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Mashhad Rāshid al-dīn Sinān: A 13th-century Ismā‘īlī monument in the Syrian Jabal Anṣarīya
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
Along with a number of commemorative inscriptions adorning various edifices in Maṣyāf, al-Qadmūs and al-Kahf, the principal literary source which records the building activities of the Syrian Ismā‘īlīs in the Jabel Anṣarīya during the 12th and 13th centuries is the anecdotal biography of Rāshid al-dīn Sinān, completed, as its author, Abū Firās b. Jawshan al-Mayniqī states, in Shawwāl 724/Sept.—Oct. 1324. In this work reference is made to the reinforcement, under the instructions of Sinān, of the fortresses of al-'Ullayqa, al-Ruṣāfa and al-Khawābī. Mosques founded at al-Mayniqa and al-Kahf apparently in the period following Sinān's death in 1193 are also mentioned. Finally, the story is told of the building after the Mongol withdrawal from Maṣyāf in late 1260 of a mashhad on a mountain top not far from the town. It was dedicated to the memory of Sinān and marked the spot from which this most famous of the Syrian Ismā‘īlī leaders had observed the siege of Qal‘at Maṣyāf by Saladin in 1176. By the second half of the 13th century the site of Sinān‘s encampment during the siege had become associated in the minds of the Ismā‘īlīs with certain miraculous occurrences brought about through the agency of Sinān and sufficient in their impact to persuade Saladin to desist from further hostility and sue for peace.
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- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1984
References
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11 The same could be said of most other rooms in the building and also of the entrance porch. It remains a moot point whether the exterior of the building was also plaster rendered as was the case with a number of external wall surfaces in the fortresses of Maṣyāf and Abū Qubays.
12 The same has occurred at the small mosque at al-Qadmūs built in about 668/1269–70 by order of two of the last independent chiefs of the Syrian Ismā‘īlīs, Najm al-dīn and his son, Shams al-dīn (van Berchem, Max, “Épigraphie”, 494–8)Google Scholar. In this building the adjustment that has been made to the internal alignment is of smaller measure and limited to the part of the qibla wall framing the miḥrāb niche.
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14 Were it not for the engaged pier masking it in the same corner of room 9 above, it is likely that the straight joint would have been visible here also. There is a second straight joint [J2] to be observed marking the western wall of room 10 close-in near the north-west corner, but it seems to be related to the construction of room 10 alone and not to room 9.
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17 For this word Guyard provides the literal translation “une voüte” (“Un grand maītre”, 418 with n.l). It makes better sense here, however, to adopt its extended meaning “a vaulted chamber”.
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