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Hijr Isma'il
'''The shrine of Ismail ibn Jafar (a)''' is the burial place of Ismāʿīl, the eldest son of Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (a.s.), who passed away before his father. His body was buried in Medina, in the Baqiʿ Cemetery. For centuries, this shrine had a structure and a dome and was a place of visitation for pilgrims. It is said that the shrine was built on land that was previously the house of Imam al-Sajjād (a.s.), and in its courtyard, there was a well from which people would drink for the healing of the sick.
Ḥijr Ismāʿīl (Arabic: حجر اسماعيل) is a Semicircular area near [[Ka'ba]], and according to Islamic narratives is the burial place of [[Ishmael]], [[Hajar|Hājar]] and some prophets.
According to some hadiths, a segment of Ḥijr Ismāʿīl was a part of Ka'ba; therefore, according to Shia jurists and most of Sunni jurists, during Ṭawāf, Ḥijr Ismāʿīl should be placed inside the [[Tawaf|Ṭawāf]].
==Introduction==


Ḥijr Ismāʿīl is said to be the Semicircular area on the northwest side of [[Ka'ba]], in front of the gold gutter.<ref>Kurdī, ''Al-Tārīkh al-qawīm'', vol. 2, p. 569.</ref>
This shrine was destroyed in the year 1344 AH when the Wahhabis took control of Mecca and Medina. After this event, a simple wall was built around the grave until it was completely demolished during the construction of a road next to the cemetery. According to some reports, the body of Ismāʿīl was moved to another part of Baqīʿ, near the grave of Umm al-Banīn or near the graves of the Martyrs of Ḥarra, or about 10 meters away from the grave of Ḥalīma al-Saʿdiyya.


Ḥijr Ismāʿīl is marked by a wall with a height of 1.32 meters and a width of 1.52 meters. The distance of this wall from the [[gold gutter]] is nearly 6.80 meters and it covers an area of 8.44 meters between the [[Rukn al-'Iraqī]]  and the Rukn ush-Shami  (western corner of Ka'ba).<ref>Rafʿat Pāshā. ''Mirʾāt al-ḥaramayn'', vol. 1, p. 266; Kurdī, ''Al-Tārīkh al-qawīm'', vol. 2, p. 576.</ref>
==Ismaill ibn Jafar==
==History==
Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar was the eldest son of Imam Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Ṣādiq (a.s.), the sixth Imam of the Shia, who passed away during his father’s lifetime. His death is estimated to have occurred around the year 138 AH.<ref>“The Shrine of Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar in Baqīʿ and Its Historical Context up to the Present Century,” p. 52.</ref> Some Shia during the lifetime of Imam al-Ṣādiq (a.s.) believed that Ismāʿīl would be his successor. Some denied his death, while others believed in the Imamate of his son, Muḥammad. Both groups came to be known as the Ismāʿīlīs.<ref>Al-Irshād, vol. 2, pp. 209–210.</ref>


Based on religious traditions, the history of creation of Ḥijr Ismāʿīl goes back to the time of the construction of [[Ka'ba]] by Prophet [[Abraham(s)]]. There are different and sometimes conflicting reports about the reason of the Ḥijr's construction; Some reports show that [[Ishmael(s)]] took shelter from the scorching sun in this part,<ref>Qāʾidān, ''Tārīkh wa āthār-i Islāmi Makka wa Madīna'', p. 117.</ref> and  in this regard, perhaps the Ḥijr is introduced as his house.<ref>Kulaynī, ''Al-Kāfī'', vol. 4, p. 210.</ref>Some other narrations have attributed the construction of the first Ḥijr to Prophet Abraham(s) with the aim of protecting the sheep of Ishmael(s).<ref>Azraqī, ''Akhbār Makka'', Vol. 1, pp. 64-65;  Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī, ''Wasāʾil al-Shīʿa'', vol. 13, p. 355.</ref>
==Burial Place==
According to historical sources, Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar passed away in ʿUrayḍ (a village near Medina), but his body was brought to Medina and buried in the Baqīʿ Cemetery.<ref>Al-Irshād, vol. 2, p. 209; Sirr al-Silsila al-ʿAlawiyya, p. 34; al-Majdī, p. 100.</ref> His grave was located in an area that became separated from the rest of Baqīʿ when the city walls were extended, placing his shrine inside the walls of Medina (adjacent to the city wall) while the rest of the cemetery remained outside.<ref>Wafāʾ al-Wafā, vol. 5, p. 117.</ref>
==History of the Dome==
The grave of Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar had a dome during certain periods of history. It is said that the dome and shrine were built during the rule of the Fatimids in Egypt (302–564 AH). A description from the 8th century AH indicates that at that time, the grave of Ismāʿīl was a shrine with a large white dome located west of the dome of ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and adjacent to the wall of Medina. According to the same report, the shrine was built on land that was previously the house of Imam Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn (a.s.), and at that time, there was an abandoned mosque and a well next to the shrine.<ref>Al-Taʿrīf bimā ansat al-hijra, p. 121.</ref>


==Burial of prophets in the Ḥijr==
Samhūdī, a historian of Medina in the second half of the 9th century, mentions two inscriptions at the shrine of Ismāʿīl. These inscriptions indicated that the structure was built by Ḥusayn ibn Abī al-Hayjāʾ (an envoy of the Fatimid government) in the year 546 AH, and the same individual had also endowed a garden located to the west of the shrine to Ismāʿīl’s mausoleum.<ref>Wafāʾ al-Wafā, vol. 3, p. 306.</ref>
Islamic narratives have reported that some prophets were buried in the Ḥijr without mentioning their names. According to these reports, Ishmael, his mother [[Hājar]] and some of his daughters were buried in this place.<ref>Kulaynī, ''Al-Kāfī'', vol. 4, p. 210; Ibn Hishām,''Al-Sīra al-nabawīyya'', vol. 1, p. 5.</ref>


==The importance of Ḥijr Ismāʿīl among Meccans and Muslims==
Later travelogues also mention the shrine of Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar.<ref>See: “The Shrine of Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar in Baqīʿ and Its Historical Context up to the Present Century,” pp. 56–59.</ref> For example, ʿAyyāshī, a travel writer from the Levant in the 11th century, reports that Shia pilgrims, many of whom were part of the Iraqi caravan, made a point to visit the grave of Ismāʿīl.<ref>Al-Riḥla al-ʿAyyāshiyya, vol. 1, p. 381.</ref> A report from the early 13th century AH also mentions a well in the courtyard of the shrine attributed to Imam Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn (a.s.), from which water was taken for the healing of the sick.<ref>Ḥālāt al-Ḥaramayn, in Fifty Hajj Travelogues from the Qajar Era, p. 256.</ref>
Ḥijr Ismāʿīl has always attracted the attention of people of Mecca. There are reports of [[ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib]] sitting in Ḥijr Ismāʿīl,<ref>Ibn Saʿd, ''Al-Ṭabaqāt al-kubrā'' ,vol. 1, p. 82.</ref> and verbal disputes between Prophet Muhammad (s) and polytheists of [[Quraysh]] in this place,<ref>Ibn Hishām,''Al-Sīra al-nabawīyya'', vol. 1, pp. 289-290.</ref> and also the gathering of polytheists to decide on his assassination.<ref>Wāqidī, ''Al-Maghāzī'', vol. 1, p. 125.</ref> The number of dreams attributed to grandees such as ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib<ref>Ibn Hishām,''Al-Sīra al-nabawīyya'', vol. 1, p. 142; Ibn Kathīr,''Al-Bidāya wa l-nihāya'', Vol. 2, p. 244. </ref>and the Prophet(s) in Ḥijr Ismāʿīl<ref>Ibn Ṭāwūs, ''Saʿd al-suʿūd'', p. 100; Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 18, p. 317.</ref>shows that this place is suitable for resting after worshiping.
==Destruction of the Dome==
With the rise of the Wahhabis in the Arabian Peninsula and Medina, the shrine of Ismāʿīl, like other tombs and shrines, was destroyed in the year 1344 AH. According to some later reports, a simple wall was built around the grave.<ref>Travelogue of Ḥājj Sayyid Muḥammad Fāṭimī, in Fourteen Other Hajj Travelogues from the Qajar Era, p. 996.</ref> It is said that his shrine was surrounded by walls without doors or windows, measuring three by three meters and two and a half meters in height, located outside the Baqīʿ Cemetery, about 15 meters from its wall, to the west and facing the graves of the Imams (a.s.).<ref>Tārīkh Ḥaram Aʾimmat al-Baqīʿ, pp. 289–290.</ref>


Reports related to the designation of Ḥijr Ismāʿīl as the starting point of the [[ascension]] of the Prophet(s),<ref>Ibn Ṭāwūs, ''Saʿd al-suʿūd'', p. 100; Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 18, p. 317</ref> the holding of some of his speeches,<ref>Qummī, ''Tafsīr al-Qummī'', vol. 1, p. 379.</ref> the presence of Shia imams on various occasions, and their prayers and supplications at this place<ref>ʿAyyāshī, Tafsīr al-ʿAyyāshī, vol. 2, p. 337; Ṭūsī, Al-Ghayba. , p. 259; Ṣaffār, Baṣāʾir al-darajāt p. 373.</ref> show prominent position of Ḥijr Ismāʿīl among religious grandees.
==Current Location of the Grave 
 
In the year 1394 AH (1975 CE), during the construction of the western road of Baqīʿ, the area around the grave of Ismāʿīl was demolished, and rumors spread that his body was found intact.<ref>Tārīkh Ḥaram Aʾimmat al-Baqīʿ, p. 290.</ref> Some reports indicate that the body of Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar (a.s.) was moved inside the Baqīʿ Cemetery with the coordination of some Ismāʿīlī leaders<ref>Āthār Islāmī Makka wa Madīna, p. 348.</ref> and marked.<ref>Tārīkh Ḥaram Aʾimmat al-Baqīʿ, p. 290; Āthār Islāmī Makka wa Madīna, p. 348.</ref> The exact location of his burial is unclear due to differing descriptions and the loss of markers, but it is believed to be near the grave of Umm al-Banīn, near the graves of the Martyrs of Ḥarra, or about 10 meters from the grave of Ḥalīma al-Saʿdiyya at the end of Baqīʿ.<ref>Tārīkh Ḥaram Aʾimmat al-Baqīʿ, p. 291.</ref>
==Reconstructions of Ḥijr Ismāʿīl throughout history==
==Notes==
Some scholars, citing a hadith attributed to [[Prophet Muhammad(s)]] addressed to [[ʿĀʾisha]]<ref>Khuzaymah,Ṣaḥīḥ ibn Khuzaimah , vol. 2, p. 1413; Muslim Nayshābūrī, ''Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim'', vol. 2, p. 968.</ref> believe that a part of the current Ḥijr Ismāʿīl was part of [[Ka'ba]], which was placed in the inner Ḥijr due to the financial inability of the [[Quraysh]] to rebuild the Ka'ba in the fifth year before [[Biʿtha]]/605 CE.<ref>Kurdī,''Al-Tārīkh al-qawīm'', vol. 2, p. 573.</ref> They have even considered the naming of the Ḥijr to be appropriate to the stones marking the remaining part of the [[Ka'ba]] and to prevent people from entering it.<ref>Ḥamawī, ''Muʿjam al-buldān'', vol. 2, p. 221.</ref>
 
[[ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr]] in 64 AH/683-4 CE In [[rebuilding the Ka'ba]], he added the mentioned part to the Ka'ba, but [[Al-Ḥajjāj b. Yūsuf]] after permission from [[ʿAbd al-Malik b. Marwān]] (R: 65-86 AH/ 65/684-5 - 86/705 CE) in 74 AH/ 693-4 CE. He restored the building of the [[Ka'ba]] to its previous form.<ref>Rustā, ''Al-aʿlāq al-nafīsa'', p. 30;   Azraqī, ''Akhbār Makka'', Vol. 1, p. 214.</ref>The area of the Ḥijr has remained unchanged since then.
 
According to Sources the paving of Ḥijr was done in 140 AH/757-8 By order of [[Mansūr al-'Abbasī]](R: 136-158 AH/754-775<ref>Azraqī,''Akhbār Makka'', vol. 1, p. 313;sanjārī, ''Manāʾiḥ al-karam'', vol. 2, p. 92.</ref> and reconstructed in 164 AH/780-1 By the order of [[Mahdī al-'Abbasī]] (R:158-169 AH/775-785-6).<ref>Azraqī,''Akhbār Makka'', Vol 1, pp. 313-314; Kurdī, ''Al-Tārīkh al-qawīm'', vol. 2, p. 579.</ref>Other renovations were done in 1040 AH/1630-1, 1260 AH/1844-5 and 1283 AH/1866-7. It was done during the period of the Ottoman sultans.<ref>Kurdī, ''Al-Tārīkh al-qawīm'', vol. 2, p. 579.</ref>
 
==Ṭawāf in Ḥijr Ismāʿīl==
The method of [[Ṭawāf]] and also the obligatory and recommended prayers at Ḥijr Ismāʿīl have been disputed by Shia and Sunni jurists. The root of this disagreement is the difference in their views on Ḥijr Ismāʿīl whether is a part of [[Ka'ba]] or not.<ref>PūrAmīnī, Ḥijr Ismaʿīl. pp. 42-61;    Quarterly magazine of Mīqāt-I Ḥajj. vol. 8, p. 111.</ref>
 
Shia scholars have unanimously placed Ḥijr Ismāʿīl inside Ṭawāf, and in the case of entering Ḥijr Ismāʿīl while doing Ṭawāf, they have ruled to return Ṭawāf and repeat it.<ref>Ṭūsī,''Al-Khilāf'', vol. 2, p. 324; Majmaʿ al-fāʾida wa al-burhān, Vol. 7, p. 79.</ref> Sunni jurists have also considered [[Ṭawāf]] outside the Ḥijr as permissible and only to Abū Ḥanīfa’s belief is that entering the Ḥijr does not disturb the correctness of Ṭawāf.<ref>Shāfiʿī, ''Al-Umm'', vol. 2, p. 193; kalūdhānī, ''Al-Hidāya'', p. 190.</ref>
 
=Notes==
{{Notes}}
{{Notes}}
 
==References==
==references==
{{References}}
{{References}}
 
*ʿAyyāshī, ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad al-.''Al-Riḥla al-ʿAyyāshiyya''. Edited by Saʿīd al-Fāḍilī and Sulaymān al-Qarshī. Abu Dhabi: Dār al-Suwaydī lil-Nashr wa al-Tawzīʿ, 2006.
*ʿAyyāshī, Muḥammad b. Masʿūd al-. ‘’Tafsīr al-ʿAyyāshī’’. Edited by Rasūlī Maḥallātī. Tehran: al-Maktaba al-ʿIlmiyya al-Islāmiyya, 1380 Sh.:
*Bukhārī, Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-. ''Al-Adab al-mufrad''. 3rd edition. Edited by Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī. Beirut: Dār al-Bashāʾir al-Islāmiya, 1409 AH.
*Azraqī, Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-. ‘’Akhbār Makka wa mā jāʾa fīhā min al-āthār’’. Edited by Rushdī Ṣāliḥ Mulḥis. Beirut: 1403 AH.
*Jaʿfarīyān, Rasūl. ''Āthār Islāmī Makka wa Madīna''. Tehran: Mashʿar, 1382 AH.
*Shāfiʿī, Muḥammad b. Idrīs. ''Al-Umm''. Beirut: 1403 AH.
*Khamihyār, Aḥmad.** *Bahsht al-Baqīʿ*. Tehran: Andīsha-yi Mīrāth, 1401 AH.  
 
*Mufīd, Shaykh al-.''Al-Irshād fī maʿrifat ḥujaj Allāh ʿalā al-ʿibād''. Edited by Muʾassasat Āl al-Bayt. Qom: Kongreh Shaykh Mufīd, 1413 AH.   
*Kurdī, Muḥammad Ṭāhir. ‘’Al-Tārīkh al-qawīm li Makka wa bayt Allāh al-karīm’’. Beirut: 1420 AH.
*Muṭrī, Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-.''Al-Taʿrīf bimā ansat al-hijra''. Edited by Salmān al-Raḥīlī. Riyadh: Dār al-Malik ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, 1426 AH.
*Russta, Aḥmad b. ʿUmar . Al-aʿlāq al-nafīsah. Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 1892.
*Najafī, Ḥāfiẓ.''Buqʿat Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar fī al-Baqīʿ wa basīṭuhā al-tārīkhī ilā al-qarn al-ḥāḍir''.Mīqāt al-Ḥajj, no. 124, pp. 49–74.
* Shāfiʿī, Muḥammad b. Idrīs. ''Al-Umm''. Beirut: 1403 AH
*Najmī, Muḥammad Ṣādiq.''Tārīkh ḥaram aʾimmat al-Baqīʿ wa āthār ukhrā fī Madīnat al-Munawwara''. Tehran: Mashʿar, 1386 AH.   
*Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir al-. ''Biḥār al-anwār al-jāmiʿa li-durar akhbār al-aʾimmat al-aṭhār''. Third edition. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1403 AH.
*Samhūdī, ʿAlī b. ʿAbd Allāh al-.''Wafāʾ al-wafā bi-akhbār dār al-Muṣṭafā''. Edited by Qāsim al-Sāmarrāʾī. London: Muʾassasat al-Furqān, 2006.  
*Ibn Kathīr, Ismāʿīl b. ʿUmar. ‘’Al-Bidāya wa l-nihāya’’. Edited by ʿAlī Shīrī. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1408 AH
{{end}}
*Ṣaffār, Muḥammad b. Ḥasan. ‘’Baṣāʾir al-darajāt fī faḍāʾil-i Āl-i Muḥammad’’. Edited by Muḥsin Kūchabāghī. Qom: Kitābkhāna-yi Āyat Allāh al-Marʿashī, 1404 AH.
*Qāʾidān, Aṣghar. ‘’Tārīkh wa āthār-i Islāmi Makka wa Madīna’’. 4th edition. Qom: Nashr-i Mashʿar, 1381 Sh
Qummī, ʿAlī b. Ibrāhīm al-. ''Tafsīr al-Qummī''. Edited by Ṭayyib Mūsawī Jazāʾrī. Qom: Dār al-Kitāb, 1404 AH.
*PūrAmīnī, Muḥammad Amīn. Ḥijr Ismaʿīl. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Mashʿar, 1388 sh.
*Ṭūsī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥaasn al-. ‘’Al-Khilāf’’. Edited by ʿAlī Khurāsānī et.al. Qom: Daftar-i Intishārāt-i Islāmī, 1407 AH.
Ibn Ṭāwūs, ʿAlī b. Mūsā. ''Saʿd al-suʿūd''*
 
* Ibn Hishām, ʿAbd al-Malik. ‘’Al-Sīra al-nabawīyya’’. Edited by Muṣṭafā al-Saqā, Ibrāhīm Ābyārī and ʿAbd al-Ḥafīz Shalbī. Cairo: 1355 AH/1936.
*Khuzaymah, Muḥammad b. Ṣaḥīḥ ibn Khuzaimah. Edited by Muḥammad Muṣṭafā al-aʿzamī, Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1424 AH.
*Nawawī, Yaḥyā b. Sharaf. ‘’Ṣaḥīḥ al-Muslim bi sharḥ al-Nawawī’’. Beirut: 1407 AH.:
*Ibn Saʿd, Muḥammad. ‘’Al-Ṭabaqāt al-kubrā’’. Muḥammad Ṣāmil al-Silmī. Al-Ṭaʾif: Maktabat al-Ṣiddiq, 1414 AH/1993.:
Ṭūsī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-. Al-Ghayba. Edited by ʿIbād Allāh * Tihrānī and ʿAlī Aḥmad Nāṣiḥ. Qom: Muʾassisat al-Maʿārif al-Islāmīyya, 1411 AH.
 
*Kulaynī, Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb al-. ‘’Al-Kāfī’’. Edited by Najm al-Dīn al-Amulī. Tehran: Al-Maktabat al-Islāmīyya, 1388 AH.:
*Muqaddas Ardibīlī, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad. ‘’Majmaʿ al-fāʾida wa al-burhān fī sharḥ irshād al-adhhān’’. Edited by Mujtabā Irāqī, ʿAlīpanāh Ishtihārdī and Ḥusayn Yazdī Iṣfahānī. Qom: 1st volume, 1403/ volume 11, 1414 AH.
*Ibrāhīm Rafʿat Pāshā. ‘’Mirʾāt al-ḥaramayn, aw, al-raḥlāt al-ḥijāziyya wa al-ḥaj wa mashāʿirihi al-dīniyya’’. Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, [n.d].
*Ḥamawī, Yāqūt b. ʿAbd Allāh al-. ‘’Muʿjam al-buldān’’. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1399 AH.
*Wāqidī, Muḥammad b. ʿUmar al-. ‘’Al-Maghāzī’’. Translated to Farsi by Maḥmūd Mahdawī Dāmghānī. 2nd edition. Tehran: Markaz-i Nashr-i Dānishgāhī, 1388 Sh.
*Khwārizmī, Muwaffaq b. Aḥmad al-. ‘’Al-Manāqib’’. Edited by Mālik Mahmūdī. Qom: 1414 AH.
  *ʿAlī b. Tāj al-ddīn al-sanjārī. ‘’Manāʾiḥ al-karam‘’. Mecca: umm al-qurā university, 1998.
Quarterly magazine of Mīqāt-I Ḥajj. Tehran: Representation of the Leader in matters of Hajj and pilgrimage.
*Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-. ‘’Wasāʾil al-Shīʿa’’. Edited by ʿAbd al-Raḥīm Rabbānī Shīrāzī. fifth edition. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1403 AH-1983.
*Abū al-khaṭṭāb al-kalūdhānī.Al-Hidāya ʿAlā madhhab al-imam aḥmad. Edited by ʿAbd al-Laṭīf Hamīm and Māhir Yāsīn al-faḥl, [n.p], Muʾassisa Gharrās, 1425 AH.
*Muslim Nayshābūrī. ''Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim''. Edited by Muḥammad fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī . Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Kutub al-ʿArabiyya, 1412 AH.

Latest revision as of 16:51, 14 January 2025

The shrine of Ismail ibn Jafar (a) is the burial place of Ismāʿīl, the eldest son of Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (a.s.), who passed away before his father. His body was buried in Medina, in the Baqiʿ Cemetery. For centuries, this shrine had a structure and a dome and was a place of visitation for pilgrims. It is said that the shrine was built on land that was previously the house of Imam al-Sajjād (a.s.), and in its courtyard, there was a well from which people would drink for the healing of the sick.

This shrine was destroyed in the year 1344 AH when the Wahhabis took control of Mecca and Medina. After this event, a simple wall was built around the grave until it was completely demolished during the construction of a road next to the cemetery. According to some reports, the body of Ismāʿīl was moved to another part of Baqīʿ, near the grave of Umm al-Banīn or near the graves of the Martyrs of Ḥarra, or about 10 meters away from the grave of Ḥalīma al-Saʿdiyya.

Ismaill ibn Jafar

Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar was the eldest son of Imam Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Ṣādiq (a.s.), the sixth Imam of the Shia, who passed away during his father’s lifetime. His death is estimated to have occurred around the year 138 AH.[1] Some Shia during the lifetime of Imam al-Ṣādiq (a.s.) believed that Ismāʿīl would be his successor. Some denied his death, while others believed in the Imamate of his son, Muḥammad. Both groups came to be known as the Ismāʿīlīs.[2]

Burial Place

According to historical sources, Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar passed away in ʿUrayḍ (a village near Medina), but his body was brought to Medina and buried in the Baqīʿ Cemetery.[3] His grave was located in an area that became separated from the rest of Baqīʿ when the city walls were extended, placing his shrine inside the walls of Medina (adjacent to the city wall) while the rest of the cemetery remained outside.[4]

History of the Dome

The grave of Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar had a dome during certain periods of history. It is said that the dome and shrine were built during the rule of the Fatimids in Egypt (302–564 AH). A description from the 8th century AH indicates that at that time, the grave of Ismāʿīl was a shrine with a large white dome located west of the dome of ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and adjacent to the wall of Medina. According to the same report, the shrine was built on land that was previously the house of Imam Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn (a.s.), and at that time, there was an abandoned mosque and a well next to the shrine.[5]

Samhūdī, a historian of Medina in the second half of the 9th century, mentions two inscriptions at the shrine of Ismāʿīl. These inscriptions indicated that the structure was built by Ḥusayn ibn Abī al-Hayjāʾ (an envoy of the Fatimid government) in the year 546 AH, and the same individual had also endowed a garden located to the west of the shrine to Ismāʿīl’s mausoleum.[6]

Later travelogues also mention the shrine of Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar.[7] For example, ʿAyyāshī, a travel writer from the Levant in the 11th century, reports that Shia pilgrims, many of whom were part of the Iraqi caravan, made a point to visit the grave of Ismāʿīl.[8] A report from the early 13th century AH also mentions a well in the courtyard of the shrine attributed to Imam Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn (a.s.), from which water was taken for the healing of the sick.[9]

Destruction of the Dome

With the rise of the Wahhabis in the Arabian Peninsula and Medina, the shrine of Ismāʿīl, like other tombs and shrines, was destroyed in the year 1344 AH. According to some later reports, a simple wall was built around the grave.[10] It is said that his shrine was surrounded by walls without doors or windows, measuring three by three meters and two and a half meters in height, located outside the Baqīʿ Cemetery, about 15 meters from its wall, to the west and facing the graves of the Imams (a.s.).[11]

==Current Location of the Grave In the year 1394 AH (1975 CE), during the construction of the western road of Baqīʿ, the area around the grave of Ismāʿīl was demolished, and rumors spread that his body was found intact.[12] Some reports indicate that the body of Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar (a.s.) was moved inside the Baqīʿ Cemetery with the coordination of some Ismāʿīlī leaders[13] and marked.[14] The exact location of his burial is unclear due to differing descriptions and the loss of markers, but it is believed to be near the grave of Umm al-Banīn, near the graves of the Martyrs of Ḥarra, or about 10 meters from the grave of Ḥalīma al-Saʿdiyya at the end of Baqīʿ.[15]

Notes

  1. “The Shrine of Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar in Baqīʿ and Its Historical Context up to the Present Century,” p. 52.
  2. Al-Irshād, vol. 2, pp. 209–210.
  3. Al-Irshād, vol. 2, p. 209; Sirr al-Silsila al-ʿAlawiyya, p. 34; al-Majdī, p. 100.
  4. Wafāʾ al-Wafā, vol. 5, p. 117.
  5. Al-Taʿrīf bimā ansat al-hijra, p. 121.
  6. Wafāʾ al-Wafā, vol. 3, p. 306.
  7. See: “The Shrine of Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar in Baqīʿ and Its Historical Context up to the Present Century,” pp. 56–59.
  8. Al-Riḥla al-ʿAyyāshiyya, vol. 1, p. 381.
  9. Ḥālāt al-Ḥaramayn, in Fifty Hajj Travelogues from the Qajar Era, p. 256.
  10. Travelogue of Ḥājj Sayyid Muḥammad Fāṭimī, in Fourteen Other Hajj Travelogues from the Qajar Era, p. 996.
  11. Tārīkh Ḥaram Aʾimmat al-Baqīʿ, pp. 289–290.
  12. Tārīkh Ḥaram Aʾimmat al-Baqīʿ, p. 290.
  13. Āthār Islāmī Makka wa Madīna, p. 348.
  14. Tārīkh Ḥaram Aʾimmat al-Baqīʿ, p. 290; Āthār Islāmī Makka wa Madīna, p. 348.
  15. Tārīkh Ḥaram Aʾimmat al-Baqīʿ, p. 291.

References

  • ʿAyyāshī, ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad al-.Al-Riḥla al-ʿAyyāshiyya. Edited by Saʿīd al-Fāḍilī and Sulaymān al-Qarshī. Abu Dhabi: Dār al-Suwaydī lil-Nashr wa al-Tawzīʿ, 2006.
  • Bukhārī, Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-. Al-Adab al-mufrad. 3rd edition. Edited by Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī. Beirut: Dār al-Bashāʾir al-Islāmiya, 1409 AH.
  • Jaʿfarīyān, Rasūl. Āthār Islāmī Makka wa Madīna. Tehran: Mashʿar, 1382 AH.
  • Khamihyār, Aḥmad.** *Bahsht al-Baqīʿ*. Tehran: Andīsha-yi Mīrāth, 1401 AH.
  • Mufīd, Shaykh al-.Al-Irshād fī maʿrifat ḥujaj Allāh ʿalā al-ʿibād. Edited by Muʾassasat Āl al-Bayt. Qom: Kongreh Shaykh Mufīd, 1413 AH.
  • Muṭrī, Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-.Al-Taʿrīf bimā ansat al-hijra. Edited by Salmān al-Raḥīlī. Riyadh: Dār al-Malik ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, 1426 AH.
  • Najafī, Ḥāfiẓ.Buqʿat Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar fī al-Baqīʿ wa basīṭuhā al-tārīkhī ilā al-qarn al-ḥāḍir.Mīqāt al-Ḥajj, no. 124, pp. 49–74.
  • Najmī, Muḥammad Ṣādiq.Tārīkh ḥaram aʾimmat al-Baqīʿ wa āthār ukhrā fī Madīnat al-Munawwara. Tehran: Mashʿar, 1386 AH.
  • Samhūdī, ʿAlī b. ʿAbd Allāh al-.Wafāʾ al-wafā bi-akhbār dār al-Muṣṭafā. Edited by Qāsim al-Sāmarrāʾī. London: Muʾassasat al-Furqān, 2006.