a muslim shrine at Ḥarrān

8/22/2019 A Muslim Shrine at arrn

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A Muslim Shrine at arrn

Author(s): D. S. RiceSource: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 17,No. 3 (1955), pp. 436-448Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/609588

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A MUSLIM SHRINE AT HARRANBy D. S. RICE(PLATES I-IV)

Tr HE traveller who approaches Harran from Urfa passes near an isolateddomed building known to the local inhabitants as the shrine of ShaikhHIayat(ziyarat shaikh haydt). It stands just outside the city, near the south-west corner of the perimeter-wall1 and is surroundedby some modern tombs(P1. I).2The core of the building belongs to the Ayyubid period and is-apart fromthe citadel 3-the only ancient monument in and around Harran still coveredby a roof. The oldest part of the structure consists of a small mosqueand of themausoleum of Shaikh Hayat. A foundation text, above the single entrance inthe east wall, gives the date of construction as 592/1196. It is this text whichI propose to examine here.Additions and restorations have substantially altered the appearanceof theshrine, but parts of the old masonry can be clearly distinguished (P1.III). Theadditional parts include: (i) the enclosure wall on the east side; (ii) theportico on the south side (P1. II); (iii) the porch with the baldachin-shapedminaret (of a type frequently found in Anatolia),4and (iv) the staircase wedgedbetween the porch and the portico. Some of these works can be dated with theaid of inscriptions to 1168/1754-5 5 and 1275/1858.6The first European traveller to mention the shrine was the Rev. G. P.Badger who visited Harran in 1844. His account, which appeared in 1852, isbrief and none too accurate: 'Just outside the wall to the south-west is themodern Musulman shrine called Ziyaret Sheikh Yahya (John); but the

1 For the exact location of the shrine see S. Lloyd and W. Brice, ' Harran ', in AnatolianStudies, I, 1951, p. 85, fig. 85, grid B 6.2 During my visit to Harran in 1952 the shrine was urgently in need of repairs and consolida-tion. It was impossible to enter it and to draw up a ground plan. I hope to do so at the earliestopportunity.3 For a plan and view of the citadel see Lloyd and Brice, op. cit., pp. 97 if. For the excavationof the east gateway of the citadel see D. S. Rice, ' Medieval Harran-I ', Anatolian Studies, II,1952, pp. 36-84.4 cf. J. Schacht, ' Ein archaischer Minaret-Typ in Agypten und Anatolien ', in Ars Islamica,v, 1938, pp. 46-54, and 20 figs.; also idem 'Sur la diffusion des formes d'architecture religieusemusulmane a travers le Sahara', in Travaux de l'lnstitut de RecherchesSahariennes, tome xI,1954, pp. 12-27.5 Published by M. van Berchem, Inschriften aus Syrien, Mesopotamien und Kleinasien,gesammeltvon Frh. M. von Oppenheim(Beitrage z. Assyriologie, vii), 1909, p. 58, no. 75.6 Unpublished anonymous text: JI 1 J1 (2) (1)

\rV o ji l .L (4) JI J ,- (3)(1) Basmalah. (2) There is no God but Allah. (3) Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.(4) As God wills, in the year 1275 (= 1858).


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PLATE II.

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-''.~8-~ENTRANCE-_-O:: T HEANC U A R OF SHAIKHAYiT::

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PLATEII.

SANCTUARY OF SHAIKH HAYAT. REMAINS OF AYYUBID MASONRY

BSOAS. XVII]


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PLATE IV.

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A MUSLIM SHRINE AT HARRANChristians have a tradition that the grave of Terah, Abraham's father, existswithin its precincts '.1 The Christians referred to by Badger were probablysome inhabitants of Urfa as there were no Christiansat Harran in 1844. Mez'sinformant, Hagop Stepanian (1892), thought that the sanctuary was the ruinof a church of St. John.2 Sachau, who hurriedthrough Harran in 1867, speaksof the tomb of a Muslim saint called Sheikh Yahya.3Finally, a copy of the inscription on the east wall of the building wasprepared by a member of Baron von Oppenheim's expedition to the Harranarea,in 1899,and publishedby M.van Berchemin 1909.4 It is this readingwhichappears in the Repertoire hronologique 'epigraphiearabe(vol. ix, no. 3488) :-I^11 Il,jil iLJ Ill JI ^411 Jl} 13jJllI 4ill IA L;l.j . 4.l

.Y ^s-^ uy^^ 1 l ;i*Max van Berchem had before him a transcriptof the text but no photographor squeeze and he himself warned that inscriptions so insufficiently recordedwould require amendment.5 The inscription is placed very high above theentrance, immediately under the roof of the high porch (P1. II). It is badlydisfigured by whitewash, and clusters of mud-built swallows' nests renderedwhole portions illegible. Lack of a ladder made the adequate cleaning ofthe text and the taking of a squeeze impossible. The photograph reproducedon P1.IV was taken with a tele-lens. The text is in relief and in floriated naskhi

script and, so far as could be established (fig. 1), reads as follows:-[4] > [,] j1 a1 ?ii 3L v Jy%il t r 9 1 1 t[] (1)e? eL1 oL 1 l J JI IAA JI jlj L,I II (2)[ 1]1 l word]l 4:! . 1;1 ^ ,111" , (3)jJLLI Sj^I i r ^1^1 jls ^JL2J1 rj-Jrj "I'1 t "JP (4)

.4s?^ ,j c^ 1 4 - ^I GS^ j J R (5)Translation:

(1) (In the name) of Allah the Merciful the Compassionate. Has erectedthis blessed shrine (mashhad) he poor (in need of) Allah's (mercy)(2) may He be exalted, the righteous, the ascetic, the pious Shaikh 'Umarson of Shaikh Hayat son of Qays

1 Rev. B. P. Badger, The Nestorians and their Rituals, London, 1852, I, p. 342.2 A. Mez, Die Stadt Harran bis zum Einfall der Araber, Strasburg, 1892, p. 15.3 E. Sachau, Reise in Syrien und Mesopotamien, Leipzig, 1883, p. 222.4 M. van Berchem, op. cit., p. 58, Insc. no. 74.5 ibid., p. 1 f.VOL. XVII. PART 3. 32

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(3) and his brotherShaikh AbfuBakr, may Allah sanctify their souls, at thehand of the poor (slave of Allah) the son of his sister [one word] son of(4) 'All, may Allah forgive him and all the Muslims. Thisblessedbuilding(5) was completed in Jumada II of the year 592 (May 1196)

Commentary:-Line 1 : The complex connotations of the term mashhadhave been brilliantlyanalyzed by M.van Berchem.1 In its widest sense it signifiesany Muslimtomb,a place where a Muslim, having pronounced the profession of faith (shahdda)before dying, lies buried. In its narrowest sense it means a martyry, the burialplace of a martyr of the faith (shahTd).Partaking partly of one meaning, partlyof the other, there exists a third meaning: a memorial and place of pilgrimage(mazdr); not just any Muslim'stomb but that of a holy man coupled with anoratory-a shrine.Line 2: Shaikh 'Umar the co-founderof the shrine died in Safar 605/Aug.-Sept. 1208, and was an ascetic like his father Hayat ibn Qays (d. 581/1185);of both more below.Line 3: 'Umar'sbrother, Abu Bakr, is known to me only from a biographyby Saqqa'i (below, p. 448, n. 6). He was the father of a certain Abu' 1-Qasimwho negotiated the surrenderof the citadel of Harran to Hulagu in 658/1259(see below, p. 441 and App. B, p. 447).Line 4: The words 'ald yad; at the hand of; introduce the name of theperson who supervised the work, not that of the builder or architect. Thisperson is referredto as ibn ukhtihi, ' son of his sister', which cannot designatethe brother of 'Umar and Abu Bakr for the dual form ukhtihimd(or allowingfor grammatical slackness, often found in this kind of inscription, the pluralukhtihim) would have been used. Furthermore the man's father was called'All not Hayat. The reference must therefore be to Shaikh H.ayat's nephewby his sister and a certain 'All. The supervisor'sname has so far resisted all myefforts to decipherit. It appears to end in bTor bd,tTor sa.The eulogy qaddasa-llaharwdhahum, 'may Allah sanctify their souls',cannot include 'Umar who did not die till 605/1208. It certainly includesHayat himself (d. 581/1185) and possibly Abu Bakr, of whose life and date ofdeath I know nothing, and in all probability Hayat's ancestor Qays, at anyrate, three persons at least.Line 5: The name of the month in the date is spelt Jumada al-dkhir(masc.)instead of Jumadaal-dkhira(fem.). This mistake is fairly common in epigraphy;for parallels see G. Wiet's ed. of Maqrizi'sKhitat, Cairo, 1911, vol. I, p. 206.

For a tentative family tree of Shaikh Hayat's family see below, App. C.Below the fifth line of the text there are some traces of what could be eitherfurther lines of script or ornaments used to fill remaining spaces. It will benecessary to remove some of the plaster and whitewash before this point canbe clarified.1 M. van Berchem in E. Diez, ChurasanischeBaudenkmdler, Berlin, 1918, I, pp. 87 ff.

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A MUSLIM SHRINE AT HARRANII.

The present-day inhabitants of Harran and the surrounding district stillremember with reverence the name of the personage buried in the shrine extramuros,and they use the small building as a mosque; but beyond the merenameno oral tradition of the holy man has survived. Luckily, historical sourceshavepreserved some record.The earliest mention of the saintly ascetic occurs in the travel book of theSpanish pilgrim Ibn Jubair, who actually met Hayat a year before his death.The relevant passage, recently translated into English, refers to Ibn Jubair'svisit to Harran in 580/1184 and reads as follows: 1'South of the city, about three parasangsdistant, is a blessed shrine whichcontains a running spring that was a dwelling place for him (Abraham) andSarah-the blessing of God upon them both-and was their place of worship.Because of this blessed connexion, God has made the city an abode of asceticsaints and a site for unwordly anchorites. Among their most eminent, we metthe Shaikh Abu-l-Barakat Hayyan ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz, near the mosque namedafter him. He lives in a zawiyahwhich he has built in the south part of it. Closebeside it, at the end of that side, is the zawiyahof his son, 'Umar, who cleavesto it, and follows the path of his father, doing no wrong. In him I recognizedthe character of Akhzam [Proverbial among the Arabs for his taking after hisfather, Freytag, ArabicumProverbia,I, p. 658]. When we came to the sheikhwho was above eighty years of age, he shook our hand and prayed for us, andtold us to find his son 'Umar. So we turned aside for him and found him,whereupon he prayed for us; we then bade them both farewell and departed,joyous at meeting two men who lived for the life to come.'Broadhurst's English translation, like Schiaparelli's Italian translationpublished in 1906 2 and the French translation by Gaudefroy-Demombyneswhich is appearing at present in fascicule-form3 (and which stops short of thepassage in question) were all done after the edition of the Arabictext by Wrightand de Goeje.4 This excellent edition, however, is based on a unique manuscriptin Leiden, in which the name of the ascetic whom Ibn Jubair met at Harran,is, unfortunately, missing. In order to fill the lacuna Wright had recourse to thehistory of Granadaby Ibn al-Khatib (d. 776/1374), which contains a biographyof Ibn Jubair. It was common practice to include in such biographies thenames of the subject's teachers, and of personswho had given him a ' permit toteach ' this or that work (ijdza). Such ' diplomas ' must not be understood tooliterally as they were sometimes claimed by ' students ' on groundsof the mostcasual acquaintance with the 'master . Ibn Khatib mentions among IbnJubair's 'teachers' at Harran (where he spent only one day) a certain Abu'l-

1 R. J. C. Broadhurst, The Travels of Ibn Jubayr, London, 1952, p. 254.2 C. Schiaparelli, Ibn Gubayr, Viaggio . . ., Rome, 1906, p. 235.3 M. Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Ibn Jobair Voyages (Docs. relatifs i l'hist. des Croisadespubli6s par 1'Acad.des Insc. et Belles Lettres, v), Paris, 1951-4 Ibn Jubayr, Rihla, ed. Wright-de Goeje, London, 1907, p. 245.VOL. XVII. PART 3. 32*

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Barakat Hayyan ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz and his son, who was following in his foot-steps '. This is clearly a corrupt reference to Hayat and to his son 'Umar whois specifically named by the Leiden MS. of Ibn Jubair's rihla in two instances.It is easy to understand how Hayat lo- could become Hayyan L>- in thehandsof a carelessscribe,but the transformation of Qays i into 'Abd al-'Aziz

j.j JI-L is a bad distortion. Yet there can be no doubt that the same personis meant.An interesting biography of Hayat and a brief reference to his son 'Umarare preserved in the unpublished History of Dhahabi (d. 748/1348) 1 whoquotes as his source the chronicleof his friend al-Jazari (739/1338).2 Dhahabi'saccount deserves to be summarized (the full Arabic text will be found inAppendix A below):-' Hayat ibn Qays ibn Rahhal ibn Sultan al-Ansari al-Harrani was theparagonof the ascetics of Harran. He was modest, virtuous, assiduousin prayer,and endowed with supernatural powers. Rulers and noblemen paid him visitsand sought his blessing. His rulingswereuniversally accepted. It was said thatNur ad-din consulted him before launching his attack on the Crusadersandthat H.ayat encouraged him and invoked Allah's help for him. Saladin, too,is said to have requestedhis blessing before proceedingto attack Mosul. Hayatdissuaded him, and when Saladin disregardedhis advice he failed in the enter-prise.3 One of his teachers was Abfu Abdallah al-Bawari, a student of ShaikhMujli ibn Yasin.'There existed a biography (s7ra) of Hayat which filled approximatelya volume. It was in possession of his descendants but was looted at Salihiyaduring Ghazan'soccupation of Damascus.4 Hayat (so Dhahabi, or his source,Jazari, had been informed)lived at his hermitage (zdwiya)for fifty years, neveromitting a community-prayer but for force majeure,ever smiling, gentle, andkind, and spending his nights in vigils of devotion. He died on 1st Jumada I,581/31st July, 1185, when he was 80 years old.

1 On this important work cf. J. Somogyi, ' The ta'rikh al-islam of adh-Dhahab ', in JRAS,1932, pp. 815-55.2 cf. the introduction of J. Sauvaget, La chroniquede Damas d'al-Jazarf, Paris, 1949.3 The reference here is to Saladin's two expeditions against Mosul undertaken in 578/1182and 581/1185. The historian Ibn al-Athir, who viewed with misgiving and disapproval Saladin'sattempts in this direction, states that the prime mover in the scheme was Muzaffar ad-dinGokbiiri, the lord of Harrin and later of Irbil. It is curious that it was at Harran, on his sick-bed, after his second failure to take the town by storm, that Saladin finally received the allegianceof the people of Mosul (cf. al-Kamil, ed. Thornberg,Leiden, 1851, vol. xi, pp. 319, 336). Accordingto a dispatch composed by al-Qadi al-Fadil, the excuse for the expedition against Mosul wasthat it continued to pay allegiance to the Seljuq sultan (cf. rasd'il of al-Qadi al-Fadil, Paris MS.arabe 6024 f? 11, quoted by M. Jawad in Sumer, x, 2, 1954, p. 300). According to Dhahabi thesiege of A.H.579 was called off on orders from the caliph (Dhahabi, Duwal al-isldm, Hyderabad,A.H. 1337, vol. II, p. 65).4 Salihiya is a western suburb of Damascus in which many scholars resided in the 12th and13th centuries. On the sacking of Salihiya during Ghazan's campaigns (1299-1301) see Dhahabi'seye-witness account translated by J. Somogyi in GoldziherMemorial Volume,Pt. I, Budapest,1948, pp. 356, 369, 375.

440 D. S. RICE


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A MUSLIM SHRINE AT HARRAN4This tallies perfectly with Ibn Jubair's estimate of the shaikh's age when hevisited him in the preceding year (see above, p. 439).For H.ayat's son 'Umar we find only a brief entry in Dhahabi's work underthe year 605/1208: ''Umar, the son of the paragon Shaikh Hayat ibn Qaysal-Harrani died at Harran in Safar (605)' (= Aug.-Sept. 1208). Though'Umar took after his father and followed in his footsteps he was clearlya personage of lesser importance.Other biographers of Shaikh Hayat place more emphasis on his accom-plishments as a su1fi nd on his power to work miracles.Yafi'I1 (d. 768/1369) has it on the authority of Abu-l-HIasanal-Qurashithat only four shaikhs have been given the privilege of behaving in theirtombs as if they were still alive. These are (i) Ma'ruf al-Karkhi,2 (ii)'Abd al-Qadir al-Jli,3 (iii) 'Aqil al-Manbiji, (iv) Hayat b. Qays al-Harrani.The same story is also found in the works of Ibn 'Imad (d. 1089/1679) 4 andash-Sha'rani 5 (d. 973/1565).To illustrate Shaikh Hayat's miraculous powers Yafi'l relates the followingedifying tale 6: 'A mystic called Ghanim ibn Ya'la at-Takriti was ship-wrecked in the middle of the Indian Ocean, but managed to swim to an islandwith the aid of a plank of wood. There he saw a mosque, which he entered.Within were four men to whom he recounted his adventure. The day was spent

in prayer. In the evening Shaikh Hayat appeared and led them in eveningprayer. He prayed and wept, and the mosque was suffused by a mysterious,brilliant light. When the holy man left, Ghanim followed him. Land and sea,mountain and plain folded under their feet, as the sheikh kept invoking Allahwith each giant step that he took, and, behold, they were at Harran in timefor morning prayers! 'An abbreviated version of the same miracle is also reported by Ibn 'Imadon the authority of Ibn Ahdal (d. 979/1571). The samples of wise sayingsattributed to Shaikh H.ayat may sound like flat truisms and extracts from hispoetry are hardly more inspiring, but the fact remains that he was a man ofconsiderable spiritual authority in his lifetime. After his death, Sha'raniinforms us, rogations for rain (istisqS') were habitually made in his name bythe people of Harran, and rain was granted them.As is often the case, a holy man's fame is reflected to some extent upon hisdescendants. Hayat's son, 'Umar, shared some of his father's popularityduring his lifetime. One of H.ayat's grandsons, Abu' l-Q&sim,son of AbiBakr, must have been a person of importance when he was chosen toparley with Hulagu on behalf of the defenders of the citadel of Harran

1 'Abdallah b. As'ad al-Yafi'i, mir'at al-janan, Hyderabad, 1317-19, in, pp. 419 f.2 Died 200/815, cf. R. A. Nicholson, in El, II, p. 354 s.v. Ma'ruf al-Karkhf.3 Lived 491-561/1098-1166, cf. D. S. Margoliouth, in EI, I, pp. 42-4 s.v. 'Abd al-Kddir andW. Braune, in EI (new edition), Leiden, 1954, I, pp. 71-2.4 Ibn 'Imad, Shadhardtadh-dhahab,Cairo, n.d., vol. iv, p. 269.5 'Abd al-Wahhab ash-Sha'rani, At-tabaqdtal-kubra, Cairo, n.d., vol. I, p. 132.6 Yifi'i, op. cit., vol. II, p. 420 f.

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(below, App. B). A provisional family tree of Hayat's family will be found inAppendix C below.A shaikh's descendants are, more often than not, custodians of his shrine.Whether this was so in the case of the shrine of Shaikh Hayat cannot be provedby documentary evidence. The only document which I could unearth in thisconnexion is a fairly late ' minute' in a register of the administration of piousfoundations (evkaf)at Ankara. It can be translated as follows: 'Whereas thebrothers Sayyid Ahmad and Sayyid 'All, sons of Muhammad,were mutawallls(custodians) of the zdwiyaof Shaikh Hlayatal-Harrani,who is one of the greatestsaints in the village of Harran in the kaza of Urfa, they had a fixed salary.When they died, Sayyid 'All had no male offspring, and the vacancy was

filled by Sayyid Muhammad, Sayyid Ahmad's son. He was appointed to theposition in accordance with the application of Sayyid Mustafa who is the repre-sentative of Sayyid Ahmad. Shawwal, 1208/2 May 1794.' 1In the inscription placed above the entrance to Shaikh Hayat's mashhad,the so far unidentified nephew of Shaikh Hayat, acting on behalf of the Shaikh'ssons, 'Umar and AbuiBakr, uses the word inshd' to describe his accomplish-ment. Strictly speaking, this word should be used only in reference to anentirely new structure. It is likely, however, that this was erected in immediateproximity of the hermitage (zdwiya) of Shaikh H.ayat which already in IbnJubair's time (eleven years before the date of the inscription) was providedwith a mosque. Whether the spot had been holy at a much earlier date, andwhether it was dedicated to Yahya (St. John) or associated with Terah cannotat present be ascertained. The confusion of the names of Hayat and Yahya(which derive from the same root) is, however, of fairly long standing. TheTurkish traveller Evliya Qelebigives the following account of the shrine frominformation collected during his visit to H.arran n 1060/1648: ' The sanctuaryof Shaikh Yahya Hayati lies below Harran. He is a great saint who has attainedthe rank of qutb. He is buried under a noble dome near the fort of Harran,on the fringe of the desert. The bedouins of the desert have great faith in thissaint. So much so that if they take an oath in grave matters, an oath that wouldbe equivalent to "I swear by Allah ", those Bedouins coming from al-Ahsa,'Uman, the islands (jazd'ir) or Qurna2 lay their hands on the walls of (theshaikh's) tomb and swear " by the head of Yahya Hayati ". The reason forcalling the saint Yahya HIayatiis that he was always sitting as on a prayerrug in prayer (?).' 31 Evkaf register No. 549. I owe this translation to Prof. Halil Inalcik of the University ofAnkara.2 Evliya Qelebi, Seyahetnameh, Istanbul, A.1. 1314-5, vol. III, p. 161 f. I am indebtedfor a translation of this passage to my colleague Prof. P. Wittek.3 It is interesting to note the location of the tribes listed by Evliya as being particularlydevoted to Shaikh Iayat who was himself of Bedouin stock. They came from places in Iraq

(Qiirna) and the Persian Gulf (al-Ahsai)and islands (in it (?) Bahrein ?). It is in these parts thatsections of the Bani Numair, a fraction of the Qays Bedouins, were to be found. The sameBaniu Numair also lived at Harran and even succeeded in establishing a short-lived dynastythere in the tenth century A.D. (cf. my ' Medieval Harran-I ', AS, II, pp. 74 ff.).

442 D. S. RICE


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A MUSLIM SHRINE AT HARRAN 443


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Evliya Qelebiclearly understood Hayati as a nisba; underlyingthis may bea dim echo of the holy man's capacity to 'behave in his tomb as if he were alive'(see above, p. 441). Eventually the more common name Yahya was substitutedfor Hayat, which was rarely used from the later Middle Ages onwards. It isthus that Badger (1844), Sachau (1867), Mez (1892), and von Oppenheim(1899) were told that the holy Shaikh of Harran was called Yahya. The truename appears,however, in the document of the Evkaf register quoted above andis again currently used by the inhabitants of Harran.APPENDIX A

(Extract from the Chronicleof Dhahabi, BN, MS. arabe, 1582.)W1 (.~1,J LAI 0L. L-~L'l jt ll.- ,' - A.H. 581 [f? 3r.]

*,lL jz I $L3^10I (jl 4?l; L I J J jl i !3 CJl

oSL>W j SXJJl. xS .,ul jLA o Uc? j M*uv^ . l ?^^^J^^l jW u^ JLP4^ au LJP 4*^j;3U


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A MUSLIM SHRINE AT HARR_ANAPPENDIX B

(Extract from Ibn Shaddad, al-a'laqal-khatiraft dhikr umard'al-jazTraafter Bodleian MS. Marsh 333 and collation with Berlin MS. 9800.The text is that of the Oxford MS. unless otherwise stated.)J3 ( I3J; la 1 Y-z1U \U JJ l 11 J [f? 18 v.]


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446 D. S. RICE. Jt ~. a ~.. W1[fl 20 r1 fYA'

J L ielAl1(LjvtL`d I ^4 LU SiYj I,*li Nill^JGlcjI1 ijJJ-5^ ,111 l; 1^>W l sS (b P1 AIJlZ (JL'(1J I

^ ^J2 THl 1CONQUESTl IARAN BYTHEM OLS J

1inheir hands except for a brief period of Khwrazmian rule.It had ecome

part of the provinceof Aleppo. From 650/1252-3 onwards t had two governors;one was responsible or the town, the othe Jrhe citadel.)

Translation (see above, p. 445, line 23)

The governor of he town was N.sir ad-din i1bnSayyr, and theovernor-1 L aJJ ^^"^ i.l *SS^xll Cjyii jl (^4JJj 4p 0\ t

Translation see above,p. 445, line 23):-

>JIr 1AJ.

2 Berl. MS. ,jJ :)13 Bodl.MS. Ls4

4 Onthismanuscript,f. 'MedievalHarran-I ' AS, I, pp. 36ff. Only heportiondescribing

Afttheurrenderndriefoccupltimateestructionf Harran by the SeMongoljuqsfisranslatedn full.

the surrender and ultimate destruction of HarrtTinby the Mongols is translated in full.


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A MUSLIM SHRINE AT HARRANas the ruler of 'Aintab. The town and the citadel remained in their handsuntil Hulagu's advance in the beginning of 658/1259. Hulagu laid siege toHarran. He exerted great pressure and was about to capture it when ShaikhYuisuf ibn Hammad al-Harrani and 'All ibn as-Sufraycalled on Hulagu andmade obeisance to him. Hulagu wrote a patent (yaghligh)and took possessionof the town, appointing 'All as-Suray as prefect (ra'Ts). The Tatars enteredthe town and harmed none of the inhabitants.The siege of the citadel, however, continued until one of the bastions felland those in the citadel feared that they would be killed if it were taken bystorm. They dispatched the Shaikh Abu' 1-Qasim bn Shaikh Abu Bakr ibnShaikh H.ayat al-Harrani and the (one word ?) Muhasin ibn al-Baqqal thewdal of the district (walV'l-barr) to Hulagu and asked for safe conduct (amdn)for the people in the citadel. Hulagu granted them safe conduct for themselves,their womenfolk,and their property,then he took over the citadel. He destroyedit, and destroyed the crenelations of the city wall.Nasirad-dinMuhammadal-'Aintabi went to see Hulagu and said: You haveavenged us (i.e. my family), for 'Aintab was ours and the Muslims took it fromus. Then he shaved his head and put on a sardquj2 and forsookIslam (irtadda).Harran remained in the hands of the Tatars' deputies (nuzwwb) untilKitbugha's defeat at 'Ain Jaluit in Ramadan 658/May 1260. Al-Malik al-Muzaffarwas killed in the remainder of that year, and our master the Sultanal-Malik az-Zahir Rukn ad-din Baybars conqueredthe lands which the Tatarshad occupied. Shams ad-din Aqush al-Burulli rebelled (against Baybars)and went to Aleppo in fear of al-Malik az-Zahir. He left Aleppo for Harranwhich he seized in Sha'ban 659/July 1262. It remained in his hands untilhis defeat at Sinjar on 4 Jumada II 660/26 April 1262. Then the deputiesof the Tatars returned to Harranand henceforth wereharassedby the Bedouinswho were loyal to our lord the Sultan (i.e. Baybars).Most of the inhabitants had removed to Mardinand Mosul. In 670/1271our master the Sultan dispatched 'Ala ad-din Taybars and a band of Bedouinswith at their head 'Isa ibn Muhanna, to cross the Euphrates. When theTatar deputies who were at Harran saw the army they threw down theirweapons. They were seized to the last man and made prisoners. There weremore than 80 of them. When these (Tatars) had been seized, the people ofHarranasked Taybars to appoint a governoron his behalf but he refused. Hetook some (hostages) and returned (to Syria). When the Tatars realized thatthey could not protect Harranand those in it, they deportedall the inhabitantsto Mardinand to other (places). They destroyed the mosque of Harran,walledup the city gates and left it empty but for the birds in their nests.

1 The appointment of a walz al-barr was common in Syria, cf. Gaudefroy-Demombynes, LaSyrie a l'epoquedes Mamlouks, Paris, 1923, p. 175.2 The sardaqijor sardaqshwas a typically Tatar headgear, cf. L. A. Mayer, Mamluk Costume,Geneva, 1952, pp. 30 f.

447


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A MUSLIM SHRINE AT HARRANAPPENDIX C

Provisional Family Tree of Shaikh Hayat's FamilySultan al-AnsariRahhal 1

Qays 1 4 Sultin 5Hayat 1, 2, 3, 4 d. 581 Qays 6I I 'A15

Abi Bakr 2, 3, 6 'Umar 1, 2 Id. 685 d. 605 Hayat(Sharaf ad-din Abu Isma'il,(born 685 (date of death unknown))Abu'-l-Q(sim 3 Qays

Dhahabi, BN, Paris MS. Ar. 1582, see App. A and p. 440.2 Inscription at mashhad of Shaikh Hayit, see p. 437.3 Ibn Shaddad, Bodleian MS., Marsh 333, Berlin MS. 9800, see App. B and p. 447.4 Yafi'i, Mir'dt al-jandn, Ibn 'Imad, Shadharat adh-dhahab,and ash-Sha'rani, tabaqdt(seep. 441).5 Ibn H.ajar al-'Asqalani, ad-durar al kdmina, Hyderabad, A.H. 1349, in, p. 259, no. 667:IAo Zj- -^j L-JI :- - l jIJ o zJ LJ^ L " LojJllJ^ J2JU1 ; s pl/.. eJ^ g ou l;. .1-1 iljl jL ll ~ J

' *4j il3stfl J . (j1l4? x_Ibn Rafi' is the author of a kitab al-wafayat (704/1305-774/1372), see Brockelmann, GAL, ii,p. 33, and Suppl. GAL, II, p. 30. His work exists only in manuscripts and none is available inthe U.K.6 cf. the extract from S.aqqa'i,Tdal kitdbwafayat al-a'yan, Paris BN. MS. arabe 2061, fo 31.I am preparing an edition of the whole text contained in this manuscript.?L%IJ bjlj9l UL>JJI j2; o*J jJ\

a muslim shrine at Ḥarrān

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