Talk:Maqam (shrine)

Sheikh Ahmad al-Hubani
I am in some doubt as to under which village Sheikh Ahmad al-Hubani belonged, Allar, Jerusalem, or Ras Abu 'Ammar?

I suspect Allar, Jerusalem, but I don't have the maps. I think it is Kh. ash Sh. Ibrahim on 09Ramle.jpg, while it was Khurbet Hubin on  SWP map 17. User:Zero0000, what do you say? Huldra (talk) 21:00, 15 August 2017 (UTC)


 * I see no Esh Sh. Ibrahim near Allar, but there is one just east of Ras Abu Ammar at 1599-1269. It doesn't say "al-Hubani" though.  I'll look more later. Zerotalk 05:29, 16 August 2017 (UTC)


 * No, wait, you say Ahmad al-Hubani not Ibrahim al-Hubani. I misread.  It is at 1577-1259, which is Kh. el Hubein.  The location is 2km west of Allar on the village lands of Allar (map Deir Esh Sheik, 1:20,000, 1942). Zerotalk 10:33, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
 * , yeah, I misread, there is a Kh al Hubein, just south of Kh. ash Sh. Ibrahim on 09Ramle.jpg, I missed that. So it is on  Allar, Jerusalem land: that is the most important issue, Huldra (talk) 20:03, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Btw, you wouldn't happen to have that Frantzman, S. J. and Bar, D. (2013) Mapping Muslim Sacred Tombs in Palestine During the Mandate Period, would you? If so, I wouldn't mind one coming my way.....(note that I have a new email address, same as my old, except it is now @mail.com) Huldra (talk) 23:24, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Hopefully in your mailbox. Zerotalk 15:40, 17 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Zero0000: Thanks! Got it! Huldra (talk) 20:41, 17 August 2017 (UTC)

PEF 17, Ku: Khirbet el-Hubin; Palestine 15–12, 157/126: ''Kh. el-Hubein''. A. Petersen has a little confusion over this maqam (Petersen 2001, 195). - Maqam Sheikh Ahmad al-Hubani.--Orest2000 (talk) 14:07, 17 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Orest2000: Now that was a fascinating find, I hadn't noticed it. It is clear that the sources Petersen gives (Pringle, etc), refer to the Kafr Sum structure. (Petersen is quite unreliable about the sources he gives, though. See e.g. Talk:Tira, Israel and Talk:Tayibe)
 * Another thing, I'm unsure if we can equate maqam with Weli, or wali? Do you have a source? My impression was that weli was often a bit more than a Maqam, see e.g. Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau    p. 77, who writes that the guesthouse, medhafeh, which each village had, often was the village mosque...or wely. I cannot see that he would use the word  Maqam as a substitute here?  Huldra (talk) 20:41, 17 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Huldra: Objects that Victor Guérin and others call “oualy” or "koubbeh", are called "wely" (shrine), "kubbeh' or "makam" in English resources, and "Mukam" in the SWP. This is a common knowledge. Will you find examples on your own or should I show you? Palestinian Arabs still call maqams "waly" and vice versa.--Orest2000 (talk) 14:49, 18 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Orest2000, the question isn't about  “oualy”="wely" (shrine), or "koubbeh"= "kubbeh', the question is when is “oualy”/"wely"  used, and when is  "koubbeh"/"kubbeh', and when is maqam  used. I haven't seen any formal definition, have you? My impression was that larger structures, like the one in Bayt Mahsir, was called   “oualy”/"wely", while smaller structures, like the one in Ayn Ghazal was called  maqam. Also that maqams  were often reported to be gravesites, like the ones in Bir Ma'in, while  “oualy”/"wely" were more like mosques, that is, places of worship.Huldra (talk) 20:23, 18 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Huldra: As for me, it doesn't feel like “oualy/wely", "koubbeh/kubbeh" и "mukam/maqam" differ in size. The structure in Bayt Mahsir is not a wely/maqam, not a tomb of a sheikh and not a shrine; it is a small village mosque, and there is a mikhrab but never a cenotaph. The fact that this construction is called a wely or maqam isn't true. A wely/kubbeh/maqam is a funeral place of a saint de facto, or a supposed funeral place. If there is no cenotaph, it means the structure is not a wely/kubbeh/maqam. And one more time: there is no deference in size between them. Here are two examples when one object is called a wely as well as a maqam: Maqam Sheikh Bureik (‘Abreik): Weli — Tomb of Shaykh — Mukam. Tell es-Safi: wely — Mukam.--Orest2000 (talk) 13:08, 19 August 2017 (UTC)
 * The book of Canaan (Mohammedan Saints and Sanctuaries in Palestine) tries to classify the different types and how they are called, but the story is complex and the names don't seem consistent. I have that book in electronic form if either of you would like it. Zerotalk 20:06, 19 August 2017 (UTC)

Orest2000: I tried to find some definitions, here is what I found from Conder and Kitchener, 1881, p. 43:
 * Kubbet (Kubbeb):  dome
 * Makam (sometimes spelt Makam):    Sacred station, or shrine.
 * Mesh-hed:  Monument or shrine.
 * Wely:   Moslem saint (used for a saint's tomb).

...while Petersen, 2001, p. 325, gives:
 * qubba:  dome
 * maqam:   Small building containing the tomb of a saint (see also wali  and mashhad).
 * mashhad: Sacred place. Can mean the burial place of a saint.
 * wali:  Building containing the tomb of a saint (see also maqam and mashhad)

So it seems at least as if there has been a development in what a Makam/maqam is, from just a shrine, to a small  building containing the  tomb of a saint. While Wely/wali always meant a building containing the tomb of a saint. I think these definition back up my impression, that a weli was generally more important than a Makam/maqam. Obviously, there has been some overlap,

Zero0000: The Canaan book (Mohammedan Saints and Sanctuaries in Palestine) is available on the net, and linked at Tawfiq Canaan. What pages is the discussion on? Huldra (talk) 20:20, 19 August 2017 (UTC)


 * All of part A is devoted to these questions, which is why it is hard to summarise. Note that lots of material in that book is good for articles and available nowhere else, but it can be hard to find due to the unusual transliteration (such as šêḫ for "sheik"; in case the last letter doesn't show it is "h" with a curl below it). I usually can't find localities in that book without scanning the index. Back to the topic, I note that Canaan considers weli to be a type of person, along with sheik and nabi.  When a building is called weli it means that the building is devoted to a weli (whether or not there is a tomb). Zerotalk 09:17, 20 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Hmm, I have to go through that book, and insert all the relevant info, too. Another project waiting.... And I see it is on archive, too, https://archive.org/details/MohammedanSaintsAndSanctuariesInPalestine
 * This turns out to be a much more complicated issue than I thought. Perhaps we should start the article with the various definitions...given by Conder and Kitchener, 1881, Canaan, 1927, and Petersen, 2001. Huldra (talk) 20:13, 20 August 2017 (UTC)

Sheikh ‘Awad, in Hamama, or Al-Majdal, Askalan?
User:Orest2000: On the map SWP 16, Sheikh ‘Awad looks as if it is in equal distance from Hamama and Al-Majdal, Askalan.

However, there is an article in he.wp about this place https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/קבר_השייח%27_עוואד and that article says (if my google translate is correct), that the shrine belonged to  Al-Majdal, Askalan. Huldra (talk) 20:14, 21 August 2017 (UTC)


 * Huldra: Strictly speaking, the Maqam of sheikh ‘Awad belongs neither to Al-Majdal, nor to Hamama. As well as the Maqam of sheikh ‘Usheish does not relate to Dayr Nakhkhas, and the Maqam of sheikh Ahmad al-Hubani – to Allar, Jerusalem. None of the explorers ever connected them with these villages. You are the first who did it. However, if we follow your approach of localization and refer one or another maqam to the nearest Palestinian village (though I am not sure it is a right way), then anyway Hamama was closer to the Maqam of sheikh ‘Awad (2 km away), but not Al-Majdal (2.5 km away). If this maqam is connected with Al-Majdal in the Hebrew Wiki, it is not right. --Orest2000 (talk) 15:20, 22 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Orest2000: It does not a matter  which village is the  closest, what matters is on whose juristriction the Maqam is located. According to Zero0000, Ahmad al-Hubani was on Allar, Jerusalem land.  I don't know  on whose land  ‘Awad is, I only note what Hebrew Wikipedia writes. Huldra (talk) 21:38, 22 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Is on whose juristriction, this could be Al-Jura.--Orest2000 (talk) 15:45, 23 August 2017 (UTC)
 * I agree, on SWP map 16 it sits basically almost equally distance from Al-Jura,  Al-Majdal, Askalan and Hamama. -User:Zero0000: do you know on whose land it is? Huldra (talk) 20:26, 23 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Village land of Hamama according to 1942 map. Zerotalk 04:07, 24 August 2017 (UTC)
 * User:Zero0000 Thanks! Well, that means that he.wp is wrong.
 * Another -quite unrelated- issue, is, does anyone have any chanse of getting hold of the maps here? They really should be uploaded to Gottlieb Schumacher commons, it would be very helpful in finding/verifying the places here, Huldra (talk) 20:08, 24 August 2017 (UTC)
 * That society wants to control their map collection by asking for an email address and sending a password. Given that they have gone to the trouble of scanning the maps and making them available for free, I'm not sure it is a great idea to antagonise them by uploading the maps to Commons without asking. I requested the maps to start with, though. Zerotalk 03:26, 25 August 2017 (UTC)

Great work, with two comments
This is a superb new article - well done. Coincidentally I had been gathering sources on the exact same topic in recent weeks, after having stumbled across this excellent resource while building Template:Islamic holy sites in Israel and Palestine. I have just checked, and can confirm that the article has all the sources I gathered; leaving me feeling disappointed that I wasted my time but even moreso pleased that the work has been done here in such a high quality manner.

My only two observations are:
 * this article appears, at its heart, to be about Maqams in the historical region of Palestine, rather than a review of Maqams across the world (per Mazar (mausoleum)) so we might consider clarifying in the title.
 * a section on mawsim festivals, as documented in Canaan's book, would be a great addition - assuming the Palestinian scope is agreed per above. Page 215 of Canaan gives a good list of the most important mawsim.

Onceinawhile (talk) 10:36, 28 August 2017 (UTC)


 * Thank you, Onceinawhile. 1) I'm related to this resource. 2) About mawsim ("religious festival") should write a separate article. --Orest2000 (talk) 14:45, 29 August 2017 (UTC)


 * Onceinawhile, you added to the preamble a quotation from Conder, but it is already in the text, in the "Construction and purpose" section. That`s a repetition. We should do something with it: either to take away this quotation from one of the sections or to combine it.--Orest2000 (talk) 15:11, 30 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Hi Orest, per Manual of Style/Lead section: "The lead serves as an introduction to the article and a summary of its most important contents ". I consider that quote to be one of the article's most important contents, so I think it should be duplicated in the lead.
 * Having said that, it slightly depends on the scope of this article. Do you consider this article to be primarily about "Palestinian maqams" or about maqams worldwide?
 * Onceinawhile (talk) 15:46, 30 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Onceinawhile, the title of article suggests that it is about maqams worldwide.--Orest2000 (talk) 14:57, 1 September 2017 (UTC)

Abu Hureira
in honor of this new article, are you happy for me to put WikiProject Palestine/Article drafts/Mausoleum of Abu Huraira into the mainspace? I would need to put the raw/hidden text onto the talk page. The topic is referenced in this article. Onceinawhile (talk) 15:27, 1 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Ok, Ill start working on it, again. Sorry it slipped may mind....There is still a bit to to, Huldra (talk) 20:50, 1 September 2017 (UTC)

Is Sidna Ali mosque a maqam, and if not, why?
Arminden (talk) 19:43, 17 September 2020 (UTC)


 * I've seen it described as a mosque built around a maqam. Zerotalk 03:21, 18 September 2020 (UTC)

Some of User:Tiamut's User:Tiamut/Maqam should be incorporated here? Say, the Albert Hourani source? Huldra (talk) 23:39, 27 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Hey Huldra, I think Onceinawhile already added any useful material from there.  T i a m u t talk 13:18, 29 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Ok, excellent, (I don't have the Hourani-source, so I wouldn't know how much "usable stuff" there is in it) cheers, Huldra (talk) 21:14, 1 May 2021 (UTC)

Lebanese Maqams
Someone needs to work on including them. There are many. And if the article is further developed you can also include the Maqams in Iraq. Lebanesebebe123 (talk) 01:38, 24 January 2024 (UTC)