāfa al-Ṣughrā, ‘the Small Necropolis’, however, was located at the foot of the Muqaṭṭam Hill,31 which itself was regarded as a blessed gravesite. The Necropolis was given this name after a tribe called the Banū Qarāfa b. Mughāfir. A man called ʿĀmir, from this tribe, is said to have been the first Muslim to be buried there.32 Ibn Zulāq remarked that the Muqaṭṭam was looked upon by the public as a part of al-Ṭūr al-Muqaddas in Sinai.33 Some reports argue that such a place was prophesied by the Prophet Jesus to be the boneyard of fortunate Muslims.34 The hill was recognized as the gravesite of the pious people, and hence it was widely known to contain ghirās al-janna, ‘the seedlings of Paradise’.35 It is reported of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī to have said that it is from the Muqaṭṭam that the martyrs are to be led to God on the Day of Resurrection. 36 Fig (2): Location of the two main necropolises (Yeomans, 2006) The Qarāfa was not simply a gravesite, but it witnessed a range of public events. A number of the ruʾasāʾ, ‘notables’, are said to have accustomed to sleeping in al-Qarāfa’s chief mosque and to spending the summer nights conversing in its court. Stating that the presence of such notables attracted the plebs, al- Maqrīzī indicates that this was the case with the majority of the mosques and mashhads at the Qarāfa and the al-Muqaṭṭam. The public were tempted to attend by the varieties of sweet, meat and other items of food that were either brought to or made at these places. 37 What did the Qarāfa look like in medieval Islam? Mūsā b. Muḥammad b. Saʿīd, 38 who himself spent many nights in the Qarāfa of Fusṭāṭ, reported that the tombs, including the great, high and ornate domed one of al-Shāfiʿī, were topped with carefully built structures.39 Ironically, the Qarāfa, which according to al-Maqrīzī looked like a white township,40 served as a recreational area for the people of medieval Miṣr who gathered there in moony nights and were entertained even by singers.41 In spite of the many texts of interdiction (including ḥadīths, commentaries and treatises), the erection of tombs was not presumably deemed an explicit transgression by the contemporary Sunnī scholars. It should be noted here that quite a big corpus of ḥadīth praised ziyāra, ‘visits to the cemetery’, and thus later commentaries established the etiquette related to it.42 Imām Abū Muḥammad al-Qāsim al-Shāṭibī (d. 590/1194), for example, who spent much of his life teaching ḥadīth at the Madrasa Fāḍiliyya, was buried in the ‘constructed’ tomb of al-qāḍī al-Fāḍil (d. 596/1200), the renowned wordsmith and vizier of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn.43 Tombs were visited not only by the laity but also by the religious elite. The difference in motivation and behaviour of both teams may well explain why it was not religiously accepted for the former and accepted for the latter. The grave of al-Layth b. Saʿd (d. ca. 175/791), for instance, was visited by imām al-Shāfiʿī who liked to pay tribute to the former’s memory. 44 Celebrating the Dead in Ayyūbid Egypt: A Survey into Meaning and Architectural 81 Pl. (3): Mashhad of al-Qāsim al-Shāṭibī Whatever the form such early tombs had taken, they were reportedly habitually frequented and celebrated by the Shīʿī crowds even before the advent of the Fāṭimids. Al-Maqrīzī expressly states―on the authority of an eyewitness, Ibn Zulāq― that a group of Shīʿī wailers used to visit on the Day of ʿĀshurāʾ the two Mashahds of Sayyida Nafīsa and Umm Kulthūm (even under the IkhshIdids and Kāfūr). This usually caused some fierce friction between them and the Sunni citizens. According to al-Maqrīzī’s account of Ibn Zulāq, such Shīʿī mourners were particularly consolidated by al-Muʿizz’s ascension to the Egyptian throne. Formerly, they were tamed by Kāfūr and his Sudanese allies. 45 Pl. (4): Mashhad of Sayyida Umm Kulthūm Al-Maqrīzī tells us that the Qarāfa was usually visited on Wednesdays before this was replaced with Thursday’s nights (laylat al-Jumuʿa).46 According to him, the first to launch Wednesday’s visit was a Shāfiʿīte, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh b. Rafiʿ (also known as ʿĀbid, d. 638/1241), who started his visit with the Mashhad of Sayyida Nafīsa.47 However, the first to visit the cemetery at Thursday’s night was Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Jawshan (known as Ibn al-Jabbās) who gathered the people for a visit each Thursday’s night. On occasion, Ibn al-Jabbās was accompanied with the Ayyūbid sultan himself, al-Kāmil, along with the most notable contemporary scholars at that time.48 From the Ayyūbid period, we have examples for funerary monuments founded by those who themselves later lay within. For instance, the mausoleum of the ʿAbbāsid Caliphs, which is architecturally analogous to that of Shajar alDurr, belongs to one Abū Nādila, an ambassador of a number of the ʿAbbāsid Caliphs, who built this ḍarīḥ for himself before he died in 640/1242.49 Likewise, Shajar al-Durr―possibly alerted by the assassination of her husband―built her own mausoleum just few years before her murder in 655/1257.50 Also, beneath the mosque of Zahrūn are the tombs of the Khawlāniyyūn whose names are inscribed on marble gravestones. The gravestone of the one who built the mosque tells his name and the fact that he had built the tomb for himself in 350/961 while at the age of forty-five.51 82 Essam S. Ayyad Pl. (5): Mausoleum of the ʿAbbāsid Caliphs (courtesy of Creswell Archive) There are also cases in Ayyūbid Egypt where the memorial was built by some of the deceased’s family. The mausoleum of al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb (d. 568/1173), for example, was built for him by his widow Shajar alDurr.52 It was not until 648/1250 that his body was moved from his grave at Rawḍa to his, by then, newly erected dome adjoining his madrasa at al-Muʿizz Avenue.53 Sometimes, the will of someone spelled out his/her wish to be buried in a certain place, usually near to a departed righteous figure. The tomb of shaykh Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad al-Fiḍḍī (d. 524/1130) was built near to that of the remarkable muḥaddith Ibn Lahīʿa (d. ca. 174/ 790).54 Also, imām Fakhr al-Dīn ʿAlī b. al-Qafaṣī is said to have asked his kith and kin to bury his corpse in the turba of shaykh Abū al-Faḍl b. al-Jawharī al-Wāʿiẓ (d. 480/1087).55 Just like Ibn Lahīʿa, Abū al-Faḍl had a splendid career; he was a strong proponent of Sunnism. 56 Many of the celebrated tombs were known for the public to be places where invocation was likely to be accepted. Based on dreams, some of those who were buried beneath called for visits and promised rewards. 57 It is usual to read in the sources about dreams related to the cemetery: some telling the high status of the entombed figures, others telling the woes which they suffered, and yet others teaching some of the morals related to visiting of the necropolis. In many cases, these messages were allegedly conveyed by the Prophet himself. 58 Whose tombs were celebrated in Ayyūbid Egypt and why? Departing from the previous point, in this section we will try to investigate the types of personages whose tombs were commended by the populace in Ayyūbid Egypt. Under the Ayyūbids, mausolean structures were generally dedicated to different categories of dignitaries: ṣaḥābīs, ashrāf (descendants of ʿAlī and Fāṭima), faqīhs, ulema, ṣūfīs, ascetics, qāḍīs, and qurrāʾ (Qurʾān scholars and reciters). Apart from the tombs of the ṣaḥābīs and the ashrāf, those attributed to eminent ṣūfī figures were typically the most celebrated. This may well be attributed to the fact that the mystic life and attributes of the ṣūfīs were in a better accordance with the ‘veneration of saints’. In addition, the tombs of those who passed away long ago usually had better prospect of being venerated than the tombs of those who died at a recent date. Usually, the long age gave the necessary context for the spiritual significance of the departed to develop and be established. It would also give enough space for anecdotes to be woven around the blessings of their tombs.59 Pre-Islamic figures Like many peoples of the time, the Muslims of Ayyūbid Egypt were obsessed with commemorating the memory of the eminent dead. Many of the popular tombs in Egypt were already celebrated long time before the Ayyūbids. This was the case not only with tombs of Muslim saints, but also those of pre-Islamic figures―Prophets and other historical figures are included. It was believed, as reported by al-Harawī, that the tombs of Prophet Jacob and his sons Rubin and Yehuda, as well as those of Zuleika, Prophets Moses and Elisha all located in Cairo.60 Public attention was also paid to the place where Mose’s cow is said to have been slaughtered. 61 Further, a mashahd was dedicated to the place where the cup of Potiphar,62 known in Islam as al-ʿAzīz, was found.63 Other mashhads were dedicated to places related to the biography of Joseph, Mose’s, Jesus, Jacob, and Abraham. 64 Of these, Ibn Zulāq acknowledged the existence of the holy valley of Ṭuwā and the palm tree which Mary was commanded to shake so as to feed herself. 65 Celebrating the Dead in Ayyūbid Egypt: A Survey into Meaning and Architectural 83 The grave of Galen of Pergamon is also said to be located somewhere in Pelusium (modern al-Farama).66 A certain mosque was believed by the public in Ayyūbid Egypt to be attributed to Shem, Noah’s eldest son, who according to them was buried therein. Al-Maqrīzī argues that it was originally a synagogue known as Shem, or Sam b. Noah. Al-Sakhāwī excluded such an assumption and attributed the mosque to Muḥammad b. ʿUmar b. Jāmiʿ al-Bannāʾ (d. 591/1195) who was buried in the Qarāfa. 67 Among these and other tombs and memorials, public homage was mainly focused upon those related to the righteous figures in the eye of Islam; while the graves of the Prophets were visited in search of blessings, those attributed to historical figures were mainly visited out of curiosity. Companions of the Prophet The Ayyūbids took certain care of the ṣaḥābīs’ graves. The dynasty’s founder, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn, is said to have erected a dome to enclose the two graves of ʿAmr b. ʿĀṣ and Abū Baṣra al-Ghifārī; both included now in the mashhad of ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir al-Jahnī (d. 58/678),68 which also contains his gabled sarcophagus.69 Pl. (6): Ḍarīḥ of ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir al-Jahnī Pl. (7): Tombstone of ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir al-Jahnī, ʿAmr b. ʿĀṣ and Abū Baṣra al-Ghifārī 84 Essam S. Ayyad Pl.(8): Grave of ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir al-Jahnī Āl al-Bayt A greater and a more established homage was bestowed upon the tombs of the members of the Āl al-Bayt, whose memory was already venerated by the Egyptians long time before the Fāṭimids and the Ayyūbids. For example, alMaqrīzī, quoting al-Kindī’s Umarāʾ, relates that the head of Zayd b. ʿAlī was brought to Egypt in 122/740 by a certain Abū al-Ḥakam b. Abī al-Abyaḍ, who placed it in the mosque and preached to the people who amassed to take a look.70 Moreover, the first to build a memorial structure on the grave of Sayyida Nafīsa was not the Fāṭimids, but ʿUbayd Allāh b. al-Sarī b. al-Ḥakam (r. 206-10/822-6). Her mausoleum was said to have been regularly visited by a great number of ulema and pious people who used to supplicate to God therein; one of those was imam al-Shāfiʿī.71 Pl. (9): Mashhad of Sayyida Nafisa Such deference to the memory of the Āl al-Bayt did not necessarily require a Shīʿī community. Indeed, the advent of the Fāṭimids to Egypt, per se, in 358/969 did not guarantee to convert its Sunnī populace into Shīʿism. This opinion is supported by the fact that the Fāṭimids usually appointed Sunnī figures in vital administrative posts, including the vizierate.72 Ibn Zulāq (d. 387/997) was still able to make a list of the households and individuals who had converted into Shīʿism by his time; his father and grandfather were included. According to him, some disclosed while others concealed their Shīʿism, which was chiefly epitomized by the high acclamation of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib.73 The population of Cairo, in particular, remained largely Sunnīs all through the Fāṭimid Caliphate.74 This would mean that the cenotaphs of the Āl al-Bayt began to be consecrated in Egypt while the public funerary traditions were mainly Sunnī and not Shīʿī, as many would think. That being said, the Fāṭimid use of the cenotaphs of the Āl al-Bayt did do the trick.75 It is true it was not an effective tool for the conversion to Shīʿism, but it acted as a workable device in converging between the Fatimid Celebrating the Dead in Ayyūbid Egypt: A Survey into Meaning and Architectural 85 rulers and their Sunnī subjects; a matter for which the former were desperate (particularly in the aftermath of alMustanṣir’s notoriously detrimental famines). As already referred to, some of the ashrāf’s tombs are real; that is, they include underneath the corpses of those to whom they are attributed. Many others were just memorials or cenotaphs (mashāhid ruʾyā). A good example of the real ones is the above Mashhad Sayyida Nafīsa. It is reported that when she passed in 208/823, her husband, Isḥāq al-Muʾtaman b. Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, contemplated burying her in Madīna but the people of Egypt begged him to leave her blessed body in Egypt and so he did.76 She was buried in her house in Darb al-Sibāʿ, a place where invocation was later said to be accepted. The expression: ‘mujarrab, ‘tried and proven’ is normally used by the narratives to confirm the place’s precedence and prestige. According to al-Maqrīzī, the other three places where invocation is reportedly answered are: the place where Prophet Joseph was imprisoned; the mosque of Moses at Ṭura; and the chamber on the left of the qibla of masjid al-Aqdām at the Qarāfa.77 Also, when al-Afḍal Shahanshah (d. 515 /1121), the famous vizier of the caliph al-Mustaʿlī billāh, was told about the many merits of the sharīf Zayd b. ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn b. al-Ḥusayn, he ordered that the debris of Zayd’s mosque, having been burned in the late Fatimid time, should be cleared out. During the work, al-Afḍal is said to have found the head of Zayd and so built a mashhad for it. Some folkloric tales were connected to this head, which was kept in al-Afḍal’s mosque until the mashhad was built.78 It is also reported of al-Afḍal to have visited the tomb of shaykh Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Jaʿfar al-Khwārizmī (d. 401/1011), which was associated with spiritual features.79 After the decline of the Fatimid caliphate, the ashrāf continued to enjoy special deference. Abouseif argues that the Ayyūbids, while destroying the Fāṭimids’ palaces, could not do the same with their shrines for they were venerated by both the Shiites and the Sunnites. 80 In many cases, some dignitaries who lived under the Ayyūbids stated that they would wish to be buried in the tomb of one of the Āl al-Bayt. The Mashhad of Sukayna bt. al-Ḥusayn, for instance, included the bodies of two eminent figures: Ibrāhīm b. Yaḥyā b. Balwa and Zaynab bt. Ḥasan b. Ibrāhīm b. Balwa (d. 646/1248); both were genealogists and also descendants of ʿAlī and Fāṭima (sharīf nassāba).81 The high prestige of the Āl al-Bayt can be seen from the fact that paying adequate homage to their legacy was itself deemed so virtuous that it brought good reputation. For example, the grave of Suhayl b. Aḥmad, a member of the notorious Barmakīd dynasty, was mentioned with respect by Ibn ʿUthmān only for the former’s appreciation to Āl al-Bayt.82 Pl. (10): Mashhad al-Sayyida Sukayna Ṣūfīs In the Ayyūbid period, many well-known graves were attributed to ṣūfī figures (usually defined as ʿārifīn billāh, ‘those who truly know God’). For example, the renowned ascetic bard, ʿUmar b. al-Fāriḍ (632/1235) was buried at the Qarāfa, near the Muqaṭṭam, just underneath the foot of his departed master, shaykh Muḥammad al-Baqqāl. A ḍarīḥ was built on the former’s grave in the Ayyūbid period. Another example is the grave of the ṣūfī shaykh Abū Isḥāq Ibrahim (d. after 500/1107) which was included in the turba of al-Idfuwī.83 It is attention-grabbing that quite a big number of the celebrated graves in the Fatimid period were for Sunnī ṣūfī figures.84 86 Essam S. Ayyad Some personages combined the two eminent features of being a sharīf and a ṣūfī. A famous example is Shaykh Abū al-Ḥajjāj al-Aqṣurī, who died in 642/1245, namely in the sultanate of al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb. A tomb was built for him at Luxor temple.85 Pl. (11): Masjid and Ḍarīḥ of Abū al-Ḥajjāj al-Aqṣurī Pl. (12): Ḍarīḥ of ʿUmar b. al-Fāriḍ Ulema Under the Ayyūbids, the tombs of notable religious scholars also received public recognition. Nevertheless, the spiritual pre-eminence of scholars is, at least from the public point of view, not as certain as that of the ashrāf or the ṣūfīs. This is may be why the burial places of the former usually needed to be sanctified through narrating some miracles related to them. In the sources, such accounts are usually preceded by phrases like: yuqālu anna, ‘it is said that’, or tazʿumu-l ʿāmmatu anna, ‘the common people claim that’.86 Homage and tribute are said to have been paid to the tombs of early scholars even before the Ayyūbid established their sultanate. Al-Layth b. Saʿd, for instance, was buried at the gravesite of Ṣadaf, or al-Ṣadafiyyīn, which reportedly contained four hundred domes.87 Mainly drawing on al-Maqrīzī’s account on this gravesite, M. H. al-Ḥaddād postulated that the tomb of al-Layth, just like the other four hundred tombs, was topped with a domed structure as early as the late second/eighth century.88 Al-Maqrīzī, however, expressly agreed with the account of Muwaffaq b. ʿUthmān (author of Murshid al-zuwwār) and that of Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Karīm b. ʿAbd Allāh (author of Hādī al-rāghibīn fī ziyārit qubūr al-ṣāliḥīn).89 According to these, it was not until 640/1242 that al-Layth’s tomb was topped with the existing mashhad. Before that date, al-Layth’s tomb took the form of a maṣṭaba, ‘bench’. The builder of the dome was Abū Zayd al-Miṣrī, the most notable merchant of his time. 90 Al-Layth’s dome was seen by Ibn al-Jabbās, who stated Celebrating the Dead in Ayyūbid Egypt: A Survey into Meaning and Architectural 87 that it was a blessed place where prayer was said to be accepted.91 Due to its famed spiritual standing, many eminent religious authorities (from the Ayyūbid period and before) expressed their wish to be buried in the vicinity of the Mashhad of al-Layth. One of these was Shibl al-Dawla al-ʿAsqalānī, who died in 629/1232, as indicated by an inscription on the grave column.92 Pl. (14): Ḍarīḥ of al-Layth b. Saʿd Pl. (13): Gravestone of al-Layth b. Saʿd Some of the prominent scholars who lived in Ayyūbid Egypt were later canonized, and thus their tombs received homage and deference from the public. In their time, they were also said to have enjoyed respect from the Ayyūbid monarchs. For example, shaykh Abū al-Suʿūd b. Abī al-ʿAshāʾir (d. 644/1247), buried near to the cemetery of Ibn ʿAṭāʾ al-Sakandarī at Muqaṭṭam, was reportedly greatly respected by sultan al-Kāmil and his son and successor alṢāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb.93 Another example was Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Miṣrī al-Sakandarī (d. 550/1155),94 a remarkable muḥaddith. It is said that the people of Egypt ‘had much faith in him’.95 The same thing applies to shaykh Abū Bakr al-Idfuwī, a celebrated Qurʾān and ḥadīth scholar.96 The turba where they lie buried also includes the grave of a celebrated muqriʾ, ‘Qurʾān reciter’, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn al-Anṣārī (d. 603/1207).97 Other examples include: the tomb of the pious ʿAbd Allāh al-Rūmī (d. 635/1238) at Qarāfat Quraysh; 98 the mashhad of Abū ʿAbd alRaḥmān al-Diryāq (d. 558/1163), a ḥadīth scholar;99 and the tomb of Ibrāhīm b. Saʿīd al-Ḥabbāl, the most distinguished ḥadīth scholar of his time according to Ibn ʿUthmān. 100 Some of the celebrated dead, however, combined the two imposing features of being a ṣūfī and a scholar. A good example is imām Muhammad b. Jābār al-Ṣūfī (d. 362/973) who is reported to have said: ‘Sufism and ignorance do not coalesce’.101 It should also be noted that among the recognizable tombs in the Fatimid and the Ayyūbid periods, some belonged to reputable philologists such as Ibn Babshadh (d. 469/1077),102 while others were attributed to well-known historians such as Abū Salāma ʿAlī b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Quḍāʿī (d. 399/1009), the author of Khiṭaṭ who was buried at alShuqqa al-Kubrā, ‘the Great Division’. 103 88 Essam S. Ayyad Political figures As already hinted, a number of eminent political figures erected funerary domes for themselves or for members of their kin. In addition to the aforesaid examples of sultan Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb and his widow Shajar al-Durr (both erected by the latter), Abū Bakr al-Madhirrāʾi (d. 283/896), the vizier of the Ṭulūnīds, built a grave for himself in a dome. 104 The mausoleums of such political figures were usually abandoned unless they were associated with religious and spiritual standing. This may explain Ibn ʿUthmān’s tendency to recount some anecdotes that would link the biography of Khumarawayh b. Aḥmad b. Ṭulūn to the Necropolis and confer upon his mausoleum the needed prestige. 105 Otherwise, for a tomb of a royalty or an official to be celebrated by the public, it should be generously patronized by some of his/her living associates. The greater the expenditure, the bigger the number of visitors. The bountiful outlay that was spent by emirs Jamāl al-Dīn ʿAlī and ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn b. Shāh was sufficient to make the turba of emir Tāj al-Mulūk b. Abī al-Hayjā (d. 590/1194) a real mecca for the Egyptian public, especially on feasts and religious occasions. 106 Pl. (15): Ḍarīḥ of Shajar al-Durr Pl. (16): Ḍarīḥ of Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb Meanwhile, some of those who held political positions, belonged to the ashrāf class, and were hence acclaimed (more easily) by the populace of Ayyūbid Egypt. The mashhad of the Āl Ṭabāṭabā (datable ca. 334/943 according to Creswell),107 for instance, was known in the Ayyūbid period as a place where prayers were likely to be fulfilled. This unique mausloean structure includes the graves of a number of the descendants of sharīf Abū Isḥāq Ibrahim b. Ismail al-Dībājj, whose epithet was Ṭabāṭabā.108 One of these was Ṭabāṭabā’s grandson, Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Ismail (d. 325/937). He is reported to have been a great helper of the destitute. When Aḥmad b. Ṭulūn heard of the fact that Aḥmad b. Ismāʿīl had nothing left for himself (after spending all his money for charity), Ibn Ṭulūn Celebrating the Dead in Ayyūbid Egypt: A Survey into Meaning and Architectural 89 granted him a village.109 The Mashhad of Ṭabāṭabā also includes the body of the beneficent ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad b. Ismail (d. 348/959), a favourite associate of Abū al-Misk Kāfūr. It is of interest that ʿAbd Allāh was later remembered by people basically for his knowledge and wisdom as well as spiritual status. 110 Another well-known, and partly preserved, Ayyūbid mausoleum is that of al-Sādāt al-Thaʿāliba. It was built by the sharīf,111 emīr Abū Naṣr Ismāʿīl b. Ḥiṣn al-Dawla Fakhr al-ʿArab Thaʿlab who held the position of emir al-ḥājj.112 Fig. (3): Plan of Mashhad Ṭabāṭabā (after Farīd Shāfiʿī, 1970) Fig. (4): Isometric plan of Mashhad Ṭabāṭabā (after Farīd Shāfiʿī, 1970) Pl. (17): Remains of Mashhad Ṭabāṭabā (http://www.archaeology.land/forums/viewtopic.php?t=33954) 90 Essam S. Ayyad Pl. (18): Ḍarīḥ al-Sādāt al-Thaʿāliba (courtesy of Creswell Archive) Qāḍīs The tombs of some of the notable qāḍīs, ‘chief judges’, were also celebrated under the Ayyūbids. One of these was the tomb of imam Abū ʿAbd Allāh b. Salāma b. Jaʿfar al-Quḍāʿī (d. 454/1062), the chief judge of Egypt and a favourite of the Fāṭimids. It is located at al-Shuqqa al-Kubrā.113 Also, according to some anecdotes, the tomb of the qāḍī Bakkār b. Qutyaba (d. 270/884) was known as a place where prayer is expected to be answered.114 The mausoleum of imām al-Shāfiʿī as a model It is quite interesting to note that the grave, but not mausoleum, of Muḥammad b. Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī was venerated―even by some of the Shīʿites―long before the foundation of the Ayyūbid Dynasty. 115 This, however strange it would seem, may be attributed to reports putting al-Shāfiʿī in association with ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, albeit through dreams as usual. AlShāfiʿī is said, on the authority of al-Muzannī, to have seen in a dream ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib shaking hands with him, and putting his own ring in al-Shāfiʿī’s finger.116 Abū al-Ḥasan al-Harawī (d. 611/1214)117 states that in his time al-Shāfiʿī’s mashhad was surrounded by a number of other (pre-existing) mashhads attributed to members of the Āl al-Bayt.118 Soon after his death in 204/820, al-Shāfiʿī was buried at a turba, ‘gravesite’ owned by the offspring of Abī ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Ḥakam, an eminent Egyptian Mālikī faqīh.119 According to Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Wahāb, however, alShāfiʿī’s grave (in spite of having been venerated by the mob) retained the form of a simple yard (sāḥa) for more than three and a half centuries.120 This, however, seems to be a misreading by Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Wahāb of the sources. According to Ibn Iyās, for example, ‘[…] and he [namely Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn] built the madrasa that is beside the tomb of alShāfiʿī. Formerly, it [namely the location of the madrasa, and not al-Shāfiʿī’s grave] had been a sāḥa’.121 Most commentators believe that it was not until 572/1176 that the turba was built, allegedly for the first time, by Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn, who also built near to it a huge Shāfiʿī madrasa, called al-Ṣāliḥiyya.122 Indeed the grave of al-Shāfiʿī seems to have been topped with a funerary structure even before the time of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn. Al-Muqaddasī (d. 380/990), describing the tombs of the southern cemetery, states: ‘their tombs are beautifully constructed; you [can easily] notice that the populated districts are ashen, while the tombs are white and stretching all along the region. In it (namely the cemetery) is the tomb of al-Shāfiʿī, situated just between [those of] al-Muzannī and Abū Isḥāq al-Marūzī’.123 This implies that by the Fāṭimid period a funerary structure had already risen over al-Shāfiʿī’s grave. What kind of a structure did Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn put up on al- Shāfiʿī’s grave? Was it a domed mausoleum? It is argued by some that a funerary dome had already been built over al-Shāfiʿī’s grave by the Banū ʿAbd al-Ḥakam, and that it was later renewed by Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn in 575/1179.124 Others suggest that Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn only built a madrasa, commissioned a wooden cenotaph, and undertook some restoration works―all done to rejuvenate Sunnism. 125 Now, the only remaining part of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn’s construction is a wooden shrine with a pyramidal hood including the following inscription: This blessed mausoleum (ḍarīḥ) has been made for the faqīh, imām Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Idrīs b. al-ʿAbbās b. ʿUthmān b. Shāfiʿ b. al-Sāʾib […], may God be merciful with him. It has been made by ʿUbayd al-Najjār, known as Ibn Maʿālī. He made it in 574 AH […].126 This foundation text clearly refers to a ḍarīḥ. Nonetheless, the text, while ending with a plea of mercy for Ibn Maʿālī and ‘all the carpenters and painters who worked with him’, 127 makes no mention of builders. This may imply that ‘ḍarīḥ’ refers here to the wooden cenotaph and not a funerary structure. This hypothesis, nonetheless, is challenged Celebrating the Dead in Ayyūbid Egypt: A Survey into Meaning and Architectural 91 by the fact that such a use of the term ḍarīḥ is quite rare. The absence of any reference to builders or designers could well be ascribed to the fact that tribute is here paid to the makers of the wooden shrine specifically. Further, the contemporary chronicler, Ibn al-Athīr (630/1232-3), mentioning no architectural works made by Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn on the tomb of al-Shāfiʿī, states that in 572/1177 Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn built the madrasa which is located atop al-Shāfiʿī’s tomb.128 Luckily, we are helped in this discussion by the account of an eyewitness, the traveller Ibn Jubayr (d. 614/1217), who saw the work while in progress, particularly in the final stage. Describing the ‘mashhad’ of al Shāfiʿī, Ibn Jubayr states: ‘It is one of the most celebrated and spacious mashhads. [Just] across from it, a madrasa―of no peer in this country―has been built […]’. 129 Mainly drawing on this account of Ibn Jubayr, Mulder assumes that Ṣalāḥ alDīn built a mausoleum to commemorate the memory of al-Shāfiʿī who, by the Ayyūbid time, had been recognized as the greatest of all imams and the main campaigner for the Qurʾān and the Sunna. 130 Such historical accounts are in all cases sufficient to deduce that Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn did build a mausoleum (most probably not a domed one) for al- Shāfiʿī. But, was it intended to be an object for pilgrimage? Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn’s career, as a leading Sunni advocate, leaves us to think that he would be reluctant to patronize such a ‘heretic’ procedure for the grave of such a Sunni icon as al-Shāfiʿī, who is over and above himself reported to have said: ‘I deny it that a human should be exalted to the extent that his tomb is taken as a mosque, lest he or those who would come afterwards should be led astray’.131 This being said, there is almost consensus in medieval and modern writings that it was not until 608/1211 that a ‘funerary dome’ was constructed over the tomb of al-Shāfiʿī, and that it was commissioned by the Ayyūbid sultan al-Kāmil.132 Some went further to argue that al-Kāmil’s construction was intended to also serve, as a royal burial place, on account of the fact that it included a cenotaph which al-Kāmil set aside for himself. Al-Kāmil, however, died in Syria and was buried in Damascus. 133 Against this background, we are told that when Najm al-Dīn al-Khabushānī (Ṣalāḥ alDīn’s religious advisor) died in 587/1191,134 he was buried in the ‘dome’ just under the feet of al-Shāfiʿī.135 The use of the word ‘dome’ here is a clear case of anachronism. It must be referring to the later dome of al-Kāmil. Al-Harawī observed that the mashahd of al-Shāfiʿī also included the graves of ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn, shaykh Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Kirānī and the Shāfiʿite descendants of al-Ḥakam.136 Pl. (20): Qubbat al-Shāfiʿī (Richard Yeomans, 2006) Conclusion The major part of the tombs which were celebrated by the Egyptian populace under the Ayyūbids were founded in earlier Islamic epochs. Quite a big number of these were cenotaphs (honorary but not real ones), built by the Fāṭimids for members of the Āl al-Bayt. The Ayyūbids inherited the monuments and with them the associated observances. Having noticed the positive role of such funerary structures in liaising between the Shīʿī Fāṭimid rulers and their Sunnī Egyptian subjects, the Ayyūbids retained the same device of their former political rivals. Since the time of the dynasty founder, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn, mausolea began to be dedicated to Sunnī religious figures such as al-Shāfiʿī, who was widely admired by the Egyptians. Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn also built tombs for some of the Prophet’s Companions. The same approach was maintained by subsequent Ayyūbid sultans. Tombs for late members of the Āl al-Bayt continued to be erected, albeit by devout well-to-do individuals. Other mausolean structures that were celebrated by the Egyptians under the 92 Essam S. Ayyad Ayyūbids belonged to Sufis, ulema, qāḍīs, and political figures. Some mashhads were much older, attributed to early prophets and ancient historical figures. For the memory of a dead person to be publicly acclaimed, he/she should have had a prominent biography that is preferably laced with piousness and spirituality. In some cases, these had to be combined with generous expenditure on the tomb and its visitors. Many of the visitors were attracted by the free food and drinks that were usually brought to such burial places. Also, this paper has found that the sanctification of someone’s biography and relics, including his/her burial place, usually needed quite a long time. This mainly happened through the circulation of reports on the feats and spiritual merits of the deceased and the supernatural features of his/her burial place. In the beginning, the celebrated tombs (just as others of no particular significance) usually took the form of a chamber, bench or cairn. As early as the time of the Fāṭimids, the domed mausoleum came to be the most dominant architectural expression of such celebrated tombs in Islamic Egypt. Those attributed to religious authorities (including ṣaḥābīs, ashrāf, ṣūfīs and ulema) are usually referred to in the sources as mashhads, on account of them being visited by big masses of people. The mausolea of the secular and political figures, on the other hand, are typically referred to as madfan or ḍarīḥ. While ‘ḍarīḥ’ can sometimes be used to denote the former group of burial places, mashhad are seldom used to refer to the latter group. It is quite rare to read in the sources such statements as ‘the mashahd of al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb’, for example. It should finally be noted that the practice of celebrating the dead (particularly the pious ones) turned under the Ayyūbids from a state-sponsored procedure into a public tradition. This is quite evident from the vernacular style of architecture used for the majority of the Ayyūbid mausolea. Endnotes Al-Tirmidhī, ḥadīth no. 1052. Abū Dāwūd, ḥadīth no. 3225; Ibn Māja, ḥadīths no. 1562-5. See also Abū Yaʿlā, ḥadīth no. 1020; al-Khaṭṭābī, Maʿālim al-Sunan: Sharḥ ‘Sunan al-Imām Abī Dāwūd (d. AH 275)’, ed. by M. Rāghib alṬabbākh, 4 vols (Aleppo: al-Maṭba῾ah al-῾Ilmiyyah, 1933), I, 319. Such ḥadīths are always found in Bāb al-Janāʾiz, ‘chapter of obsequies’, in ḥadīth collections. See also Ibn al-Qayyim, Zād al-Maʿād fī Hadī Khayr al-ʿIbād, 27th edn, 6 vols (Beirut: Mu᾽asasat al-Risālah, 1991) I, 542. However, al-Tirmidhī reported that some early scholars like alḤasan al-Baṣrī (21/642-110/728) deem it jāʾiz to treat the graves with mud: ḥadīth no. 1052. 2 See Ibn Taymiyya, Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, ed. by ʿĀmir al-Jazzār and Anwar al-Bāzz, 3rd edn, 37 vols (Mansura: Dār alWafā᾽, 2005), XXIV, 177-8; al-Mirdāwī, al-Inṣāf fī Maʿrifat al-Rājiḥ min-l-Khilāf ʿalā Madhhab al-Imām alMubajjal Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, ed. by M. Ḥāmid al-Faqī, 12 vols ([n.p.]: King Suʿūd, 1956), II, 249-50. 3 See Ibn Qudāma, Al-Mughnī, ed. by A. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī and ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ al-Ḥulw, 3rd rev. edn, 15 vols (Riyadh: dār ῾Ālam al-Kitāb, 1997), II, 474. See also al-Qurṭubī, Al-Jami lī Aḥkām al-Qur᾽ān: wal Mubayyin lima Taḍammanahū min-l-Sunnah wa Āy al-Furqān, ed. by A. ῾Abd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, 24 vols (Beirut: Mu᾽sasat alRisālah, 2006), XXI, 261-5; Ibn Taymiyyah, Iqtiḍāʾ al-Sirāṭ al-Mustaqīm li Mukhālafat Aṣḥāb al-Jaḥīm, ed. by Nāṣir al-῾Aql, 2 vols (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Rushd, [n.d.]), II, 679-80; Ibn Ḥajar, Fatḥ al-Bārī bī Sharḥ al-Bukhārī, 14 vols (Cairo: Muṣṭafā al-Ḥalabī, 1959), II, 71; Ibn Rajab, Fatḥ al-Bārī: Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukāhrī, ed. by M. S. ʿAbd alMaqṣūd, M. A. al-Shāfiʿī, I. I. al-Qāḍī and others, 910 vols (Medina: Maktabat al-Ghurabāʾ al-Athariyya, 1996), III, 203-4. 4 For the range of the ḥadīths of interdiction, see Mālik, ḥadīths no. 570-1; al-Bukhārī, ḥadīth no. 427; Muslim, ḥadīth no. 1183-4; Ibn Abī Shaybah, ḥadīth no. 7626, 7629; al-Dārimī, ḥadīth no. 1443; Ibn Ḥajar, Fatḥ, II, P.78; Ibn Taymiyyah, Iqtiḍāʾ, I, 298-303; al-Hindī, Kanz, ḥadīths no. 19186-197. See also Muslim, ḥadīth no. 1188; Wensinck, p. 154. Al-Tirmidhī, ḥadīth no. 320; al-Baghawī, II, 417. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr al-Andalusī, Al-Tamhīd lima fil ‘Muwaṭṭa’ min-l-Maʿānī wa-l Asānīd, ed. by Muṣṭafā al-ʿAlawī and Muḥammad al-Bakrī, 26 vols ([n.p.]: [n.pub.], 1967), V, 412. See also Thomas Leisten, ‘Between Orthodoxy and Exegesis: Some Aspects of Attitudes in the Sharīʿa toward Funerary Architecture’, Muqarnas, 7 (1990), pp. 12-22. 5 Al-Bukhārī, ḥadīth no. 427; Muslim, ḥadīth no. 1183-4. Ibn Ḥajar argued that the images, mentioned by Umm Salama and Umm Ḥabība, were only mural drawings and not a relief, (lam yakun lahā ẓill, literally meaning ‘had no shadow’). 6 Farīd Shāfiʿī, Al-ʿImāra al-ʿArabiyya fī Miṣr al-Islāmiyya: ʿAṣr al-Wulāh (Cairo: al-Hayʾa al-Miṣriyya al-ʿĀmma lil Taʾlīf wal Nashr, 1970), p. 256. The ʿAbbāsids might have retained the Umayyad palaces because they deemed them as a great wealth, while mosques could not have been demolished because of their sanctity. Tombs, on the other hand, are closely related to whom they belonged to and thus their demolition would mean a lot. 7 See F. Shāfiʿī, ʿImāra ʿArabiyya, p. 256. M. Ḥamza al-Ḥaddād, Al-Qibāb fi-l ʿImāra al-Miṣriyya al-Islāmiyya (Cairo: Maktabat al-Thaqafa al-Dīniyya, 1993), p. 37. 8 Al-Ṭabarī’s Tārīkh al-Rusul wa-l Mulūk, quoted by K.A.C. Creswell, The Muslim Architecture of Egypt, 2 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952-60), I, 110; Kamal al-Dīn Samih, ‘Taṭawwur al-Qubba fi-l ʿImāra alIslāmiyya;, Bulletin of the School of Arts, vol. 12, Issue 1 (1950), p. 7. This dome also includes the bodies of caliphs al-Muʿtazz and al-Muhtadī. 1 Celebrating the Dead in Ayyūbid Egypt: A Survey into Meaning and Architectural Oleg Grabar, ‘The Earliest Islamic Commemorative Structures: Notes and Documents’, Jerusalem, 4 (2005), pp. 65110 (p.73), first published in Ars Orientalis, 4 (1966), pp. 7-46. On the dome of Ṣulaybiyya, see also Alastair Northedge, The Historical Topography of Samarra, 2nd rev. edn, Samarra Studies, 1 (London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 2007). 10 Grabar, ‘Islamic Commemorative Structures’, p. 75. 11 J. Pedersen and others ‘Masdjid’, in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edn, VI (1991), pp. 644-707 (651). 12 Abū al-Ḥasan al-Shābashtī, Al-Diyārāt, ed. by Kurkis Awwad, 3rd edn. (Beirut: Dar al-Rāʾid al-ʿArabī, 1986), p. 229. 13 Zakariyya al-Qazwīnī, Āthār al-Bilād wa-Akhbār ʿIbād (Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, [n.d.]), p. 392. 14 See Ṣāliḥ Lamʿī, Al-Turāth al-Miʿmārī al-Islāmī fī Miṣr (Beirut: Dar al-Nahḍa al-ʿArabiyya [?], 1975), p. 30. On this mashhad, see also Sayyida I. al-Kāshif, Miṣr fī ʿAhd al-Ikhshīdyyīn, p. 299; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Zakī, Mawsūʿat Madīnat al-Qāhira fī Alf ʿAm (Cairo: 1969), p. 344; Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Rāziq, Tārīkh wa-Āthār Miṣr al-Islāmiyya,(Cairo: Dar alFikr al-ʿArabī, 1999), pp. 161-3. 15 See Suʿād Māhir, Masājid Miṣr wa Awliyāʾuhā al-Ṣāliḥūn, 5 vols (Cairo: al-Majlis al-Aʿlā lil Shuʾūn al-Islāmiyya, 1971), II, 11; Grabar, ‘Islamic Commemorative Structures’, pp. 22-3. 16 Ibn Zulaq, Faḍāʾl Miṣr wa-Akhbāruhā wa-Khawāṣṣuhā, ed. by ʿAli M. ʿUmar (Cairo: Maktabat al-Khanjī, 1999), pp. 51-3. 17 Ibn Zulaq, Faḍāʾl Miṣr, p. 53. 18 On the whole story, see al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb wa-Bughyat al-Ṭullāb: Fī al-Khiṭaṭ wa-l Mazārāt wa-l Tarājim wa-l Biqāʾ al-Mubārakāt, ed. by M. Rabīʿ and H. Qāsim (Cairo: Maktabat al-ʿUlūm wa-l Adāb, 1937), pp. 238-6; Ibn al-Zayyāt, Al-Kawākib al-Sayyāra fī Tartīb al-Ziyāra: Fī al-Qarāfatayn al-Kubrā wa-l Sughrā (Cairo: al-Maṭbaʿa alAmīriyya, 1907), p. 110. 19 Al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 246. 20 Muwaffaq al-Dīn b. ʿUthmān, Murshid al-Zuwwār Ilā Qubūr al-Abrār: al-Musammā al-Durr al-Munaẓẓam fī Ziyārat al-Jabal al-Muqaṭṭam, ed. by M. Fatḥī Abū Bakr (Cairo: al-Dār al-Miṣriyya al-Libnāniyya, 1995), pp. 282-3. 21 An anonymous grave, for example, is said to have looked from distance as lit by a lamp (qindīl), which proved to be nothing if someone gets closer to it. Ibn ʿUthmān, Murshid al-Zuwwār, p. 327. 22 Abū al-Ḥasan al-Harawī, Al-Ishārāt Ilā Maʿrifat al-Ziyārāt, ed. by ʿAlī ʿUmar (Cairo: Maktabat al-Thaqāfa alDīniyya, 2002), p. 46. 23 Al-Harawī, al-Ishārāt, p. 45. 24 Al-Harawī, al-Ishārāt, pp. 46-7. 25 See Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, ed. by A. al-Kabīr, M. A. Ḥasab Allah, H. M. al-Shādhilī, rev, edn, 6 vols (Cairo: Dar al-Maʿārif, 1981), IV, 2572. 26 This ḥūsh includes a column marking the burial place of Tāj al-Dīn al-Bilyanaʾī (d. 603/1207), who was known as the servant of the Prophetic relics. See al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 227. 27 The ḥūsh of al-Zaʿfarānī includes the tomb of the muḥaddith, shaykh Ibn Wajīh (d. 444/1052). See al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 245. 28 See Ibn al-Zayyat, al-Kawākib al-Sayyāra, p. 110. 29 Al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 240 30 On the meaning and derivation of the word Qarāfa, see al-Maqrīzī who argued that the Egyptians had no other burial grounds: Al-Mawāʿiẓ wa-l Iʿtibār bi-Dhikr al-Khiṭaṭ wa-l Āthār, ed. by M. Zeinhum and M. al-Sharqāwī, 3 vols (Cairo: Maktabat Madbūlī, 1998), III, 644-9. 31 Al-Maqrīzī, al-Khiṭaṭ, III, 643; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Zakī, Mawsūʿat al-Qāhira fī Ald ʿĀm (Cairo: Maktabat al-Anglo, 1987), pp. 198-9, 281. 32 On the merit of being buried at the Muqaṭṭam, see al-Maqrīzī, al-Khiṭaṭ, III, 644 ff. 33 Ibn Zulāq, Faḍāʾl Miṣr P. 94; al-Harawi, al-Ishārāt, p. 38. 34 Ibn Zulāq, Faḍāʾl Miṣr, p. 95. 35 Ibn Zulāq, Faḍāʾl Miṣr, p. 95-6; Ibn al-Zayyat, al-Kawākib al-Sayyāra, pp. 12-4. 36 Ibn Zulāq, Faḍāʾl Miṣr, p. 97. 37 Al-Maqrīzī, al-Khiṭaṭ, III, 646. On the Masjid al-Qarāfa, see also III, 665. 38 Mūsā b. Muḥammad b. Saʿīd was the author of the Al-Muʿarrab min Akhbār al-Maghreb. 39 Al-Maqrīzī, al-Khiṭaṭ, III, 646. 40 Ibid, III, 647. 41 Al-Maqrīzī, al-Khiṭaṭ, III, 646. See therein very interesting related poems. 42 On this see, Christopher S. Taylor, ‘Reevaluating the Shiʿi Role in the Development of Monumental Islamic Funerary Architecture: the Case of Egypt’, Muqarnas, vol 9 (1992), pp. 1-10 (p. 8). 43 Suʿād Māhir, Masājid Miṣr, II, 186. 44 Ibid, II, 213. 45 Al-Maqrizi, al-Khiṭaṭ, III, 212-. On the Fatimids’ celebration of the Day of ʿĀshūrāʾ, see Ibn al-Ṭuwayer, Nuzhat alMuqlatayn fī Akhbar al-Dawlatyn, ed. by Ayman Fuʾād Sayyid, (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1992), pp. 223-4. 9 Essam S. Ayyad Maqrīzī, al-Khiṭaṭ, III, 689. Al-Maqrīzī also mentions that some used to visit on Saturday. See also Ibn al-Zayyāt, alKawākib al-Sayyāra, p. 30. 47 Al-Maqrīzī, al-Khiṭaṭ, III, 689. 48 Suʿād Māhir, Masājid Miṣr, II, 212. 49 Ibid, II, 229. 50 Ibid, II, 261; Doris Behrens-Abouseif, Islamic Architecture in Cairo: An Introduction (Leiden: Brill, 1989), pp. 91-3; Richard Yeomans, The Art and Architecture of Islamic Cairo (Reading: Garnet, 2006), p. 121. 51 Ibn ʿUthmān, Murshid al-Zuwwār, p. 372. on Zahrūn, see p. 277. 52 Al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 80; Suʿād Māhir, Masājid Miṣr, II, 236. 53 Al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 80; Behrens-Abouseif, Islamic Architecture in Cairo, pp. 90-1. 54 Ibid, p. 281. 55 Al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 263. On the turba of Abū al-Fadl b. al-Jawhari, see p. 261. 56 See Ibn ʿUthmān, Murshid al-Zuwwār, pp. 297-303. When Badr al-Jamālī, the famous vizier of the Fatimids and the commander-in-chief, heard of Abū al-Faḍl’s efforts to defend Sunnism, he ordered that the latter should be brought, albeit forcefully, to Egypt. Nevertheless, a miracle is said to have protected the pious man from al-Jamālī’s punitive measures. Abū al-Faḍl, then, returned to Egypt where he continued to disseminate the Sunnī rite. However, he was summoned again: this time by the Fatimid caliph himself after knowing about Abū al-Faḍl’s campaign to rejuvenate Sunnism. But he managed to weather the caliph’s wrath, along with that of Badr al-Jamālī on a later occasion, thanks to his prowess in poetry. He was then left to preach as he liked. See Ibn ʿUthmān, Murshid al-Zuwwār, pp. 299-301. 57 See Ibn Uthman, Murshid al-Zuwwār, p. 210. 58 As an example, see Ibn ʿUthmān, Murshid al-Zuwwār, pp. 309-10, 319. 59 For some of the karamāt, ‘miracles’ of the pious and how they formulated and disseminated, see Yūsuf al-Nabhānī, Jāmiʿ Karāmāt al-Awliyāʾ, ed. by Ibrahim A. ʿAwaḍ, 2 vols (Gujrat: Markaz-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat Barkat-e-Raza, 2001). 60 Al-Harawī, al-Ishārāt, pp. 40, 42. 61 Ibid, p. 38. 62 A standard weight scale that measures 2.6 kilograms (ca. 2512 millilitres) 63 Al-Harawī, al-Ishārāt, p. 38. The ṣāʿ is a measuring unit equivalent to 3 kilograms. 64 Ibid, pp. 39, 42-4. 65 Ibn Zulāq, Faḍāʾl Miṣr, p. 53. 66 Al-Harawī, al-Ishārāt, p. 37. 67 Al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 101. 68 See Ibn al-Zayyāt, Al-Kawākib al-Sayyāra, pp. 41-2; ʿUqba was made the ruler of Egypt by Muʿāwiya b. Abī Sufyān. 69 Al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 345. On the qabr of ʿUqba b. ʿĀmir see Ibn ‘Uthman, Murshid al-Zuwwār, p. 146-7. 70 Al-Maqrīzī, al-Khiṭaṭ, III, 526; al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 143. 71 See al-Maqrīzī, al-Khiṭaṭ, III, 640-1; al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 129, 134-5. See also Ibn al-Zayyāt, al-Kawākib al-Sayyāra, pp. 34-5. Caroline Williams, ‘the Cult of ʿAlid Saints in the Fatimid Monuments of Cairo Part II: The Mausolea’, Muqarnas vol. 3 (1985), pp. 39-60 (pp. 47-8); Grabar, ‘Earliest Islamic Commemorative’, p. 29. On those figures who visited the tomb of Sayyida Nafīsa, see Ibn ‘Uthman, Murshid al-Zuwwār, pp. 179-81. 72 See Michael Chamberlain, ‘The Crusader Era and the Ayyūbid Dynasty’, in The Cambridge History of Egypt, Volume 1, p. 214. See also Devin J, Stewart, ‘Popular Shiism in Medieval Egypt: Vestiges of Islamic Sectarian Polemics in Egyptian Arabic’, pp. 35-66. 73 Ibn Zulāq, Faḍāʾl Miṣr, pp. 48-9. 74 Chamberlain, ‘The Crusader Era and the Ayyūbid Dynasty’, p. 216, 232. 75 See Taylor, ‘Shiʿi Role in the Development of Monumental Islamic Funerary Architecture’, pp. 1-10. 76 Al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 128; Caroline Williams, ‘The Cult of Alid Saints’, pp. 39-40. It is said that her spouse did not agree to leave her body in Egypt until he dreamed of the Prophet asking him to do so. 77 Al-Maqrīzī, al-Khiṭaṭ, III, 640. See also al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 129, 134-5. 78 Al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, pp. 143-4. 79 Ibn ʿUthmān, Murshid al-Zuwwār, p. 327; al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 255. 80 Behrens-Abouseif, Islamic Architecture in Cairo, p. 85. 81 Al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, pp. 115-; Ibn al-Zayyāt, al-Kawākib al-Sayyāra, pp. 30-1. 82 Ibn ʿUthmān, Murshid al-Zuwwār, p. 233-4. Suhayl b. Aḥmad was a script of Egypt’s kharājj. 83 Al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 277. 84 See, as an example, Ibn ʿUthmān, Murshid al-Zuwwār, pp. 304-27 85 Suʿād Māhir, Masājid Miṣr, II, 241. 86 Al-Sakhāwī mentions it more than once in one page: Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 157. 87 Al-Maqrīzī, al-Khiṭaṭ, III, 695; Suʿād Māhir, Masājid Miṣr, II, 221. See also Ibn al-Zayyāt, al-Kawākib al-Sayyāra, pp. 102-4. 88 M. Ḥamza al-Ḥaddād, al-Qibāb, pp. 41-2. 89 See al-Maqrīzī, al-Khiṭaṭ, III, 695. The same opinion is also held by Ibn al-Zayyāt: al-Kawākib al-Sayyāra, p. 101. 46 Celebrating the Dead in Ayyūbid Egypt: A Survey into Meaning and Architectural Al-Maqrīzī, al-Khiṭaṭ, III, 695; Suʿād Māhir, Masājid Miṣr, II, 221. Ibn al-Zayyāt, al-Kawākib al-Sayyāra, p. 101; Suʿād Māhir, Masājid Miṣr, II, 220. 92 Al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 230. 93 See Ibn al-Zayyat, al-Kawākib al-Sayyāra, pp. 316-19; Suʿād Māhir, Masājid Miṣr, II, 245. 94 He was known as Ibn al-Jassās. 95 Al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 153. 96 Ibn ʿUthmān, Murshid al-Zuwwār, pp. 271. The turba of al-Idfuwī includes the graves of some celebrated ṣaḥābīs and tabiʿīs. Of them, many were traditionists. The majority of them had passed in the second/eighth century. 97 Al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, pp. 167-9. 98 Ibid, pp. 206-7. 99 Ibid, p. 328. 100 Ibn ʿUthmān, Murshid al-Zuwwār, p. 277. 101 Al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 256. 102 Ibn ʿUthmān, Murshid al-Zuwwār, p. 283. 103 Al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, pp. 245-6. 104 Ibn ʿUthmān, Murshid al-Zuwwār, p. 265; Ibn al-Zayyat, al-Kawākib al-Sayyāra, p. 73-4. 105 Ibn ʿUthmān, Murshid al-Zuwwār, p. 263-4. 106 Al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 178. 107 Creswell dates this mashhad to the year of the death of Ṭabāṭabā al-Asghar, the brother of ʿAbd Allāh b. Ahmad: Muslim Architecture of Egypt, I, 11-5. 108 See Ibn al-Zayyāt, Al-Kawākib al-Sayyāra, pp. 59-64; Oleg Grabar, ‘The Islamic Commemorative Structures’, p. 11. Ṭabāṭabā himself is said have died outside Egypt. 109 See Ibn ʿUthmān, Murshid al-Zuwwār, p. 237. 110 See Ibn ʿUthmān, Murshid al-Zuwwār, pp. 235- (especially 246-7). The mashahd of Āl Ṭabāṭabā also includes the grave of Ibn Zulāq, the famous historian. See Ibn ʿUthmān, Murshid al-Zuwwār, p. 256. 111 Sharīf is a descendant of the Prophet through his daughter Fatima and Cousin ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib. 112 Suʿād Māhir, Masājid Miṣr, II, 192-98. On the mashhad al-Sadat al-Thaʿāliba, see al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 326. 113 Al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 245. 114 Ibn ʿUthmān, Murshid al-Zuwwār, p. 228. Bakkār was first buried near the old muṣallā of Banū Miskīn. See Ibn ʿUthmān, Murshid al-Zuwwār, pp. 214-29. 115 See Stephennie Mulder, ‘The Mausoleum of Imām al-Shāfiʿī’, Muqarnas, vol. 23 (2006), pp. 15-46 (p. 20). 116 Ibn Uthman, Murshid al-Zuwwār, p. 483. 117 Al-Harawī, al-Ishārāt, pp. 38-9. 118 Al-Harawī, al-Ishārāt, p. 39. For the names of the owners of these mashhads, see al-Harawī, al-Ishārāt, p. 39. 119 See Ibn ʿUthmān , Murshid al-Zuwwār, p. 495; Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Wahab, Tārihk al-Masājid al-Athariyya fi-l Qāhira, 2 vols, 2nd edn (Beirut: Awraq Sharqiyya, 1993), I, 106; E. Chaumont, ‘Al-Shāfiʿī’, in The Encyclopedia of Islam, IX, 183. This turba was also known as Banū Zuhra. See al-Maqrīzī, al-Khiṭaṭ, III, 692. 120 Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Wahāb, Tārihk al-Masājid al-Athariyya, I, 107. 121 Ibn Iyās, Badāʾiʿ al-Zuhūr fī Waqāʾiʿ al-Duhūr, 3 vols (Cairo: Maṭābiʾ al-Shaʿb, 1960), I, 58. 122 Ibn Taghrī Bardī, Al-Nujūm al-Zāhira fi Mulūk Miṣr wa-l Qāhira (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1992), VI, 51, 72; Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Wahāb, Tārihk al-Masājid al-Athariyya , I, 107. 123 Al-Muqaddasī, Aḥsan al-Taqāsīm fī Maʿrifat al-Aqālīm (Leiden: Brill, 1877), p. 209. 124 See Suʿād Māhir, Masājid Miṣr, II, 149. On the mausoleum of imam al-Shāfiʿī, see al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, pp. 320 ff. 125 See Behrens-Abouseif, Islamic Architecture in Cairo, pp. 85-7; Richard Yeomans, The Art and Architecture of Islamic Cairo, pp. 111-2. 126 See Suʿād Māhir, Masājid Miṣr, II, 150-1. See also Behrens-Abouseif, Islamic Architecture in Cairo, p. 87. 127 Hasan ʿAbd al-Wahab, Tārihk al-Masājid al-Athariyya, I, 108. 128 Ibn al-Athīr, al-Kāmil, X, 84. 129 Ibn Jubayr, Al-Riḥla (Beirut: Dār Ṣādir lil Ṭibāʿa wal Nashr, [1964 (?)]), p. 22. On this madrasa see al-Suyūṭī, Ḥusn al-Muḥāḍara fī Tārīkh Miṣr wa-l Qāhira, ed. by M. Abū al-Faḍl Ibrāhīm, 2 vols (Cairo: ʿĪsā al-Ḥalabī, 1967), II, 257; Kamāl al-Dīn Sāmiḥ, Al-ʿImāra al-Islāmiyya fī Miṣr (Cairo: Maktabat al-Nahḍa al-Miṣriyya, [n.d]), p. 76. 130 On the standing of al-Shāfiʿī, see for example, Ibn ʿUthmān, Murshid al-Zuwwār, pp. 483-95. 131 Al-Maqrīzī, al-Khiṭaṭ, III, 643. On how a grave should look like according to sunna, see Ibn ‘Uthman, Murshid alZuwwār, pp. 64-7. The ardent Sunni historian and faqīh, al-Suyūṭī, for instance, describes Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn as the most beneficent monarch in the history of Islam: Ḥusn al-Muḥāḍara, II, 257. 132 See Ibn al-Zayyāt, Al-Kawākib al-Sayyāra, p. 212; al-Maqrīzī, al-Khiṭaṭ, III, 694. 133 Yeomans, The Art and Architecture of Islamic Cairo, p. 115. 90 91 ‫‪Essam S. Ayyad‬‬ ‫‪Al-Khabushānī was the greatest sunnī figure in the time of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn. He came to Egypt in 565/1170 and stayed at‬‬ ‫‪the turba of al-Shāfiʿī. Then, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn entrusted him with funds to build a madrasa for the Shāfiʿītes. See Suʿād‬‬ ‫‪Māhir, Masājid Miṣr, II, 176‬‬ ‫‪135‬‬ ‫‪Suʿād Māhir, Masājid Miṣr, II, 176-7; Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Ṣafadi, Al-Wāfī bil Wafāyāt (Beirut: Dar Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth,‬‬ ‫‪2000), VI, 68. On the mausoleum of imam al-Khabushānī, see al-Sakhāwī, Tuḥfat al-Aḥbāb, p. 325.‬‬ ‫‪136‬‬ ‫‪Al-Harawī, al-Ishārāt, p. 39.‬‬ ‫‪134‬‬ ‫ٌ‬ ‫بحث في الدِاللة والمظهر المعماري‬ ‫االحتفاء بالموتى في مصر األيوبية‪:‬‬ ‫كثير من ثقافات العالم‪ ،‬إال أن اإلسالم المبكر قد رفض ذلك ووضع عليه‬ ‫على الرغم من أن تخليد ذكرى األموات يعد تقليدا ً شائعا ً ومتأصالً في ٍ‬ ‫ً‬ ‫القيود‪ّ .‬‬ ‫لكن تلك الممارسة القديمة قد عرفت طريقها إلى الثقافة اإلسالمية بعد مدة طويلة نسبيا من االلتزام بالمنع‪ .‬لعله من الثابت أن عادة‬ ‫االحتفاء بالموتى كانت قد دخلت إلى العالم اإلسالمي قبل أن يتمكن الفاطميون الشيعة من تأسيس دولتهم في تونس عام ‪ ،909/296‬لكنها‬ ‫وصلت إلى ذروة انتشارها تحت حكمهم‪ .‬وبعد الفاطميين جاء األيوبيون الذين عُرفوا بالتزامهم الالفت بالمذهب السني‪ .‬إال أنهم قد حافظوا على‬ ‫عادة االحتفاء بالموتى‪ ،‬خاصة األتقياء منهم‪ .‬إن الهدف من هذا المقال هو معرفة كيف حافظ األيوبيون السُّنة (‪ )1250/648-1172/567‬على‬ ‫هذه العادة التي يُنظر إليها― من وجهة نظر المدرسة الفقهية السٌّنية―على أنها بدعة‪ .‬وعلى نح ٍو أكثر دقة‪ ،‬فإن المقال يسعى للبحث في‪( :‬أ)‬ ‫أنماط الموتى الذين كانوا يحْ َ‬ ‫ظون باالحتفاء والتكريم تحت حكم األيوبيين؛ (ب) السمات التي كان البد من توافرها في سيرة هؤالء الموتى حتى‬ ‫ّ‬ ‫ً‬ ‫يتم رفعهم إلى رتبة األولياء؛ (ج) الشكل المعماري الذي تجلى فيه هذا االحتفاء وذلك التكريم؛ (د) وأخيرا داللة ذلك التقليد‪.‬‬