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'''Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS)''', the eleventh Imam of [[Shia]] Muslims and the father of [[Imam Mahdi (AS)]], was born in 232 AH/846-7 AD in [[Medina]]. During his childhood, he was forced to accompany his father to [[Samarra]], in present-day [[Iraq]], by the [[Abbasid caliph]]. He lived there under Abbasid surveillance until his martyrdom in 260 AH/873-4 AD. He was buried alongside his father, [[Imam al-Hadi (AS)]], in Samarra, at a site known as [[the Shrine of the Two Askari Imams]].
'''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.


There are no specific reports about Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS) performing [[Hajj]]. However, narrations from him regarding the pilgrimage, its significance, and the meanings behind the phrases of "[[Labbayk]]" have been recorded. In addition to the commentary attributed to him, prayers and supplications by the Imam are also found in Islamic sources.
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.


==Biography==
==Ismaill ibn Jafar==
Hasan ibn Ali ibn Muhammad (AS), commonly known as Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS), was the eleventh Imam of the Twelve Imams in Shia Islam. His father was [[Imam al-Hadi (AS)]], and his mother was a noblewoman from Nubia.<ref>Masʿūdī, ''Ithbāt al-Waṣiyya'', p. 244. </ref> According to widely accepted accounts, he was born on the 8th of Rabi al-Thani in 232 AH/2th December 846  in [[Medina]].<ref>Ṭabarī, ''Dalāʾil al-Imāma'', p. 423; Ibn Shahrāshūb. ''Manāqib Āl Abī Ṭālib'', vol. 3, p. 523.</ref>   
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>   


At the age of four, in 236 AH/850 AD, or possibly in 233 AH/847 AD<ref>Ashʿarī al-Qummī, ''al-Maqālāt wa-l-Firaq'', p. 100.</ref>, he accompanied his father to Samarra after the Abbasid caliph Mutawakkil detained his father. Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS) remained in [[Samarra]] until the end of his life.<ref>Masʿūdī, ''Ithbāt al-Waṣiyya'', p. 243-4.</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>   


He was given the title "al-Askari" because [[Mutawakkil]] housed him in the military district of Samarra.<ref>Ibn Khallikān. ''Wafayāt al-Aʿyān'', vol. 2, p. 94. 
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>   
Muʾassasat Walī al-ʿAṣr, ''Mawsūʿat al-Imām al-ʿAskarī'', vol. 1, p. 38.</ref>Additionally, he was known as "Ibn al-Ridha," a title also attributed to his father, Imam al-Hadi (AS), and his grandfather, [[Imam al-Jawad (AS)]], due to their lineage from Imam al-Ridha (AS).<ref>Ṣadūq, ''Kamāl al-dīn wa tamām al-niʿma''. p. 41, Ibn Shahrāshūb,  ''Manāqib Āl Abī Ṭālib'', Vol. 3, p. 523.</ref> Other titles recorded for him in historical sources include Khālis, Khāṣṣ, Sirāj, Ṣāmit, Zakī, and Taqī.<ref>Ṭabarī,  ''Dalāʾil al-imāma'', pp. 423–424; Ibn Shahrāshūb, ''Manāqib Āl Abī Ṭālib''. Vol. 3, p. 523.</ref>   


Imam Hasan al-Askari’s wife was [[Lady Narjis Khatun]], and their only son was [[Imam Mahdi (AS)]]<ref>Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Ḥusaynī, ''Al-Tatimma fī tawārīkh al-aʾimma'', p. 143;Shūshtarī, ''Rāḥat al-arwāḥ'', p. 267.</ref>. However, some historians have mentioned the possibility of other children attributed to him.<ref>Maṣʿūdī, ''Tārīkh al-aʾimma'', p. 22.</ref>
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>
===Martyrdom===
==Destruction of the Dome==
{{Main| Shrine of the Two Askari Imams}} 
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>
 
Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS) was martyred at the age of 28 on the 8th of Rabi al-Awwal in 260 AH/ 1th January 874 AD, poisoned under the orders of the Abbasid caliph [[al-Mu'tamid]]. He was buried next to his father, Imam al-Hadi (AS), in Samarra. This sacred site is known as the Shrine of the Two Askari Imams (al-Askariyain).<ref>Ṭūsī, Al-Ghayba, p. 219; Mufīd,  Al-Irshād, p. 323; ''Ṭabrisī, Iʿlām al-warā'', p. 131.</ref>
 
The burial place of Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS), alongside his father, remains a revered shrine and pilgrimage destination, famously referred to as the [[Shrine of the Two Askari Imams]].<ref>Qazwīnī, ''Maʾāthir al-kubrā'', Vol. 1, p. 315.</ref>
 
==Period of Imamate== 
 
Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS) spent 23 years alongside his father, Imam al-Hadi (AS), and, following his father’s martyrdom, became his successor at the age of 22, as per Imam al-Hadi’s will.<ref>Mufīd, ''Al-Irshād'', pp. 313–315; Ṭabrisī, ''Iʿlām al-warā bi-aʿlām al-hudā'', pp. 131–133; Ibn Shahrāshūb, ''Manāqib Āl Abī Ṭālib'', Vol. 3, pp. 523–524.</ref> His period of Imamate lasted six years (254–260 AH/846- 874 AD).<ref>Ṭūsī, ''Al-Ghayba'', pp. 120–122.</ref> 
 
Imam Hasan al-Askari’s Imamate coincided with the reigns of three Abbasid caliphs: al-Mu'tazz (252–255 AH/866-868 AD), al-Muhtadi (255–256 AH/868-869 AD), and al-Mu'tamid (256–279 AH/869-892 AD).<ref>Ṭabarī, ''Dalāʾil al-imāma'' p. 423; Ṭabrisī, ''Iʿlām al-warā'', p. 349; Ibn Shahrāshūb, ''Manāqib Āl Abī Ṭālib'', Vol. 3, p. 523.</ref> During al-Mu'tazz’s rule, the Imam was imprisoned, and an attempt was made on his life, but al-Mu'tazz was killed by Turkish forces before he could carry it out.<ref>Ṭūsī, ''Al-Ghayba'', p. 208.</ref> The harassment and imprisonment of the Imam continued during the reigns of al-Muhtadi<ref>Ṭūsī, ''Al-Ghayba'', p. 205.</ref> and al-Mu'tamid.<ref>Ṭūsī, ''Al-Ghayba'', p. 219; Mufīd, ''Al-Irshād'', p. 323; Ṭabrisī, ''Iʿlām al-warā'', p. 131.</ref> 
 
Despite the Abbasid authorities’ strict surveillance over the Imam's residence, many of his followers, including narrators, representatives, and companions, maintained contact with him. Notable among them were Ibrahim ibn Mahziyar, [[Abd al-Azim al-Hasani]], [[Uthman ibn Sa’id al-Umari]], and [[Fazl ibn Shadhan al-Nishaburi]].<ref>Ṭūsī, ''Rijāl al-Ṭūsī'', pp. 397–400.</ref> 
 
===Books Attributed to Imam al-Askari=== 
 
Among Imam Hasan al-Askari’s cultural contributions are several works attributed to him, including: 
*Kitab al-Manqaba
*Masa'il Abi Muhammad al-Hasan al-Askari
*Tawqi'at al-Imam al-Askari
*Tafsir attributed to Imam Hasan al-Askari<ref>Arbalī, ''Kashf al-ghumma'', pp. 208–210.
</ref> 
 
Additionally, many supplications (duas) from the Imam are preserved in various sources.<ref>Arbalī, Kashf al-ghumma. p. 211.</ref>
 
 
==Imam Hasan al-Askari and Hajj==
 
There are no conclusive reports of Imam Hasan al-Askari performing [[Hajj]]. He is widely considered the only Imam who could not perform the pilgrimage due to his house arrest in [[Samarra]].<ref>Ṣadr, ''Al-Anbiyāʾ wa al-aʾimma'', p. 466.</ref> However, some sources mention narrations from the Imam in [[Mecca]], and a report by Baladhuri indicates his presence there.<ref>Arbalī, ''Kashf al-ghumma'', Vol. 3, p. 198.</ref>
 
===Sending His Family to Mecca=== 
It is said that shortly before his passing, Imam al-Askari sent his mother and his son, [[Imam Mahdi (AS)]], to perform [[Hajj]].<ref>Masʿūdī, Ithbāt al-waṣiyya, p. 255.</ref> They traveled under the protection of Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Mutahhar, a close associate of the eleventh Imam. Following the pilgrimage, it is believed they moved to [[Medina]], possibly as a place of concealment for the twelfth Imam.<ref>Ṣadr, ''Tārīkh al-siyāsī li-ghaybat al-Imām al-thānī ʿashar (ʿaj)'', p. 124.</ref>
 
===Narrations About Hajj=== 
The Imam provided various narrations related to Hajj, including rulings and spiritual insights. For instance, Muhammad ibn al-Mutahhar narrated a tradition regarding [[Hajj Bazli]] (performing Hajj on behalf of another).<ref>Ṣadūq, ''Musnad al-Imām al-ʿAskarī'', p. 252.</ref> The Imam also conveyed a narration about the philosophy and meanings behind the phrases of [[Labbayk]].<ref>Ṣadūq, ''Man lā yaḥḍuruhu al-faqīh'', Vol. 2, pp. 327–328; Ṣadūq, ''ʿIlal al-sharāʾiʿ'', p. 417.</ref>


==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> 
==Notes==
==Notes==
{{Notes}}
==References==
==References==
*Abū Saʿīd Shīʿī Sabzawārī al-. ''Rāḥat al-Arwāḥ''. Edited by Muḥammad Sipaḥrī. Tehran: Mīrāth-i Maktūb, 1378 Sh.
{{References}}
*ʿĀmilī, Tāj al-Dīn b. ʿAlī b. Aḥmad al-Ḥusaynī al-. ''al-Tatamma fī Tawārīkh al-Aʾimma''. Qom: Muʾassasat al-Baʿtha, 1412 AH. 
*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.   
*Amīn, Sayyid Muḥsin. ''Aʿyān al-Shīʿa''. Edited by Ḥasan al-Amīn. Beirut: Dār al-Taʿārif.
*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.   
*Arbilī, ʿAlī b. Abī al-Fatḥ al-. ''Kashf al-Ghumma fī Maʿrifat al-Aʾimma''. Beirut: Dār al-Aḍwāʾ, [n.d].   
*Jaʿfarīyān, Rasūl. ''Āthār Islāmī Makka wa Madīna''. Tehran: Mashʿar, 1382 AH.
*Ashʿarī al-Qummī, Saʿd b. ʿAbd Allāh, al- (d. 301 AH). *al-Maqālāt wa-l-Firaq*. Qom: Markaz Intishārāt ʿIlmī wa-Thaqāfī, 1360 Sh. 
*Khamihyār, Aḥmad.** *Bahsht al-Baqīʿ*. Tehran: Andīsha-yi Mīrāth, 1401 AH.  
*ʿAṭṭārūdī Qujānī, ʿAzīz Allāh. ''Musnad al-Imām al-ʿAskarī Abī Muḥammad al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī ʿalayhimā al-salām''. Beirut: Dār al-Ṣafwa, 1413 AH/1993 CE. 
*Mufīd, Shaykh al-.''Al-Irshād fī maʿrifat ḥujaj Allāh ʿalā al-ʿibād''. Edited by Muʾassasat Āl al-Bayt. Qom: Kongreh Shaykh Mufīd, 1413 AH.   
*Ḥajj al-Anbiyāʾ wa-l-Aʾimma (ʿalayhim al-salām)*. Center for Ḥajj Research. Tehran: Mashʿar, 1416 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.   
*Ḥusayn, Jāsim. ''Tārīkh-i Sīyāsī-i Ghaybat-i Imām-i Dawāzdahum (ʿAjj)''. Translated by Sayyid Muḥammad Taqī Āyatullāhī. Tehran: Amīr Kabīr, 1385 Sh.
*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.
*Ibn Shahrāshūb . ''Manāqib Āl Abī Ṭālib''. Edited by a group of Najaf scholars. Najaf al-Ashraf: al-Maktaba al-Ḥaydariyya, 1376 AH.  
*Najmī, Muḥammad Ṣādiq.''Tārīkh ḥaram aʾimmat al-Baqīʿ wa āthār ukhrā fī Madīnat al-Munawwara''. Tehran: Mashʿar, 1386 AH.   
*Kashshī al-. *Rijāl al-Kashshī (Ikhtiyār Maʿrifat al-Rijāl)*. Corrected by Mīr Dāmād and Rajāʾī. Qom: Āl al-Bayt, 1404 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 Khallikān. ''Wafayāt al-Aʿyān wa-Anbāʾ al-Zamān''. Edited by Iḥsān ʿAbbās. Lebanon: Dār al-Thaqāfa, no date. 
{{end}}
*Kātib al-Baghdādī. ''Tārīkh al-Aʾimma (al-Majmūʿa)''. Qom: Maktabat al-Marʿashī al-Najafī, 1406 AH. 
*Kulaynī al- . ''al-Kāfī''. Corrected by ʿAlī Akbar Ghifārī. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, 1363 Sh. 
*Maḥallātī, Dhabīḥ Allāh. ''Maʾāthir al-Kubrāʾ fī Tārīkh Sāmarrāʾ''. Qom: al-Maktaba al-Ḥaydariyya, 1384 Sh/1426 AH.
*Majlisī. ''Biḥār al-Anwār''. Edited by Sayyid Ḥasan al-Mūsawī al-Khurāsān. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1403 AH.   
*Masʿūdī, Abū al-Ḥasan. ''Ithbāt al-Waṣiyya li-l-Imām ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib''. Qom: Anṣārīyān, 1423 AH.
*''Mawsūʿat al-Imām al-ʿAskarī''. Edited by Sayyid Muḥammad al-Ḥusaynī al-Qazwīnī and others. Qom: Muʾassasat Walī al-ʿAṣr, 1426 AH.   
*Mufīd. ''al-Irshād''. Beirut: Dār al-Mufīd, 1414 AH.
*Nuʿmānī al- . ''al-Ghayba''. Edited by Fāris Ḥassūn. Qom: Anwār al-Hudā, 1422 AH.
*Rāwandī, Quṭb al-Dīn . ''al-Kharāʾij wa-l-Jarāʾiḥ''. Edited by Sayyid Muḥammad Bāqir al-Abṭaḥī. Qom: Muʾassasat al-Imām al-Hādī, 1409 AH.
*Ṣadūq al-. ''ʿIlal al-Sharāʾiʿ''. Edited by Sayyid Muḥammad Ṣādiq Baḥr al-ʿUlūm. Najaf al-Ashraf: al-Maktaba al-Ḥaydariyya, 1386 AH.
*Ṣadūq al- . ''Kamal al-Dīn wa-Tamām al-Niʿma''. Edited by ʿAlī Akbar Ghifārī. Qom: al-Nashr al-Islāmī, 1405 AH.   
*Ṣadūq al-. ''Man Lā Yaḥḍuruhu al-Faqīh''. Edithed by ʿAlī Akbar Ghifārī. Qom: al-Nashr al-Islāmī.   
*Sibṭ b. al-Jawzī. ''Tadhkirat al-Khawāṣṣ min al-Umma fī Dhikr Khaṣāʾiṣ al-Aʾimma''. Qom: al-Sharīf al-Raḍī, 1418 AH.     
*Ṭabarasī, Shaykh. Aʿlām al-Warā bi-Aʿlām al-Hudā. Qom: Āl al-Bayt li-Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth, 1417 AH.
*Ṭabarī al-Shīʿī. ''Dalāʾil al-Imāma''. Qom: al-Baʿtha, 1413 AH. 
*Ṭūsī, Shaykh al-. ''Rijāl al-Ṭūsī (al-Abwāb)''. Edited by Jawād al-Qayyūmī al-Iṣfahānī. Qom: al-Nashr al-Islāmī, 1415 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.