This site in Asqalan marks the former Mashhad al-Husayn, where tradition holds that the blessed head of Imam al-Husayn ibn Ali (RA) was buried before its…
This site in Asqalan marks the former Mashhad al-Husayn, where tradition holds that the blessed head of Imam al-Husayn ibn Ali (RA) was buried before its transfer to Cairo. Known in Arabic as مشهد الحسين and also as Mashhad al-Ra’s, the Mashhad of the Head, it stood near the old city of Asqalan on the Palestinian coast, north of Gaza. The recorded coordinates now fall within the grounds of Barzilai Medical Center. Imam al-Husayn and the road from Karbala Imam al-Husayn ibn Ali (RA) was the son of Sayyiduna Ali ibn Abi Talib (RA) and Sayyidah Fatimah al-Zahra (RA), and the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. He grew up in Madinah within the household of the Prophet ﷺ and was the younger brother of Imam al-Hasan ibn Ali (RA). In 61 AH/680, Imam al-Husayn ibn Ali (RA) was martyred at Karbala with members of his family and companions. After the battle, his blessed head was taken from Iraq. The tradition preserved at Asqalan holds that it was subsequently buried at this place, making the coastal city one of the principal locations connected with the journey of Imam al-Husayn ibn Ali (RA) after Karbala. The Fatimid mashhad at Asqalan In 484 AH/1091–92, the Fatimid vizier Badr al-Jamali commissioned a major mashhad and congregational mosque at the site. A long inscription prepared under his patronage recorded the account of the blessed head at Asqalan. The complex became known both as Mashhad al-Husayn and Mashhad al-Ra’s. Badr al-Jamali also commissioned a carved wooden minbar for the mosque. Under Salahuddin al-Ayubi, the minbar was transferred from Asqalan to Masjid al-Ibrahimi in al-Khalil, where it survives beside the mihrab. Its inscription preserves the date 484 AH and its connection with the Mashhad of Imam al-Husayn ibn Ali (RA); it is among the oldest surviving Islamic wooden minbars still in use. The transfer to Cairo In 548 AH/1153, as Asqalan faced military danger, the Fatimid authorities carried the blessed head of Imam al-Husayn ibn Ali (RA) to Cairo. It was received there with ceremony and placed in the new Mashhad al-Husayn, from which Cairo’s present Masjid al-Husayn takes its name. The Asqalan mashhad continued to be recorded after the transfer. Al-Harawi visited Asqalan in 570 AH/1174 and named the site among the city’s celebrated places, while later Muslim travellers and chroniclers continued to mention it through the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. The site after the old mashhad The historic structure survived into the twentieth century and was demolished in 1950. In 2000, a commemorative prayer platform was established on the site through an initiative associated with Sayyidna Mohammed Burhanuddin of the Dawoodi Bohra community. It marks the location of the former Fatimid mashhad within the present hospital grounds.