which is transforming
the street hunters into
indoor pets.
See also
Folklore
.
Nuha N. N. Khoury
Further reading: Cats of Cairo, Photographs by Lor-
raine Chittock, Introduction by Annemarie Schimmel
(New York: Abbeville Press, 2001); Bayard Taylor, Lands
of the Saracen (New York: Putnam, 1855).
cemetery
A cemetery is a plot of land dedicated to the
burial of the dead. It is usually set apart from
residential and commercial areas and contains
distinctive monuments, religious buildings, and
gravestones that memorialize those who are bur-
ied in it. Beyond serving the practical end of
providing a place for the disposal of the bodies
of the deceased, cemeteries often are regarded as
sacred ground in connection with the
aFterliFe
beliefs of a community. This is especially evident
for the Abrahamic religions, which believe in the
resurrection of the body for a final judgment.
For followers of Judaism, Christianity, and i
slam
,
therefore, cemeteries are regarded as places of rest
for the dead until that time.
Cemeteries form part of the communal land-
scape wherever Muslims reside. In rural areas,
they are located in fields or elevated areas adjacent
to villages. Urban cemeteries are usually placed
outside the city limits. Cemeteries in medieval
Cairo’s City of the Dead (al-Qarafa)
(Juan E. Campo)
K 132
cemetery
Islamicate cities were usually located outside the
city gates, where they could be easily reached
by funeral processions and people who wanted
to visit the gravesites of family, friends, or holy
people. Some urban historians have noted that
cemeteries may have actually inhibited the expan-
sion of some cities, but many cemeteries have also
been engulfed by urban growth or simply aban-
doned or forgotten with the passage of time. Jews
and Christians living in Muslim countries bury
their dead in their own cemeteries.
Visiting the dead and pilgrimages to the tombs
of Muslim
saint
s are important aspects of life
for many Muslims to this day, even though such
practices are condemned by followers of the most
conservative schools of Islamic law, such as the
Wahhabis of s
aUdi
a
rabia
. During Ramadan, on
major feast days, and during the mourning period
after someone dies, families visit the cemetery
together, and women prepare food to distribute to
the needy on behalf of the dead. In Cairo’s larg-
est cemetery, the City of the Dead (also known
as al-Qarafa), there are family mausoleums that
look like houses where people pass the holiday
near their deceased relatives. Cemeteries may
have trees and gardens, which make them popular
places for strolling, picnicking, and other forms
of socialization. They were also known as places
where people could meet secretly to conduct illicit
activities, so secular and religious authorities have
periodically sought to control or ban people from
using cemeteries for anything other than their
intended purposes. In the popular imagination,
they are believed to be places where the
Jinni
and
demons may lurk.
Among the most famous cemeteries in Islamic
lands are the medieval ones found in m
edina
,
d
amascUs
, c
airo
, and b
aghdad
, where the c
om
-
panions
oF
the
p
rophet
, his relatives and descen-
dants, and other important figures from early
Islamic history are buried. n
aJaF
, Iraq, where the
Shii shrines of Muhammad’s cousin a
li
ibn
a
bi
t
alib
(d. 661) is buried, has the Valley of Peace,
a vast cemetery where many of the Shia lay their
dead to rest. The nearby shrine city of k
arbala
,
where Ali’s son Husayn (d. 680) is buried, has
another important Shii cemetery, known as the
Valley of Faith. In Iran, the shrine of the eighth
Shii i
mam
Ali al-Rida (d. 818) at Mashhad is
surrounded by cemeteries that began to develop
when t
Welve
-i
mam
s
hiism
became the religion
of the Safavid state in the 16th century. Tehran’s
Behesht-i Zahra cemetery has recently become
famous as the burial place of Ayatollah r
Uhol
-
lah
k
homeini
(d. 1989) and Iranian martyrs of
the 1978–79 revolution and the eight-year war
with i
raq
(1980–88). Also, powerful Muslim rul-
ers have left spectacular funerary complexes that
they built for themselves from m
orocco
to Cairo,
Tabriz (Iran), b
Ukhara
(Uzbekistan), Delhi, Agra,
and Hyderabad (i
ndia
). These constructions con-
tain some of the best surviving examples of medi-
eval Islamicate architecture in the world.
Small cemeteries can be found on the grounds
of
mosqUes
and
madrasas
located
within city pre-
cincts, such as the m
amlUk
madrasas of Cairo,
Ottoman mosques in Turkey, and the Mecca
Mosque in Hyderabad. Sufi hospices may also
have burial grounds on the premises for a Sufi
saint,
shaykhs
, dervishes, family members, and
important patrons. For example, the shrine of
Nizam al-Din Awliyya (d. 1325) contains, in addi-
tion to the graves of his family and disciples, those
of Amir Khusraw (d. 1325), a leading Persian
poet and friend of Nizam al-Din, and Jahanara (d.
1681), an influential Mughal princess and patron
of the c
hishti
s
UFi
o
rder
.
Since the 1970s, Muslim immigrants to e
Urope
and the U
nited
s
tates
have purchased lots within
existing non-Muslim cemeteries for the burial of
their dead. Some prefer, however, to transport the
bodies of their deceased back to their homelands
for burial.
See also
death
;
FUnerary
ritUals
;
Jinni
; s
UFism
.
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