Location Medina, Saudi Arabia | Organised by House of Saud | |
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Date 1806 and 1925 (or 1926) Outcome Mass destruction of the buildings, and domes of the cemetery | ||
Al-Baqi cemetery, the oldest and one of the two most important Islamic graveyards located in Medina, Saudi Arabia, was demolished in 1806, and following reconstructions in mid-19th century, destroyed again in 1925 (or 1926). An alliance of the House of Saud and the followers of the Wahhabi movement, known as the Emirate of Diriyah carried out the first demolition. The Sultanate of Nejd, also ruled by the House of Saud and followers of Wahhabism, carried out the second. In both cases, the actors were motivated by the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, which prohibited the building of monuments on graves.
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History of Baqi
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.
It gained further attention after the first companion of Muhammad, Uthman bin Maz'oon (or As'ad ibn Zurarah) 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 making it an important location for Shia Muslims.
Historical records show that there were domes, cupolas, and mausoleums in Jannat al-Baqi before the 20th century; today it is a bare land without any buildings.
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), based on their interpretation of Qur'anic verses regarding graves and shrines. For this, they refer to story of the golden calf found in the Qur'an where Israelites manufactured idols and pray them leading to God's anger. Some Muslims see the story as a "blanket prohibition" against the worship of images and shrines. 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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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, in accordance with their doctrine. These were razed to the ground. and plundered for their decorations and goods.
After taking control of the holy cities, the Saudis tried to put obstacles for non-Wahhabi Muslims to perform the Hajj (annual pilgrimage). In the next few years, they gradually increased the hajj duty. They also banned pilgrims from bringing musical instruments and mahmal (richly decorated palanquins) - both often brought by pilgrims but incompatible with the Wahhabi religious standards, and later "boys or other beardless persons". In 1805, 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. Maghrebi Muslims were not prevented from performing the hajj.
European traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt visited the cemetery in 1815 after the first destruction. Seeing the ruins of the domes around the cemetery, he said that people of Medina were "niggardly", paying little attention to honoring "their celebrated countrymen." However, the destruction did not prevent residents from performing their rituals.
The Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II, 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 in 1818. By order of Sultan Mahmud II the Ottomans built and renovated buildings, domes, and mosques in "splendid aesthetic style" from 1848 to 1860. 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. Another English adventurer visiting Medina in 1877–1878, describes the city as a "small beautiful city resembling Istanbul." He mentions its "white walls, golden slender minarets and green fields." Also, Ibrahim Rifat Pasha, an Egyptian official travelling between 1901 and 1908, described sixteen domes marking individual and/or a collection of graves.
Second demolition
The House of Saud regained control of Hijaz in 1924 (or 1925). 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 (or 1925) by the Ikhwan ("Brothers"), a Wahhabi religious militia. The demolition included destroying even the simplest gravestones. 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."
The workers destroying the buildings received 1,000 Majidi Riyal, the unit of currency at the time. The destroyed domes included those of: Abdullah ibn Abdul-Muttalib and Aminah, Muhammad's father and mother, respectively; Isma'il ibn Jafar, the eldest son of Ja'far al-Sadiq; 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; and 7,000 people who were said to have ties with the prophet Muhammad.
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. Both Sunni and Shia protested against the destruction and rallies are held annually in Pakistan, Iran, and the United States. The day is regarded as Yaum-e Gham ("Day of Sorrow"). 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.