Shrine of Ali in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif (lit. "Tomb of the Exalted"), Afghanistan, one of the reputed burial places of Ali, cousin and son-in law of Muhammad
Arabic: مَزَار), also transliterated as mazaar, also known as marqad (مَرْقَد) or in the Maghreb as ḍarīḥ (ضَرِيْح), is a mausoleum or shrine in some places of the world, typically that of a saint or notable religious leader. Medieval Arabic texts may also use the words mašhad (مَشْهَد) or maqām to denote the same concept.[1]
Etymology
Mazār, plural mazārāt (مَزَارَات), is related to the word
Hindi-Urdu.[4][5] It has also been rendered as mazaar in English.[6]
Darīh, plural aḍriḥa (أضرحة) or ḍarāiḥ (ضرائح), is related to the verb ḍaraḥa (ضَرَحَ meaning "to inter").[7] It is commonly used in the Maghreb.
Mašhad, plural mašāhid (مشاهد), is related to the word šahīd (شهيد, meaning "martyr").[1] It refers to the resting place of a martyr who gave their life for the cause of God.
Specific types of shrines
Mashhad usually refers to a structure holding the tomb of a holy figure, or a place where a religious visitation occurred.[1][a] A mashhad often had a dome over the place of the burial within the building. Some had a minaret.[9]
Maqām, plural maqāmāt, literally "station", referring to where one stays or resides, is often used for Ahl al-Bayt shrines.[10] According to Ibn Taymiyya, the maqāmāt are the places where the revered person lived, died or worshiped, and the mashāhidd are buildings over the maqāmāt or over relics of the person.[3]
Regional terms for equivalent structures
Mazār is the Arabic word borrowed by
influenced by Persian culture
, in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
Weli (plural awliya): in Palestine, weli is the common term both for a saint and his sanctuary. A prophet's weli is called a hadrah, a common saint's is a maqam and a famous saint has a mashhad.[11] 19th- to early 20th-century Western literature has adopted the word "wali", sometimes written "weli", "welli", etc., with the meaning of a "tomb or mausoleum of a holy man".[12]
Qubba (lit. "dome", plural qubbat): in Sudan, the tomb of a holy man. Sudanese folk Islam holds that the holy man is sharing his baraka or blessings also after death through his grave, which is the repository for his baraka and thus becomes a place of ziyaraziyarat or visitation. A holy man worthy of such a shrine is called in Sudan a wali, faki, or shaykh.[13]
In northwest China, mazar is also translated phonetically as mázhā (麻扎). It is also often referred to as a
gonbad" meaning "dome". It is often a shrine complex centered on a grave of a Sufi master of the Hui people
.
In Iran and South Asia, a dargah is a Sufi Islamic shrine built over the grave of a revered religious figure.
In the Malay language, keramat refers to an object or person believed to be sacred or blessed, for example the tomb of a Muslim saint. See also Datuk Keramat.
Related terms
Masjid, plural masājid, means a place of prostration or prayer, and is often used by Shi'a for shrines to which mosques have been attached.[3]
Darīh, plural adriha, is a trench in the middle of the grave, or the grave itself.[10]
Origins
Islamic Naqshbandi saints of Allo Mahar
is celebrated on 23 March every year
Practices vary considerably in different countries.
prophets, and other main figures of the Jewish and Christian Bible, great rulers, military leaders and clerics.[16]
Opponents
The followers of
Jannat al-Baqīʿ in Medina, the burial place of four of the Shia imams and of Muhammad's daughter.[18][20]
The cemetery still exists, albeit in a much simpler form, and is used to bury the dead.
There is no specific architectural type for mazārs, which vary greatly in size and elaboration. However, they all follow the conventional design of the turba, or tomb, and generally have a dome over a rectangular base.[16]
February 2006 bombing, presumably the work of Sunni militants.[22]
In Iran
As of 2007, the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Iran attracted 12 million visitors annually, second only to Mecca as a destination for Muslim pilgrims. This shrine is known for its healing powers.
The shrine of Princess
Ali ibn al-Husayn, so has come to symbolize the early and close connection between Shiism and Iran. The shrine is popular with women seeking solace or assistance.[23]
In Syria
The Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque, the shrine of Zaynab bint Ali in Damascus, has been restored with the help of contributions from Shias from India, Pakistan, Iran and elsewhere.[24] The shrine is one of the most important Shia sites in Syria, and draws many pilgrims from Iraq, Lebanon and Iran. In September 2008 a car bomb was detonated outside the shrine, killing 17.[25]
Mashhad al-Husayn
in Aleppo, restored and with steel-frame roof added.
In
al-Husayn was built on a place indicated to a shepherd by a holy man who appeared to him in a dream, and was built by members of the local Shia community.[27] The present building is a reconstruction: the original suffered severe damage in 1918 from a huge explosion, and for forty years lay in ruins.[26] The original restoration largely succeeded in restoring the mashhad to its former appearance. Later additions included covering the courtyard with a steel frame canopy and adding a brightly decorated "shrine", which have given the monument a very different character from the original.[27]
In Egypt
In Egypt, many mashhads devoted to religious figures were built in
cross-vaults, with a dome resting on squinches over the area in front of the mihrab. It has a courtyard with a tall square minaret. It is not clear whom the mashhad commemorates.[29]
Two other important mashhads from the Fatimid era in Cairo are those
Ruqayya, a descendant of Ali, never visited Egypt, but the mashhad was built to commemorate her. It is similar to al-Juyushi, but with a larger, fluted dome and with an elegantly decorated mihrab.[30]
In Pakistan
Some shrines draw both Sunni and Shia pilgrims. One example is the shrine of Abdol-Ghazi Sahab in
Abbasids in Baghdad to Sindh, where he was given refuge by a Hindu prince.[31]
The Shias venerate him as a member of the family of imams, while the Sunni simply see him as a person of great sanctity.
Another example is the
Ali Hujwiri (died 1071), once meditated for forty days in this shrine.[32]
from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 2 May 2015. QUBBA. The Arabic name for the tomb of a holy man... A qubba is usually erected over the grave of a holy man identified variously as wali (saint), faki, or shaykh since, according to folk Islam, this is where his baraka [blessings] is believed to be strongest...
^"Kramat". Robben Island Museum. 27 July 2003. Archived from the original on 9 September 2005. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
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