Sights in Syria part 1
The Sayyida Ruqayya mosque has to be one of the most amazingly decorated mosques I’ve ever seen (although I hear that the Sayyida Zeinab mosque is decorated along similar lines, I’ve never been there).
There are these interior domes that are entirely covered with cut mirrors, and the photo doesn’t even do it justice.
The mosque is dedicated to Sayyida Ruqqaya (obviously), the daughter of the Imam Hussein, whose body lies inside a coffin in the case in the center of this photo (the daughter’s, that is, not the Imam’s). The story goes (according to a pamphlet from the mosque) that after the Hussein was killed at the battle of Karbala in 680 CD, the surviving members of his family were marched to Damascus. When Sayyida Ruqiyya saw her father’s head displayed on a pole, she died on the spot at the age of four.
Until several decades ago, all that stood on this site was a small shrine to Sayyida Ruqiyya, but Iranian money built the current mosque and furnished it with its fabulous decor; it remains a site of Shia’, and thus significant Iranian, pilgrimage. The signs inside are in Arabic and Farsi, and the mosque is gender segregated to a degree that is far from typical in Syria. The devotional practices at the shrine were a bit intense for me: on the women’s side, many people were weeping and clutching at the bars enclosing the glass case, while I saw fainting men being carried out from the male section of the mosque.
It doesn’t have the grandeur, historic significance, or deep calm of the Umayyad mosque, but the visual details are stunning.
أمنية said,
January 17, 2009 at 8:10 am
when i was 21 or so i got lost in the old are and reached to this mosque by accident, it was breath taking to me.
i never knew how to get back to it.
i remember everything , the carpet, the walls, the floor, the ceiling, the lights it was all clearly that a lot of money were spent to docrate the mosque.
i want to visit it again, maybe this summer.
علوش said,
January 17, 2009 at 10:02 am
Far from the main subject.
That part of History you mentioned is one of the biggest crack in the Islamic Identity, the wound and the pain still exist till now.
Till now you can see Muslims take a side of a bloody story back to more than 1000 year.
Are you Sunni or Shia they ask me, since my name is Ali I’m Suppose to be Shia, I answer them I’m a just a Muslim.
For me I don’t like over decorated places, I like simplicity, Ummaya Mosjid in Aleppo is a great example, and for me it’s so impressive particularly its Minaret.
Global Voices Online » Syria: Sights to Behold said,
January 17, 2009 at 8:31 pm
[...] Blog and the Shower commits a post to the beauty of the Sayyida Ruqqaya mosque. Posted by Jillian York Print version [...]