ARAM, 18-19 (2006-2007) 695-703. doi: 10.2143/ARAM.19.0.

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M. ZIMNEY 695

HISTORY IN THE MAKING:

THE SAYYIDA ZAYNAB SHRINE IN DAMASCUS

Ms. MICHELLE ZIMNEY

(University of California, Santa Barbara)

INTRODUCTION

The shrine of Sayyida Zaynab just south of Damascus, Syria is, like most
pilgrimage sites, steeped in long history and tradition. Neither born in bilad al-
sham, nor particularly welcomed by the Umayyad caliph Yazid, Zaynab bint
Ali ibn Abi Talib (or Sayyida Zaynab) found herself in Damascus in 680 AD
(61 AH), a prisoner of the caliphs army following her brother Husseins de-
feat at Karbala. In the standard Shii narrative, Zaynab and the other women
and children who survived the battle were paraded, along with the heads of
Hussein and his soldiers, through northern Iraq and Syria as boast and warning
to those who would oppose Yazids rule. After a short captivity, Zaynab was
released to Medina, then returned a few months later to Damascus with her
husband where she died and was buried. What was presumably a modest
burial site for over a millennium has become in the last forty years a spectacu-
lar complex of religious, administrative, economic, and social spaces. Its blue-
tiled exterior and massive gold dome, funded by donations from interested
faithful, welcome upwards of two million pilgrims, mostly Shia, from all cor-
ners of the Islamic world annually. They come to pray, cry, and ask for
Zaynabs help with problems in their daily lives. During Ashura, masses
reenact the Battle of Karbala outside the shrine, ritually beating themselves
and often drawing blood. All this, despite the openly debated improbability
that she is actually interred there.
The controversy is rooted in the fact that in a city proud to claim itself the
longest continuously inhabited city in the world, and one that was once the
Umayyad capital, written evidence of the tombs existence prior to the 19th
century is scant. Further complicating the issue is the presence of another large
and popular shrine to Zaynab in Cairo that hosts a massive public moulid cel-
ebration annually and draws pilgrims of its own. In this context, making the
case that Zaynab is in fact buried in Syria presents a formidable challenge, one
with which all involved have wrestled in earnest. The solution that has
emerged is part scholarly debate, part Hollywood production. On the latter
point, much of the success Sayyida Zaynabs shrine in Damascus can be cred-
ited to the production of material culture that has been built around it in the

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form of laudatory literature, secondary tombs, and a tourism infrastructure that

all promote an identification of the shrine with Zaynabs experience, though
not necessarily her death, in the city. In many respects one sees hints of the
strategy once enshrined in the American film Field of Dreams, If you build
it, [they] will come.

HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS

The shrine of Sayyida Zaynab, granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad

through his daughter Fatima and son-in-law Ali, is located approximately 10
km south of Damascus in an area that was until 40 years ago almost entirely
agricultural land. Historically, the town carried the name of Rawiya, but has
since been renamed Qabr al-Sitt or more commonly Sitt Zaynab. The land on
which it sits was officially given as a waqf in the 14th century (1366AD/
768AH) by the prominent local Murtada family, which traces its lineage back
to Muhammad through the 7th Imam Musa al-Kazim and remains custodian of
the shrine up until the present day. Reproductions of the waqf are available in
several publications distributed by the Murtadas as well as in several academic
journals produced in the past 15 years. 1
However, just what kind of shrine there was, if any, at the time of the waqf
remains unclear. One of the two current custodians, Mehdi Murtada, believes
there was a grave marker then, but does not have any details as to its descrip-
tion or original construction. In the waqf itself the lands being donated were
explicitly labeled as in Rawiya and for al-sayyida al-khaalida Umm Kulthum
Zaynab al-Kubra but no further information is given about a shrine per se.2 It
is important to note the specific name used in the waqf Umm Kulthum
Zaynab al-Kubra as it will be relevant to our discussion shortly.
In addition to the waqf, documentation of the history of the shrine can be
found in several travel accounts written just before the waqf was made. For
instance, in the Rihlas of Ibn Battuta and Ibn Jubayr, both authors make men-
tion of the site, the latter describing a shrine to al-Sitt Umm Kulthum, or
Zaynab al-Sughra, daughter of Ali ibn Abi Talib in Rawiya situated next to a
large mosque and housing units, surrounded by waqf property.3 Roughly con-
temporary with these is a 13th century Abu Bakr al-Harawi text in which one
finds a brief citation for Rawiya in his extensive list of sites in and around
Damascus. He states simply, Rawiya is a villagein it is the tomb of Umm

1
For example Al-Waqfiya al-Taarikhiya li-Maqaam al-Sayyida Zaynab, Al-Mawsem, no.
25 (1996): 16-29.
2
Ibid., 24.
3Cited in Muhsin al-Amin, Ayaan al-Shia, vol. 7 (Beirut: Dar al-Taaruf lil-Matbouaat),

136.

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Kulthum.4 Prior to these, Ibn Asaakir is known to have mentioned a mosque

constructed in approximately 1106AD/500AH by a Qarqubi man from Aleppo
near the tomb of Umm Kulthum.5
Although not exhaustive, from these few representative references, one can
reasonably assume that there was indeed a marked burial site to a woman who
enjoyed some level of reverence in Rawiya at least as early as 1100 AD. How-
ever, two issues remain problematic. First, even the earliest source, Ibn
Asaakir, is writing some four hundred years after the death of Zaynab, leaving
a large gap in time with no surviving written account of the shrine. Second, as
we noted in the waqf, Sayyida Zaynab is associated with several other names
(Zaynab al-Kubra, Umm Kulthum), which although customary, generates
some imprecision. This is compounded by the fact that Zaynab al-Kubra had a
younger sister whose name was also Zaynab (a.k.a. Zaynab al-Sughra) who
was also occasionally known as Umm Kulthum. And to really confuse matters,
Zaynab al-Kubra had a daughter also named Umm Kulthum. Armed with this
information, we can look again at the historical references cited above that all
point to the existence of a shrine in Rawiya, but attribute it to a woman named
Umm Kulthum. Uniquely, the waqf joins the names Zaynab al-Kubra and
Umm Kulthum in 1366, but before then the shrine is named only for Umm
Kulthum or in the case of Ibn Jubayr, Umm Kulthum and Zaynab al-Sughra.
Was the shrine really to Zaynab al-Kubra all along and Ibn Jubayr just mis-
stated the name? Or is it perhaps to another Umm Kulthum, Zaynabs sister or
her daughter? This significant ambiguity as to the identity of the woman bur-
ied in Rawiyya has provided fuel for those who doubt she is the woman in
question, Sayyida Zaynab.
If we look earlier in Zaynabs biography, there is general consensus, though
not unanimity, regarding the account of her role at the Battle of Karbala along-
side her brother Hussein and her subsequent arrival in Damascus as a captive
of Yazids forces. The questions really begin with what happened to her once
she was released to return to her home in Medina. As cited above, most narra-
tives trace Zaynabs ultimate return to Damascus before her death. How cred-
ible is it that she would return of her own free will to the city that had been the
site of her captivity, especially as long as Yazid remained in power? Her
Damascene supporters argue that soon after she arrived in Medina, a drought-
driven famine struck the city forcing Zaynab to relocate, temporarily, with her
husband and children. Damascus, contrary to what one might expect, was in
fact a natural destination given her husband Abdullah bin Jaafars land hold-
ings south of the city. Shortly after their arrival, according to this narrative,
4Abu Bakr al-Harawi, Kitaab al-Ishaaraat ila Maarifat al-Ziyaaraat (Damascus: Institute

Franais dtudes Arabes de Damas, 1953), 12.

5
Cited in Muhsin al-Amin, Ayaan al-Shia, vol. 7 (Beirut: Dar al-Taaruf lil-Matbouaat),
136.

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Zaynab took ill and passed away in Rawiya where she remains buried to this
day.6
A competing account of her last days by those believing Cairo is her resting
place points to her political activities in Medina, not the famine, as the reason
for her forced departure from the city. In this scenario, she fled to Cairo where
she was welcomed with respect and condolences, and even given lodging in
the home of the governor Maslima bin Mukhalid. He subsequently buried her
in one of the rooms when she died less than a year later.7 That room reportedly
now stands at the heart of her mausoleum in Cairo where Zaynab is generally
considered the patron saint of the city. Some also cite as supporting evidence
for this story that Zaynab was traveling not with her husband, but with her sis-
ters Zaynab and Ruqayya and her grand-niece Nafisa. Today there are shrines
to both Ruqayya and Nafisa in Cairo, making Zaynabs presence there at some
point in time at least plausible.
In the ongoing debate, supporters of both sides quote historians and popular
traditions to make their cases. Al-Maqrizi is often reported as saying no mem-
ber of the family of the Prophet (ahl al-bayt) entered Cairo before 762AD/
145AH making it impossible for Zaynab to have lived there. On the other
hand, al-Tabari is invoked for having stated flatly that the real burial site is in
Cairo. The debate has taken form in academic journals, popular literature and
even online chat boards.
Short of exhumation and DNA testing on whatever bodies are buried at
these two sites, no definitive judgment can or will ever be reached. For many,
it frankly doesnt matter. Ones intention, they say, to pay respect and pray for
Zaynab is what is important. Indeed, many pilgrims and residents around the
shrine in Damascus have no delusions that Zaynab is actually buried there, but
still visit it regularly simply as a means to feel close to her.
That said, there remain many who are concerned with establishing Zaynabs
true fate and thus the legitimacy of one shrine over the other. Just how this le-
gitimacy has been accomplished in the case of Sayyida Zaynabs shrine in
Damascus is the subject of the remaining part of this paper.

MAKING ZAYNABS HISTORY

Many events have marked the last 55 years at the shrine. The focus here is
on two broad categories of development. One is the physical space of the
6
This argument has been made by many. One example is Sheikh Hussein Shahadeh, Lamha
Aama min al-Mustanidaat al-Taarikhiyya li-Madfan al-Sayyida Zaynab fi al-Shaam, Al-
Mawsem, No. 25 (1996): 315.
7
Again this story appears in several iterations. Here I draw upon a narrative presented in
Youssef al-Qaid, Idha Nasinaa fa Udhkuri Anti Umm Haashim, Wajhaat Nathr, no. 35
(December 2001): 60.

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 M. ZIMNEY 699

shrine, its infrastructure and a network of smaller shrines around it. The sec-
ond is the emotional or sentimental space of these same places.
The most recent chapter in the history of Sayyida Zaynabs Damascus
shrine begins in the year 1950 when Sayyid Mushin al-Amin al-Amili, a well-
respected Shii cleric in the region, established a committee comprised of lead-
ing business figures and social elites from Damascus and its environs to draw
up a plan for a renovated shrine complex and to gather the funds necessary to
implement it. Early efforts were focused on upgrading the road from Damas-
cus, extending utilities to the rural area, and enlarging the core building of the
shrine, all of which were accomplished by 1964. In the 1970s and 80s the
courtyard was tiled as were the arcades and the exterior and interior walls of
the shrine building. Some 80 offices were built around the main courtyard, two
large prayer halls were added as was an exhibition area and the single minaret
was replaced with two 50-meter tile-covered columns. These were followed in
the 1990s by the addition of a medical clinic, a research center, and a five-star
hotel and shopping center adjacent to the complex. Future plans to expand the
shrine further include the overhead enclosure of the main courtyard and con-
struction of additional side courtyards. There are also long-term plans to build
apartments adjacent to the five-star hotel to house visitors.
According to literature distributed at the shrine, great emphasis has been
placed throughout on upgrading the Islamic character of the architecture and
decorations for the complex. Artists have been brought in from Iran to hand-
paint ceiling motifs. Quranic verses rendered in handcrafted blue tiles adorn
the shrine and courtyard, inside and out. As it stands today with its arcaded
spaces around the main courtyard and a gold dome, the shrine looks very much
like those built to the Imams in Najaf, Karbala, and Mashhad. And as is true in
those cities, there is a thriving community of academics working out of several
dozen hauzas, or religious seminaries, in the area.
Truly, the place has been transformed. Whereas shrine officials estimate
perhaps 100,000 pilgrims visited Sayyida Zaynab in 1950, today, as mentioned
in the introduction, they expect upwards of two million people to pass through
its doors annually. In addition there is a resident population of several hundred
thousand people whose origins range from Iraq and Lebanon to Sudan, Ku-
wait, and Pakistan among other countries. Throughout the year, but especially
during the holiday periods of Muharram and summer months, Sayyida Zaynab
hosts a variety of conferences, poetry readings, exhibitions, and most notably
Ashura commemorations. For the most part the economic and social services
necessary to support all these activities and people can all be found in the
growing city around the shrine.
One wonders if those original committee members ever envisioned quite
this level of success. Certainly, they approached the project conscious of the
need to provide for the demands of a growing body of visitors. Yet, the allu-

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sion to that American film earlier not withstanding, an explanation of the

growth of Sayyida Zaynab that places all the credit on the pulling effect of a
built space is certainly incomplete. It is true, that without the built space to ac-
commodate visitors, it is unlikely that they would continue to come year after
year in these numbers, but as any real estate developer would attest, building
doesnt guarantee people will come. They need to have a reason.
Curiously, that reason would not be provided in the words of Sayyid
Muhsin al-Amin, the very man who headed the Sayyida Zaynab development
committee, who published his own analysis of the situation some time in the
1940s, determining that Sayyida Zaynab was buried neither in Damascus nor
in Cairo, but most likely in Medina in an unmarked grave.8 Certain that
Zaynab was not there, he nevertheless endeavored to make the shrine a place
where she could be honored for her suffering and strength in the face of trag-
edy.
This emotional space, where pilgrims can relate to Zaynab, empathizing
with her suffering and expressing their own to her is a primary attraction. It is
of course the product of many individual, social, and religious factors. Three
particularly influential elements will be considered here: fatwas urging dona-
tions for the building and maintenance of the space, the development of auxil-
iary shrines near Sayyida Zaynab, and the mass publication of emotionally
laden biographies of Zaynab.
Soon after the formation of the development committee in 1950, its mem-
bers determined that the rate at which donations were coming in would not be
enough to sustain the long-term construction plans. Subsequently, between the
years 1950 and 1955, no fewer than six Shia clerics published announcements
or formal fatwas sanctioning and encouraging donations to the project.9 One
cleric testifies to the powerful effect seeing the shrine had on him and assures
all donors to the project, past and future, that they will receive forgiveness for
their sins and the prayers of visitors.10 Another pledges the use of his monies
for the shrine, then informs believers, traders, and pilgrims alike that they are
obliged to help the project as much as they can. In return they will be rewarded
by God.11
Donations large and small began to pour in. Some wealthier individuals
opted to fund specific high profile items such as carved doors, the gilded
dome, or an elaborate encasement (darih) for the coffin. At the opposite end of

8
Muhsin al-Amin al-Amili, Ayaan al-Shia, vol. 7 (Beirut: Dar al-Taaruf lil-Matbouaat,
1983), 140.
9
Al-Saaoun wal-Mutabaroun li-Imaar al-Maqam al-Zaynabi al-Sharif, Al-Mawsem,
No. 25 (1996): 201-231.
10
Ibid., 224.
11Ibid., 220.

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the spectrum, we see large groups, presumably from one village, collectively
donating as little as 28 Syrian lira, roughly fifty cents in todays terms.12 The
overall effect was to broaden the base of connection to and support for the
shrine. Each of these men, by extending his reputation to the project, appealed
to his readers personal loyalty to the sheikh or to his general sense of religios-
ity or desire for salvation in urging him to give money. They all vouched for
the power of the place and legitimacy of the project. None of them mentioned
Zaynabs real gravesite.
A second development that has indirectly legitimized Sayyida Zaynabs
shrine in Damascus and directly affected the number of visitors who make the
journey to see it is the establishment of several lesser sites also important to
Shia Muslims in and around the city. In the old city of Damascus sits a re-
cently renovated and gleaming white shrine to Sayyida Ruqayya, niece13 to
Zaynab and among the children taken captive with her at Karbala. Just south
of the city in the Bab al-Saghir cemetery, one finds numerous small and much
simpler shrines to other members of ahl al-bayt as well as the heads of sixteen
soldiers who died with Hussein. Zaynabs husband is also interred here in a
shared tomb enjoying very little fanfare. Nearer to Zaynab, a shrine to another
sister Sukayna is now undergoing major renovations with funding from a
prominent Iranian cleric resident in Sayyida Zaynab. And beyond Damascus,
there are other sites: two shrines in al-Raqqa along the Euphrates and a shrine
near Aleppo where Husseins head is believed to have rested a night leaving
behind drops of blood on a rock, among others.
Certainly, it would be inaccurate to imply that the development of these
sites has been part of a grand centrally orchestrated plan. However, their col-
lective effect is notable as tour groups now incorporate more and more of them
into their itineraries and consequently stay longer on any given trip. Secondly,
and more subtly, their presence consciously or unconsciously reinforces the
idea that Sayyida Zaynab really is buried in Damascus without ever explicitly
stating so. A similar phenomenon is present in Cairo regarding shrines to
women who had supposedly traveled to Cairo with Zaynab. The idea is if
Sayyida Zaynabs nieces, her husband and the heads of Husseins soldiers are
all buried in Damascus, why wouldnt she be?
A third phenomenon that has contributed to the construction of an emotional
identification of Zaynab with Damascus comes in the form of a wave of semi-
academic accounts of Zaynabs life published in the last 20 years and widely
available in bookstores around the shrine as well as in major Arab cities. They
12
Maqaam al-Sayyida Zaynab, Qariyat al-Sitt, al-Bayaan al-Aam li-Tabaruaat wa al-
Nafaqaat (Damascus, 1966), 232.
13
As with Zaynabs, there are also several family members named Ruqayya. This one is the
daughter of Hussein, not Ali ibn Abi Talib.

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can be described as semi-academic because although they are written by fairly

prominent figures, the content is repeated, often verbatim, from one book to
another within a more or less standard format. First, Zaynab is situated within
ahl al-bayt, with particular attention to her relationship with Muhammad. Then
we learn of Zaynabs outstanding personal qualities (her learnedness, patience,
loyalty, and strength in the face of oppression) before the story of the Battle of
Karbala, her role in it, and her heroic actions following the death of Hussein
are recounted.
Invariably, the speech she made in the court of Yazid in Damascus wherein
she openly rebukes him for his treatment of her and her family and defends the
values for which her brother was martyred is presented in detail.14 The texts are
laced with quotes from figures in Zaynabs life and Zaynab herself, yet seldom
do the authors list bibliographic information for their sources unless it is one
of the other biographies from which they are borrowing. Her work to keep the
lessons of Karbala fresh in the mind of Muslims and teach them the true mean-
ing of Islam after she returned to Medina usually receives special emphasis.
How do the stories end? Of the texts sampled, about one third claimed she
lies in Cairo, one third made a case for Damascus, and a third restrained from
saying anything definitive. It is interesting to note however that the amount of
text dedicated to the issue is generally quite small, anywhere from two to 20
pages in a three hundred-page book. It would seem it was not a primary goal
of the authors to establish this information.
Ascertaining the cumulative effect of this literature is admittedly guess-
work. However, there is clearly an effort in it to amplify Zaynabs heroic
qualities and actions, especially those that took place in Damascus, while de-
emphasizing the importance of knowing for sure where she died and is buried.
Zaynabs extraordinary life, regardless of where she passed away, is identified
with Damascus and as such the shrine to her there offers people a place to re-
late to her at a spiritual and emotional level.
Perhaps one author, Ahmed Ali Dakheel, captured the importance of an
emotional connection best. He approached the issue of her burial site and the
many accounts of its true whereabouts by comparing it to the controversy over
the location of Husseins head and offering a poem by al-Alousy. It reads,
Do not search for Husseins head
In the Earths east or west
Bid him farewell and turn toward me
For his place of reverence (mashhad) is in my heart15

14See for example Bakr Sharif al-Qirshi, Al-Sayyida Zaynab: Batalat al-Taarikh wa Raaidat

al-Jihaad fil-Islaam (Beirut: Dar al-Mahajja al-Bayda, 2001) and Hassan al-Safaar, al-Mara al-
Athima (Beirut: Dar al-Bayaan al-Arabi, 1993).
15Ahmed Ali Dakheel, Al-Sayyida Zaynab min al-Mahad ila al-Lahad (Beirut: Dar al-

Murtada, 2003), 170.

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CONCLUSION

Any attempt to present the historical foundations and modern development

of a shrine as popular as Sayyida Zaynab is a necessarily limited and simpli-
fied one. To be sure there are myriad other factors at work and any full picture
requires their inclusion. However, an analysis of some of the factors that have
contributed to the success of this particularly dynamic religious site despite
serious and persistent doubts about the presence of its namesake can perhaps
shed some light on the process.
In the absence of incontrovertible proof of Zaynabs body, other resources
have been mobilized to support the expansion and popularity of the shrine,
namely religious sanction of donations to fund its development, the building of
secondary sites related to Zaynabs family, and the publication of emotionally
charged biographies that ground Zaynabs experiences in Damascus. These ef-
forts to market the site by weaving it into the broader and broadly accepted
history of early Shiism in the region increase its legitimacy in the eyes of the
public and make its history and future viable.

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