Janat al-Muʿallā

The cemetery today

The cemetery before 1925

Jannat al-Muʿallā ( Arabic جنة المعلى Janna al-Muʿallā , DMG Ǧannat al-Muʿallā  'Garden of the Heights ') is the oldest cemetery in Mecca , Saudi Arabia . It is located about two kilometers north of the Holy Mosque on a hill near the Djinn Mosque . It is said that the two ancestors of Mohammed Qusaiy ibn Kilāb and ʿAbd al-Muttalib ibn Hāschim , his uncle Abū Tālib ibn ʿAbd al-Muttalib and his wife Khadīdscha bint Chuwailid were buried, and according to some sources, his mother Āmina bint Wahb .

origin of the name

Al-Hajun was originally the name of a mountain above Mecca, near which there was a cemetery. Over time, the name of the mountain changed to al-Maʿlāt ( Arabic المعلاة). In Arabic sources the spellings المعلا and المعلى with Alif maqsura appear later . According to the last writing, the vocalization and with it the meaning changed to the current form.

destruction

Mausoleums above the graves were removed by order of King Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud after the Saudi conquest of the Kingdom of Hejaz , which was under Hashemite rule (see Destruction of Islamic Cultural Heritage in Saudi Arabia ). The mausoleum Chadīdscha bint Chuwailids, built around 1328 and expanded in 1543, was destroyed. Individual graves were also destroyed by Ibn Saud. The destruction took place in 1925, the same year that the Jannat al-Baqi in Medina was simplified. This happened despite protests from the global Muslim community. Many Shiites commemorate the day on which the House of Saud destroyed the tombs of saints as a “ day of mourning ” (yaum-e gham) .

See also

• Bab-as-Saghir cemetery
• List of Islamic pilgrimage sites

literature

• Richard Francis Burton : Personal account of a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina 1853 . German Translated by Uwe Pfullmann. Edition Erdmann , Lenningen, 2005. pp. 314-316.
• Mustafa Fayda: "Cennetü'l-Muallâ" in Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi Vol. VII, pp. 387a-388b. Digitized
• Ibn Battūta : The Travels. AD 1325-1354 . Engl. Transl. HAR Gibb . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1958. Vol. I, pp. 206-208.
• Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje : Mecca . Volume I: The city and its masters ; The Hague 1888. pp. 21f. Digitized
• Marco Schöller: The Living and the Dead in Islam. Studies in Arabic Epitaphs. II Epitaphs in Context. Harrassowitz, 2004, Wiesbaden. Pp. 302-308, 469-503.

Web links

• History of the graveyard of Jannatul Baqi (Madina) & Jannatul Mualla (Makkah)
• Photo of the cemetery today

supporting documents

1. ↑ Fayda: "Cennetü'l-Muallâ" in TDVİA Vol. VII, p. 387a.

Coordinates: 21 ° 26 ′ 13 ″  N , 39 ° 49 ′ 45 ″  E