Maqam Ra's al-Husayn (a)
|This article does not cite any references or sources.|
Maqām Ra's al-Ḥusayn (a) (Arabic: مقام رأسُ الحُسَین) refers to places where Imam al-Husayn's (a) head is claimed to be buried or kept. There are monuments called "Maqam Ra's al-Husayn" in different cities. These are places where Imam al-Husayn's (a) head is allegedly buried or places where his holy head used to be kept and has thus turned into places frequently visited by Shiites. According to Shiite scholars, Imam al-Husayn's (a) head was eventually attached to his torso in Karbala and is buried where his torso is buried.
Kufa and Najaf
There is nothing in Sunni sources regarding whether Imam al-Husayn's (a) head is buried in Kufa or Najaf, and there is no commonly accepted view among Shiites to the effect that his head is buried in one of these two places. There are, however, hadiths implying that Imam al-Husayn's (a) head is in Imam 'Ali's (a) Holy Shrine. There are other hadiths confirming such a story. However, there are problems with these hadiths that made them hard to be accepted by Shiite scholars.
There is a place inside Masjid al-Hannana well-known as the place where Imam al-Husayn's (a) head put there. It is said his head put there when heads of Martyrs of Karbala were taking from Karbala to Kufa.
According to some Sunni sources, when Yazid b. Mu'awiya sent the prisoners of the Event of Karbala to Medina, he sent Imam al-Husayn's (a) head to 'Amr b. Sa'd b. al-'As in Medina, and 'Amr buried it in the al-Baqi' Cemetery. According to some scholars, the head was sent to Banu Hashim, and they buried it in al-Baqi' after ghusl and burial and funeral prayer.
On some accounts, Imam al-Husayn's (a) head was attached to his body. This is maintained by both Shiite and Sunni scholars. Some Shiite scholars, such as al-Shaykh al-Saduq, al-Sayyid al-Murtada, al-Fattal al-Naysaburi, Ibn Nama al-Hilli, al-Sayyid b. Tawus, Baha' al-Din al-'Amili, Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, Qazwini, and al-'Allama al-Majlisi are proponents of this view. According to some scholars, Ziyarat al-Arba'in (visiting Imam al-Husayn's (a) Holy Shrine on the Fortieth day of his martyrdom) is recommended because Imam al-Husayn's (a) head was attached to his body on this day.
On some accounts, Imam al-Husayn's (a) head was buried in Damascus. However, there is disagreement as to whether it was buried in the palace or a garden in Damascus or a cemetery there. There are other accounts according to which the head was buried in the Faradis Gate, the Damascus Mosque near two pillars on the right side of qibla, in Muslims' graves.
According to Sibt b. al-Jawzi, Yazid b. Mu'awiya sent Imam al-Husayn's (a) head to the Abu Mu'it's household as a retaliation for 'Uthman b. 'Affan's head, and they buried the head in a house that was later attached to al-Raqqah's Jami' Mosque.
When the caravan of Karbala's prisoners and the heads of martyrs in Karbala arrived in Aleppo from Iraq, they stayed near a mountain called "Jawshan" west of Aleppo, besides a monastery called "Marat Marutha". There was a monk in the monastery who bribed the guards of the caravan to put Imam al-Husayn's (a) head on a rock inside the monastery. He stayed near the head until the morning. At the sunrise when they took the head, there were drops of blood on the rock. When the caravan moved on, people of Aleppo learned about the story and congregated around the rock and mourned for Imam al-Husayn (a). According to Shiite accounts, blood used to spring on that rock every year on the Day of 'Ashura, attracting the attention of many people of Syria.
The Shiite figure, Sayf al-Dawla al-Hamdani was the first person who built a chamber and a mosque over the rock and the monastery in 350/961 and called it Masjid al-Nuqta (mosque of the spot [of blood]).
Mashhad al-Husayn (a) is a well-known place in Aleppo today and it is frequently visited by its residents and visitors of Zaynab bt. 'Ali (a). Today the area is known as "Hayy al-Ansari". In 1960, the Ja'fari Institute for Reconstruction and Islamic Beneficence was founded to reconstruct Mashhad al-Husayn (a). It also built a mosque, a medical center, and an Islamic Seminary school headed by al-Shaykh Ibrahim Nasr Allah. Al-Shaykh Ibrahim is the author of the book, Aleppo and Shiism. He is the leader of congregational prayers in Mashhad al-Husayn (a).
On some accounts, a group of people from Ashkelon ('Asqalan) went to Yazid b. Mu'awiya and asked him to let them bury Imam al-Husayn's (a) head in their city. Yazid gave them the head; they buried the head in Ashkelon and made a mausoleum over it.
According to another account, during the caliphate of al-Mustansir Bi-Allah al-Fatimi, a Fatimid caliph and the ministry of Badr al-Jamali, a person saw in his dreams that Imam al-Husayn's (a) head is buried in Ashkelon. He learned the exact place in his dream. When he woke up, they exhumed the place he saw in his dream, and they found the head. Badr al-Jamali made a mausoleum over the place.
According to Yaqut al-Hamawi, there is a mausoleum in Cairo where Imam al-Husayn's (a) head is buried. Sibt b. al-Jawzi took the fifth view about where the head was buried to be that it was buried in Cairo: on this view, the head was moved to Ashkelon by Fatimid caliphs, and then it was moved to Cairo and buried there and a great mausoleum was built over it, which is frequently visited today.
According to some sources, when Abu Muslim al-Khurasani conquered Damascus, he moved Imam al-Husayn's (a) head to Merv, and buried it in Dar al-Imara.
There is a mausoleum in the city of Imam Sahib, located in Kunduz province north of Afghanistan. The epigraphy at the entrance of the mausoleum reads that after the Event of Karbala, Imam al-Husayn's (a) head was moved to Ashkelon in Syria. In the 6th/12th century, the Fatimid caliph of Egypt moved the head to Egypt, but before the head was buried there, some Turks took the head to Bactria and buried it in a place called Arhang. In this place (just like the mausoleum of Shahmardan in Mazar-i-Sharif), the flag of the mausoleum is taken every year on March 29, and then there is a ceremony in the city for 40 days. Local officials and visitors from nearby and distant places attend the ceremony.
Given that most of these views have appeared in Sunni sources and have problems with respect to their chains of narrations as well as their contents, most Shiite scholars maintained the view that Imam al-Husayn's (a) head was attached to his body and is thus buried in his holy shrine in Karbala.
- The material for this article is mainly taken fromمقام رأس الحسینin Farsi WikiShia.