Celebrating the Dead in Ayyūbid Egypt: A Survey into Meaning and Architectural Manifestation

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Tourism Guidance Department, Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Suez Canal University

Abstract

Although the commemoration of the dead is a universal and a long-standing tradition, early Islam is widely known to
have resisted it. After a relatively long period of observing prevention, such an antique practice nonetheless found its
way to Islamic culture. It is true that celebrating the dead was introduced to the realm of Islam before the Shīʿī Fatimids
founded their caliphate in Tunisia in 296/909, but it was under them that this praxis reached the zenith. The Fatimids
were succeeded by the Ayyūbids who, in spite of being a zealous Sunnī dynasty, upheld the tradition of celebrating the
departed notables, particularly the pious ones (awliyāʾ). The aim in this paper is to explore how such a practice, which
is widely deemed unorthodox in the eye of Sunnī Islam, was maintained in Egypt under the Ayyūbids (567/1172-
648/1250). In particular, the paper attempts to give an insight into: (i) the types of the dead dignitaries that were
celebrated under the Ayyūbids; (ii) the features that must be existing in their biographies so as to be canonized―in the
Islamic sense; (iii) the architectural expressions that were employed to celebrate their memory; (iv) and the meaning of
such a procedure.

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