Maqam (shrine)

Fictional Arab people South Arabian deities A maqām (Arabic: مقام) is a Muslim shrine constructed at a site linked to a religious figure or saint, commonly found in the Levant (or al-Shām), which comprises the present-day countries of Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Israel.

Funded by rulers and the elite, these shrines functioned as points of piety, attracting individuals from different levels of society, generating employment opportunities, and contributing to economic growth.

In the 19th century, Claude Reignier Conder described maqams as an essential part of folk religion in Palestine, with locals attaching "more importance to the favour and protection of the village Mukam than to Allah himself, or to Mohammed his prophet".

[2][non-primary source needed][neutrality is disputed] Researchers have observed that alongside celebrated Muslim figures, some maqams can also be associated with ancient Semitic pagan, Judaic, Samaritan, and Christian traditions.

The form mukam appears in the essays of European travelers of the 19th century; as well as the words waly, wely (Arabic: ويلي wālī "saint"), mazar, and mashhad.

Moslem by profession, they often spend their lives without entering a mosque, and attach more importance to the favour and protection of the village Мukam than to Allah himself, or to Mohammed his prophet.

[9] Every village in the Palestine region has a wali or patron saint, whom people, predominantly rural peasants, would call upon for help at his or her associated sanctuary.

[11] The most popular type of maqam is a single chamber square building topped with a dome, in the middle of which there is a stone cenotaph,[12] though the revered figures themselves were buried below ground level.

Candelabras and lamps are hanging in an active maqam, a cenotaph is covered by a quilt (usually a green one), praying rugs are spread on the floor in front of the mihrab.

The location of maqams on or near these natural features is seen as indicative of ancient worship practices adapted by the local population and associated with religious figures.

[16] He identified seven types of maqams:[16] In the seventh century, the Arab Rashiduns conquered the Levant; they were later succeeded by other Arabic-speaking Muslim dynasties, including the Umayyads, Abbasids and the Fatimids.

[17] Early Islam disapproved worshipping of holy men and their burial places, considering it a sort of idolatry.

Arab travellers and geographers ‘Ali al-Harawi, Yaqut al-Hamawi and others described in their essays many Christian and Muslim shrines in Syria, Palestine and Egypt.

There is, however, in nearly every village, a small whitewashed building with a low dome – the "mukam," or "place," sacred to the eyes of the peasants.

[21] More recently, Palestinians and Arab citizens of Israel coloured the domes of shrines green, a color associated with Muhammad.