Mawlid al-Nabi

Mawlid al-Nabī (The birthplace of the Prophet (PBUH) is the house of Abdullah b. Abdul Muṭṭalib, where the prophet Muḥammad (PBUH) was born; This place was located in the city of Mecca in the neighborhood of Shiʿb Abī Ṭālib. In the second century of Hijra, Khayzrān, the mother of Hārūn al-Rashīd, bought that place and turned it into a mosque. Reports from the 6th century onwards indicate that an ornate marble monument for marking the birthplace of the Prophet (PBUH) was built in a part of the mosque. In the reconstruction it on 1009 AH, a large dome and minaret were built for this mosque.

The birthplace of the Prophet's Mosque was considered one of the blessed places in Mecca, and every year on the night of the birth of the Prophet (PBUH), the people of Mecca attended there. Reports from the 10th century have said the existence of a special and official ritual that was held on the 12th night of Rabīʿ al-awwal with the presence of the representative of the Ottoman government in Mecca (the supervisor of Masjid al-Ḥarām). Due to the importance and fame of Mawlid al-Nabī, this building has been rebuilt many times by order of kings and nobles, but it was destroyed during the The House of Saʿūd government like many blessed places and buildings in Mecca (in 1343 AH/ 1303 sh). In the year 1370 AH/1329 sh. In order to keep the memory of this place alive, a library was built in it, which is still there, and it is called Maktaba Makkah Al-Mukarrma Library.

History

The house where prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was born, which was located at the location of Shiʿb Abi Ṭālib in a neighborhood called Sawq al-Layl, has been called Mawlid al-Nabī (PBUH) or the birthplace of the Prophet. In some historical sources, other places have been mentioned as the possible place of the Prophet’s birth, which is not approved by most historians of Mecca.

until the third century

According to Azraqī in his book Akhbār Makka, who lived in the third century, Mawlid al-Nabī (PBUH), or the house where the Prophet was born, fell into the hands of ʿAqīl, son of Abū Ṭālib, after his emigration, and was passed on to ʿAqīl’s children until it was handed over to Muhammad b. Yūsuf. Thaqafī was sold and he added it to his house, which was known as the White House. When Khayzrān, the mother of Harūn al-Rashīd, performed Hajj in 171 A.H., she bought it and built a mosque in it where they pray. Azraqī states that the people of Mecca have not discord about the birthplace of the Prophet. The same report was also given by Fākihī (245 AH), another old historian of the history of Mecca.

Ibn Jubayr's report (seventh century)

Ibn Jubayr (614 AH) visited this mosque in 579 AH and described it in his travelogue.He considered the building to be a magnificent mosque that “opens on Mondays in the month of Rabiʿ al-Awwal, which is the month of the Prophet’s (PBUH) birth and birthday and all the people will come there on that day to obtain grace and blessings, and other holy places will also be opened on the same day, and it is always the Day of Resurrection in Mecca.”

According to Ibn Jubayr, the Prophet’s birthplace in this mosque is built in the form of a pond with a width of three wajabs (0.675m), in the middle of which is a green marble with a width of two-thirds of a wajab (about 0.225m), which is said to be surrounded by silver. The Miḥrāb of the mosque is located in front of this place.

Fāsī's report (ninth century)

More than two centuries later, the Mecca historian Taqī al-Dīn Fāsī (832 AH) gave a description of this place, which was respected and cherished by the people of Mecca, in the book Shifāʾ al-gharām. The building of the mosque is depicted as a square shape with two arcuate arches, which has a large angle in its southwest corner.

The report of the ʾulīāʾ Chalbī (11th century)

Two and a half centuries later, in 1081 AH, Turkish travel writer ʾulīāʾ Chalbī saw Mawlid al-Nabī(PBUH) and described it in his book. He has described this building as a large and beautiful mosque, which was a square building with a high dome covered with lead. Chalbī mentioned the decorations inside the mosque, including the precious carpet and the pulpit covered with silk cloth and gold. According to him, the Prophet’s birthplace was a stone in a yellow hole on which the place of his body was imprinted.

The last descriptions of Mould al-Nabi(PBUH) building before its destruction

Mulla Ibrahīm Kazirūnī, who had the opportunity to visit this house in 1315 AH, writes: “On Friday, the 14th, we went to visit the Prophet(PBUH) birthplace at a place known as the Mawlid al-Nabī(PBUH), and that place is located in Sawq al-layl We went inside and went down approximately fourteen steps. We entered a room named after the mosque. After that, we went to another room. There is a shrine in this room. The servant opened the door of the shrine. There is a pit inside this shrine. In the middle of it there is a green stone, which was the birthplace of Prophet.”

MuḥammadLabīb Batanūnī who in 1909/1327 AH. He traveled to mecca in his travelogue and drew a plan from the plan of the Prophet’s building and described it as follows: “When you enter it, you first enter a 12-meter-long and 6-meter-wide playground, which is on the right wall. There is a door, after passing through it you will enter a space on which a dome is placed, in the middle of this space and under the dome leaning against the western wall, there is a wooden compartment inside which is a concave marble stone with a little It has sunk in. It can be seen. This place shows the birthplace of the prophet”

Renovations

The building of Mawlid al-Nabī was the attention of princes and kings and was renovated many times. The list of these renovations is as follows:

• Year 576 AH, By Nāsser, ʿAbbāsid Caliph;
• Year 666 AH, King Muzaffar, the ruler of Yemen;
• Year 740 AH, King Mujāhid, the ruler of Yemen;
• Year 758 AH, Amīr Sheikhun, one of the grandees of Egypt;
• Year 766 AH, King Shaʿbān, King of Egypt;
• Year 801 AH, King Ẓāhir Barquq, King of Egypt;

In the Ottoman era

• In 935 AH, King Sulaymān ʿthmānī;
• In 1009 AH, by the order of King Muḥammad ʿthmānī under the supervision of Ghaḍanfar Āghā In this reconstruction, a large dome and a minaret were built for this building, and endowments were determined by the Ottoman government for it, and a muezzin, servant, and Imam were determined for the mosque.
• In 1230, Muḥammad ʿAlī Pāshā of Egypt ordered king Muḥammad Khān.
• The last repair is said to have been in the time of ʿAbd al-Majīd Khān.

Prophet’s birthday celebration in Mawlid al-Nabī Mosque

In the 6th century, Ibn Jubayr reported the presence of the people of Mecca in the Prophet’s birthday Mosque on Monday in the month of Rabi al-Awwal on the occasion of the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday. There are reports of the celebration of the birth of the Prophet in this place in the later centuries.

Muḥammad b. Aḥmad Nahrawālī (d. 990AH) gave a detailed report about the ritual of the Prophet’s birthday in the 10th century. According to him, every year on the twelfth night of Rabiʿ al-Awwal, after Maghrib prayer, the jurists, nobles, grandees and people, while carrying many candles and torches, gather before the supervisor of Masjid al-Ḥarām and the judges of the Sunni’s four denominations, and from Masjid al-Ḥarām to Sawq al-layl and Mawlid al-Nabī place and enter it and gather near the birthplace of the Prophet (PBUH). A sermon is read there, and after that, people come to Masjid al-Ḥarām, and some officials of Masjid al-Ḥarām are given robes, and the ʿIshā prayer is held, and the ceremony ends.More than a century later, a travel writer who went on Hajj in 1105-1106 AH narrated the same report of Nahrawālī and described this event as a big gathering in which many primitives and residents of other cities (except Mecca) participated. بندانگشتی|An old picture of the library building|جایگزین=

Destruction of the building and construction of the library

In the House of Saʿūd government, the building of Mawlid al-Nabī(PBUH), like many old buildings in Mecca, was destroyed in the year 1343 AH under the pretext that people were looking for blessings on it.

Later, due to the fact that there was no grave to be visited in this place, some people tried to get permission to rebuild it. In 1370, permission was issued to build a library in this place.

The capital of the construction of the building was paid by Fatemeh, daughter of Yūsuf Qattān, and her brother Sheikh ʿAbbas Qattān (d. 1370 AH) supervised the construction of the building, and after his death, his sons finished the construction of the building. In this way, Makkah Al-Mukarrma School was built in this place.

references

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• ʿAbd al-Wahhāb Ibrāhīm Abū Sulaymān.Maktabat makkah al- Makka al-mukarrama qadīman wa ḥadīthan. Riyadh: Maktaba al-malik fahad al-Waṭanīyyah, 1433 AH.
• ʿAlī b. Tāj al-ddīn al-sanjārī.Manāʾiḥ al-karam. Mecca: umm al-qurā university, 1998.
• Azraqī, Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-.Akhbār Makka wa mā jāʾa fīhā min al-āthār. Edited by Rushdī *Batanūnī, Muḥammad Labīb.Al-Raḥla al-ḥijaziyya. Cairo: Al-Thiqāfat al-Dīniyya, [n.d
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• Jaʿfariyān, Rasūl.Āthār-i islāmī-yi Makka wa Madīna. Tehran: Mashʿar, 1382 Sh
• Jaʿfarīyān, Rasūl.Mīrāth-i islamī-yi Iran. Qom: Nashr-i Kitābkhāna-yi Marʿashī Najafī, 1377 Sh.
• Jubayr, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad.Safarnāma-iy Ibn Jubayr. Translated by Parwīz Atābakī. Mashhad: Intishārāt-i Āstān-i Quds-i Raḍawī, 1370 Sh.
• Nahrawānī al-Makkī, Quṭb al-Dīn.Al-Aʿlām bi aʿlām bayt Allāh al-harām. Beirut: Dār al-Rāʾiq al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, [n.d].
• Makkī,ʿAbd Allāh Ghāzī al-.Ifāda al-anām bi akhbār al-balad Allah al-ḥarām.
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• ʾulīāʾ, Chalbī.Al-Raḥla al-ḥijāzīyya. [n.p], Dār al-Āfāq al-ʿArabīyya, 1420 AH.