PeninsulaFalcon
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Not only did they take our holy sites through conquest, but they are also destroying it.
19th century[edit]
See also: Demolition of al-Baqi and Wahhabi sack of Karbala
In 1801 and 1802, the Saudis under Abdul Aziz ibn Muhammad ibn Saud attacked and captured the Shia holy cities of Karbala and Najaf in today's Iraq, massacred parts of the Shia Muslim population and destroyed the tomb of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Muhammad and son of Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law. In 1803 and 1804, the Saudis captured Mecca and Medina and destroyed historical monuments and various holy Muslim sites and shrines, such as the shrine built over the tomb of Fatimah, the daughter of Muhammad, and even intended to destroy the grave of Muhammad himself as idolatrous, causing outrage throughout the Muslim world.[7][8][9] In Mecca, the tombs of direct relations of Muhammad located at Jannatul Mualla cemetery, including that of his first wife Khadijah bint Khuwaylid, were demolished.[10] The initial dismantling of the sites began in 1806 when the Wahhabi army of the First Saudi State occupied Medina and systematically levelled many of the structures at the Jannat al-Baqi cemetery.[11] This is the vast burial site adjacent the Prophet's Mosque (Al-Masjid al-Nabawi) housing the remains of many of the members of Muhammad’s family, close companions and central figures of early Islam. The Ottoman Turks, practitioners themselves of more tolerant and at times mystical strains of Islam, had erected elaborate mausoleums over the graves of Al-Baqi. These were levelled in their entirety. Mosques across the city were also targeted and an attempt was made to demolish Muhammad's tomb.[12] Widespread vocal criticism of this last action by Muslim communities as far away as India, eventually led to abandoning any attempt on this site. Political claims made against Turkish control of the region initiated the Ottoman-Saudi war (1811–1818) in which the Saudi defeat forced Wahhabi tribesmen to retreat from the Hejaz back into the interior. Turkish forces reasserted control of the region and subsequently began extensive rebuilding of sacred sites between 1848 and 1860, many of them done employing the finest examples of Ottoman design and craftsmanship.[13]
20th century[edit]
On 21 April 1925 the mausoleums and domes at Al-Baqi in Medina were once again levelled[13] and so were indicators of the exact location of the resting places of Muhammad’s family members and descendants, as it remains to the present day. Portions of the famed Qasida al-Burda, the 13th century ode written in praise of Muhammad by Imam al-Busiri, inscribed over Muhammad's tomb were painted over. Among specific sites targeted at this time were the graves of the Martyrs of the Battle of Uhud, including the grave of the renowned Hamza ibn 'Abd al-Muttalib, uncle of Muhammad and one of his most beloved supporters, the Mosque of Fatimah Al Zahraa’, daughter of Mohammad, the Mosque of the Two Lighthouses (Manaratayn) as well as the Qubbat Al-Thanaya,[13] the cupola built as the burial place of Mohammad’s incisor tooth, which was broken from a blow received during the Battle of Uhud. In Medina, the Mashrubat Umm Ibrahim, the home of Mohammad’s Coptic Egyptian slave Mariah and birthplace of their son Ibrahim, as well as the adjacent burial site of Hamida al-Barbariyya, mother of Musa al-Kadhim, were destroyed during this time.[13] The site was paved over and is today part of the massive marble esplanade beside the Mosque. The government-appointed permanent scholarly committee of Saudi Arabia has ordered the demolition of such structures in a series of Islamic rulings noting excessive veneration leading to shirk.[14]
21st century[edit]
The twenty-first century has seen an increase in the demolition of sites in Mecca and Medina by Saudi authorities, alongside expansion of luxury development.
As the annual hajj continues to draw larger crowds year after year, the Saudi authorities deemed it necessary to raze large tracts of formerly residential neighborhoods around the two important mosques to make way for pilgrimage-related infrastructure. In 2010, it was forecast that developers were going to spend an estimated $13 billion on the largest expansion project in the city’s history.[15]
While there is widespread agreement for the need of facilities that can accommodate greater numbers of pilgrims, the development of upscale hotels and condominium towers, restaurants, shopping centres and spas[16] has caused some to criticize the over-commercialization of a site which many consider to be a divinely ordained sanctuary for Muslims.
The rapid influx of capitalist investment in Mecca and Medina leads many to believe that money and economic growth are the ultimate reason for Saudi authorities. Critics argue that this monetary focus works with Wahhabi state policy that imposes a massive cultural and social deletion within the Holy Cities,[17] erasing any elements that encourage practices counter to the Wahhabi creed.
According to The Independent, the House of Mawalid where Muhammad is said to have been born is about to be replaced by a huge royal palace, as a part of a multibillion-pound construction project in Mecca which has resulted in the destruction of hundreds of historic monuments.[18]
The Saudis are turning Diriyah, the birthplace of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, into a major tourist attraction, with Diriyah becoming an important place of visitation within Saudi Arabia's modern borders.[19][20]
Below is an incomplete list of destroyed sites:
Mosques[edit]
Cemeteries and tombs[edit]
- The mosque at the grave of Sayyid al-Shuhada’ Hamza ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib.[13]
- The Mosque of Fatima Zahra.[13]
- The Mosque of al-Manaratain.[13]
- Mosque and tomb of Sayyid Imam al-Uraidhi ibn Ja‘far al-Sadiq, destroyed by dynamite on August 13, 2002.[citation needed]
- Four mosques at the site of the Battle of the Trench in Medina.[citation needed]
- The Mosque of Abu Rasheed.[21]
- Salman al-Farsi Mosque, in Medina.[21]
- Raj'at ash-Shams Mosque, in Medina.[21]
Historical religious sites[edit]
- Jannat al-Baqi in Medina, leveled, still open access for men. Since women are advised against visiting cemeteries in Sunni Islam.[citation needed]
- Jannat al-Mu'alla, the ancient cemetery at Mecca.[21]
- Grave of Hamida al-Barbariyya, the mother of Imam Musa al-Kazim.
- Grave of Amina bint Wahb, Muhammad’s mother, bulldozed in 1998.[citation needed]
- Graves of Banu Hashim in Mecca.[21]
- Tombs of Hamza and other casualties of the Battle of Uhud were demolished at Mount Uhud.[21]
- Tomb of Eve in Jeddah,[21] sealed with concrete in 1975.[citation needed]
- Grave of the father of Muhammad, in Medina.[21]
- The house of Mawlid where Muhammad is believed to have been born in 570. Originally turned into a library, it now lies under a rundown building which was built 70 years ago as a compromise after Wahhabi clerics called for it to be demolished.[22]
- The house of Khadija, Muhammad’s first wife. Muslims believe he received some of the first revelations there. It was also where his children Fatimah and Qasim were born. After it was rediscovered during the Haram extensions in 1989, it was covered over and it was made into a library.[citation needed]
- A Hilton hotel stands on the site of the house of Islam’s first caliph, Abu Bakr.[23]
- House of Muhammed in Medina, where he lived after the migration from Mecca.[21]
- Dar e Arqam, the first Islamic school where Muhammad taught.[22] It now lies under the extension of the Masjid Alharam of Mecca.[citation needed]
- Qubbat’ al-Thanaya, the burial site of Muhammed's incisor that was broken in the Battle of Uhud.[13]
- Mashrubat Umm Ibrahim, built to mark the location of the house where Muhammad’s son, Ibrahim, was born to Mariah.[citation needed]
- Dome which served as a canopy over the Well of Zamzam.[21]
- Bayt al-Ahzan of Sayyida Fatima, in Medina.[21]
- House of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, in Medina.[21]
- Mahhalla complex of Banu Hashim, in Mecca.[21]
- House of Ali where Hasan and Husayn were born.[21]
When Ismail 1st of the Safavid seized Baghdad in 1508 AD, Sunni Muslims were massacred. The tombs of the Abbasid Caliphs were destroyed. Even the tombs of the jurist Imam Abu Hanifah and Abdul-Qadir al-Jilani were not spared and were literally desecrated. After the Safavids were pushed out the Ottomans on the other hand never retaliated against Shi’ite shrines and populations in Iraq. Here a list of the crimes of the savage pagan, Isma’il Safawi:
“Many architectural monuments of Sunnis were destroyed. One of those architectural monuments was the tomb of the founder of the Hanafi madhab, Abu Hanifa (rahimahullah). The tomb included a mosque and an adjactent madrasa. The mosque and the madrassa at the grave of Abu Hanifah (rahimahullah) was built by the Saljuks. On the command of Shah Ismail Safawi 1st, the mosque and madrassa were destroyed to the ground. Then they made a hole in the grave of Abu Hanifah. They took the bones of Abu Hanifa out of the grave and instead buried a dog inside of it. After that, they made a toilet on the grave. In the streets of Baghdad, the Kizilbashis (Turkic Alawite army of the Safavids) anounced that whoever goes to this toilet to relieve himself, he will be given 25 tabriz Dinars.(1). At that moment, a Qommi (from the Shia city of Qom) poet was next to Ismail. A poem of this poet was written on the wall of the toilet. The poem went as follow:
The Shi’i dirtied the grave of Abu Hanifa, On the dirtied grave by a shi’i, prostation was performed by Sunnis. The dirtied places by Shi’ites, have become a place of prostation for Sunnis.(2)”
Sources:
1.Alam arayi Safawi p. 477
2.اسناد و نامه های دوره صفویه، گردآوری ا. ثابتیان، ص 99/ Documents and letters during Safavid era, prepared by: A. Sabityan, p. 99
what the Safavids did was not just leveling graves (that’s what has been done to the shrines and mausoleums in Baqi’, Madinah, thanks to Allah, what Rafidah Shias and others wrongly call “destruction of graves”), they actually demolished graves, digged out bones, defiled graves, things that Shias constantly accuse their opponents of (yet the reality is that the opponents of Shia-Sufi grave veneration do not seek the destruction of graves, rather the preservation of graves in modest, Sunnah comform forms).