Traces of the Prophets Relics and Sacred Spaces in Early Islam (original) (raw)
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"Relics of the Prophet and Practices of His Veneration in Medieval Cairo"
Journal of Islamic Archaeology, 2014
The acquisition, trade and confiscation of relics of the Prophet Muḥammad during the Medieval period is well documented in the primary sources. Such relics, from the impression of his feet in stone to artifacts believed to be his personal possessions, are prominently displayed in Egypt. The purpose of this article is to examine the history of footprints and other relics of the Prophet Muḥammad associated with three buildings in Cairo that date to the Mamluk period: Ribāṭ al-Āthār (707 AH/1307 CE); the Funerary Complex of Qaytbāy (877-879 AH/1472-1474 CE); and the Funerary Complex of al-Ghurī (908-911 AH/1503-1505 CE). The functions associated with these buildings vary, yet in all cases the main purpose of the foundation is to commemorate a deceased person and/or the relics of the Prophet. Although the Prophet never traveled to Egypt during his lifetime, the presence of his footprints and other effects in Cairo raises several questions. First, how and when did these artifacts arrive in Cairo? Second, does their arrival several centuries after the Prophet's death, and subsequent collecting and displaying, raise questions of intent and motivation? Third, were there specific events that precipitated their arrival during the Mamluk period? Finally, what, if any, is the significance of the placement of Prophet's relics in these buildings?
Fluid Boundaries: Christian Sacred Space and Islamic Relics in an Early Ḥadīth
Medieval Encounters, 2021
This article examines a ḥadīth text that illustrates the complicated interactions between Christian and Islamic sacred spaces in the early period of Islamic rule in the Near East. In this narrative, the Prophet Muḥammad gives a group of Arabs instructions for how to convert a church into a mosque, telling them to use his ablution water for cleansing and repurposing the Christian space for Muslim worship. Contextualizing this narrative in terms of early Muslim-Christian relations, as well as late antique Christian religious texts and practices, my analysis compares this story with Christian traditions regarding the collection and usage of contact relics from holy persons and places. I argue that this story offers an example of early Islamic texts' engagement with, and adaptation of, Christian literary themes and ritual practices in order to validate early Islamic religious claims.
Holy Bodies and Sacred Spaces in Early Islam
Office: Greve Hall 609 Office Hours: by appointment Illustration of (R) the tombs of the Prophet Muḥammad and the caliphs Abū Bakr and ʿUmar and (L) the Prophet's minbar in a seventeenth-century manuscript containing a collection of prayers and litanies for the Prophet. Walters Art Museum in Baltimore (MS W. 583, fol. 15b-16a).
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religon, 2024
Relics can be found in every era of Islamic history, throughout the Islamic world. In line with other religious traditions of the Near East, the Qur'an mentions several objects endowed with special power (e.g., Joseph's coat, the Ark of the Covenant). The earliest Islamic literature, preserving the life and mission of Muḥammad, presents details of several revered objects. These include objects handed down from pre-Islamic prophets as well as the discards of Muḥammad's person, including clothing, weapons, and hair. Saintly figures, descendants of the Prophet, and his companions have also been sources for relics. Relics are displayed and venerated in devotional contexts such as shrines, tombs, mosques, madrasas, and museums. Relics have been paraded on special occasions such as the festival days of the Muslim calendar, in medieval protest marches, as part of the rituals for relief from drought, and as talismans in battle. Despite the occasional objection from austere doctors of law, devotion to relics has remained commonplace. While a full inventory is impossible, five categories may be proposed for the Islamic relic: (a) Bodily relics include the blood of martyrs, hair, and fingernail parings. Shrines have been built over severed heads-the most famous being that of Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī (d. 680). (b) Contact relics, having collected the baraka (blessing) of their one-time owners, pass those blessings on to any pilgrim who touches them. Several staffs, lances, bows, shields, turbans, cloaks, and sandals attributed to the Prophet have been preserved, some of which were presented as symbols of authority in the early caliphate. (c) Impressions in stone made by feet, hands, fingers, posteriors, and even hooves are preserved. Muḥammad's footprints saw a brisk trade in the medieval period, and his sandal inspired a minor tradition of devotional iconography first in manuscript copies and later in modern mass production. (d) Inanimate objects, miraculously endowed with speech or locomotion, constitute a fourth category. These animated relics could be speaking stones or moving trees, particularly in the sacred topographies of Medina and Mecca. (e) Many revered places which were the site of important events have been marked off and preserved. More than commemorations, these "stage relics" anchored sacred history and holy bodies in the landscape. The location of Muḥammad's birthplace in Mecca was until recently a revered stage relic.
Relics of Piety and Power in Medieval Islam
2010
The study of the veneration of relics in medieval Islam is only now emerging as a sub-field of study after investigations by European Orientalists during the first half of the twentieth century. The scarcity of sources, particularly in the Islamic context, seemingly relegates the Islamic experience to a secondary status vis-à-vis the medieval European Christian experience despite the ubiquity of relics and ritual practices associated with them in the devotional life of the Muslims and Christians of the Near East and North Africa. Furthermore, in the study of the cult of relics a misperception persists that the Islamic experience is marginal, because of the perceived absence of relics in Islam. Commenting on what he considers to be the ‘relative paucity’ of relics in Islam Lionel Rothkrug observes that it ‘may be partly attributed to the fact that Islamic religious experience largely came out of conflict with other monotheistic religions’.
International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2008
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