Demolition of al-Baqi

Coordinates: 24°28′02″N 39°36′58″E / 24.4672°N 39.616°E / 24.4672; 39.616

Demolition of al-Baqi

Jannat al-Baqi before demolition
Date	1806 and 1925 (or 1926)
Location	Medina, Saudi Arabia
Organised by	House of Saud
Outcome	Mass destruction of the buildings, and domes of the cemetery

Al-Baqi cemetery, "the oldest and historically most important Islamic graveyard" located in Medina, Saudi Arabia, was demolished^[1] by forces loyal to the Wahhabi-Saudi alliance in 1806 and 1925^[2] (or 1926).^[1][3] Wahhabi forces were defeated by Ottoman forces after the first demolition and the buildings of al-Baqi were rebuilt. However, years later, Medina was recaptured by the Wahhabis and al-Baqi was destroyed by them once again.

History of Baqi

Mausoleum of four Shia Imams along with Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib

Baqi al-Gharqad (Arabic: بقیع الغرقد‎‎, "the field of thorny trees"), also known as Jannat al-Baqi (Arabic: جنت البقیع‎‎,"garden of tree stumps"), was used as a cemetery before the advent of Islam.

The most famous person buried in al-Baqīʿ during the lifetime of the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, was his infant son Ibrahim. Many narrations attest that the Prophet visited this cemetery regularly to pray for God’s forgiveness for the buried there.^[3]

It gained further attention after the first companion of the Prophet Muhammad was buried there in 625. Four Shi'a Imams: Hasan ibn Ali, Ali ibn Husayn, Muhammad al-Baqir, and Jafar al-Sadiq were buried there^[2] making it an important location for Shia Muslims.^[4]

Historical records show that there were domes, cupolas, and mausoleums in Jannat al-Baqi before the 20th century; today it is bare land without any buildings.^[2]

Demolitions

How al-Baqi cemetery appears today after the demolitions.

First demolition

At the beginning of the House of Saud's nineteenth century (1806) control over Mecca and Medina, they demolished many of the religious buildings including tombs and mosques, whether inside or outside the Baqi,^[5] in accordance with their doctrine.^[1] These were razed to the ground.^[3][6] and plundered for their decorations and goods.^[7]

European traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt visited the cemetery in 1815 after the first destruction. Seeing the ruins of the domes around the cemetery, he concluded that people of Medina were "niggardly", paying little attention to honoring "their celebrated countrymen." However, the destruction could not prevent residents from performing their rituals and political power was re-established some years later.^[2]

Non-Wahhabi Muslims were prohibited from performing the Hajj pilgrimage at the time. A year before the destruction, Iraqi and Iranian Muslims were not allowed to perform Hajj. Syrians and Egyptians were refused permission to perform Hajj in 1806 and 1807, respectively.^[5]

Sultan Mahmud II, Ottoman emperor at the time, ordered the governor of Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha, to attack the rebels and Muhammad Ali Pasha's son, Ibrahim Pasha, defeated Najdi clans at the battle of Diriyah. By order of Sultan Mahmud II^[3] the Ottomans built and "renovated" buildings, domes, and mosques in "splendid aesthetic style" from 1848 to 1860.^[5] Sir Richard Francis Burton, who visited Medina in 1853 disguised as an Afghan Muslim named "Abdullah", said that there were fifty-five mosques and shrines after reconstruction by the Ottomans. The city is described by another English adventurer visiting Medina in 1877–1878 as a "small beautiful city resembling Istanbul." He mentions its "white walls, golden slender minarets and green fields."^[6] Also, Ibrahim Rifat Pasha described sixteen domes marking individual and/or a collection of graves.^[2]

Second demolition

The House of Saud regained control of Hijaz in 1924^[3] (or 1925).^[1] The following year Ibn Saud granted permission to destroy the site with religious authorization provided by Qadi Abd Allah ibn Bulayhid, and the demolition began on 21 April 1926^[3] (or 1925)^[2][8] by the Ikhwan ("Brothers"), a Wahhabi religious militia.^[9] The demolition included destroying "even the simplest of the gravestones".^[1] British convert Eldon Rutter compared the demolition to an earthquake: "All over the cemetery nothing was to be seen but little indefinite mounds of earth and stones, pieces of timber, iron bars, blocks of stone, and a broken rubble of cement and bricks, strewn about."^[3]

The workers destroying the buildings received 1,000 Majidi Riyal,^[10] the unit of currency at the time.^[11] The destroyed domes included those of: Abdullah ibn Abdul-Muttalib and Aminah, Muhammad's father and mother, respectively; Isma'il ibn Jafar; Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib and Hamza ibn Abdul-Muttalib, both uncles of Muhammad; Ibrahim ibn Muhammad, Muhammad's son; Malik ibn Anas; Uthman ibn Affan; four Shia Imams;^[10] and 7,000 people who supposedly had ties with the prophet Muhammad.^[12]

Motivations

Wahhabis tried to carry out the demolition within a legal religious context since they regarded the shrines as "idolatrous" and believed that marking graves is Bid'a (heresy),^[13] based on their interpretation of Qur'anic verses regarding graves and shrines.^[14] For this, they refer to story of the golden calf found in the Qur'an.^[15] This is while Shia scholars refer to a number of other verses and traditions to support the practice of building shrines over the graves of Islamic saints.^[16] Weeks before the second demolition, at the request of Ibn Bulayhid, a group of fifteen scholars from Medina unanimously issued a fatwa condemning the making of mausoleums around the graves.^[2]

According to Adeel Mohammadi, the Wahhabis' destruction of al-Baqi also had political roots. The leader of a Muslim community is responsible for performing enjoining good and forbidding wrong (al ʿamr bi-l maʿrūf wa-n nahy ʿan al munkar) and he can fulfill this responsibility only by having political power. The destruction by the Wahhabis' was a political act to establishing Najdi authority in the Hijaz. This consisted of the religious authority of Najd Wahhabi scholars and the political authority of the Saudi family to broadcast their "newly acquired political power", Mohammadi argues.^[2]

The veneration of Islamic shrines in the Hijazi cities of Mecca and Medina [...] reflected a desire for unity not only in the theological approach to God but also in the political approach to land [...] Thus iconoclasm represented, for Wahhabism, a means of bridging the principles of theological and political.

— James Noyes, Politics of Iconoclasm^[2]

Also, according to Mohammadi, the destruction could be done with the purpose of indicating victory over Shia, as al-Baqi is the burial place of a number of Shia Imams and members of Ahl al-Bayt ("People of the House") – Muhammad's family.^[2]

Reactions

The second demolition was discussed in Majles-e Shora-ye Melli (The National Consultative Assembly of Iran) and a group of representatives was sent to Hijaz to investigate. In recent years, efforts were made by Iranian religious scholars and political figures to restore the cemetery and its shrines.^[3] Both Sunni and Shia protested against the destruction^[1][8] and rallies are held annually^[1][17][18] in Pakistan,^[19] Iran,^[20] and the United States.^[17][21][22] The day is regarded as Yaum-e Gham ("Day of Sorrow").^[8] Prominent Sunni theologians and intellectuals have condemned the "unfit" situation of the al-Baqi cemetery but the Saudi authorities have so far ignored all criticism and rejected any requests for restoration of the tombs and mausoleums.^[3]

See also

• Wahhabi sack of Karbala

References