Mentioned earlier, the shrine and tomb of this prominent figure to both Muslim and European world, Salah ad Din Yusuf al Ayubi is in the garden adjoining the Umayyad Masjid. Hence, we visited first its tomb before anything else. The shrine is well managed and maintained. Ultimately, clean and user friendly to visitors. The building layout and design is a blend of classical and contemporary comprises of old and new structure.
Born in 1138, Salah ad Din Yusuf al Ayubi who was better known in the Western world as Saladin, was a Kurdish Muslim who became the first Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt and Syria. He led Islamic opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant. At the height of his power, he ruled over Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Hejaz, and Yemen. He was a strict adherent of Sunni Islam and a disciple of the Qadiri Sufi order. His chivalrous behavior was noted by Christian chroniclers, especially in the accounts of the siege of Kerak in Moab, and despite being the nemesis of the Crusaders he won the respect of many of them, including Richard the Lion heart; rather than becoming a hated figure in Europe, he became a celebrated example of the principles of chivalry.
He died of a fever on March 4, 1193, at Damascus, not long after Richard's departure.
Seven centuries later, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany donated a new marble sarcophagus (the white marble on the left side of the second photo above) to the mausoleum. Salah ad Din al Ayubi's body was, however, not placed in it. Instead the mausoleum, now has two sarcophagi: one empty in marble and the original in which holds his body made of wood.
0 comments:
Post a Comment