This site marks the grave of Sayyiduna Shamshun in the former Palestinian village of Sar‘a, west of Jerusalem. Palestinian records call the place Maqam…
This site marks the grave of Sayyiduna Shamshun in the former Palestinian village of Sar‘a, west of Jerusalem. Palestinian records call the place Maqam al-Nabi Samat (مقام النبي صامت), while the longstanding identification connects the grave with Sayyiduna Shamshun. The Survey of Western Palestine recorded the maqam south of Sar‘a in the late nineteenth century. Sayyiduna Shamshun in Islamic literature Sayyiduna Shamshun was a righteous warrior of Bani Isra‘il whose account appears in classical Muslim historical and exegetical literature. Ibn Kathir preserves the narrative of a servant of Allah granted exceptional strength, who fought the enemies of his people and devoted himself to worship. He is not named in the Qur’an, and the Islamic sources do not establish him among the Prophets. Sar‘a stood on a hill about 25 kilometres west of Jerusalem, within the historic Jerusalem district. Its Muslim inhabitants cultivated grain, olives and fruit on the surrounding land. The village was depopulated in 1948, and the historical maqam of al-Nabi Samat was later demolished; the present site continues the identification of this ground with the grave of Sayyiduna Shamshun.