Visiting the Women:
Shrines to Three Sayiddas

July 12, 2006

Perhaps because I am missing my own dear sayyida (Emily returned to the US early Monday morning), I went to visit some shrines dedicated to sayyidas. In the Fatimid period (969-1171 AD) a number of shrines were constructed or restored—a high percentage dedicated to women.

An article by Caroline Williams ("The Cult of 'Alid Saints in the Fatimid Monuments of Cairo" Muqarnas 2 (1984), 39-57) manages to historicize these shrines. The Fatimids, recall, were the ones who established Cairo proper, a square kilometer dominated by their private palaces. Fatimid religious practices were initially exclusive, and shrines for the dead established within the palaces themselves.. i.e. they were not meant to be visited by the population at large. The Fatimids suffered a series of crises beginning at the end of the 11th century and continuing into the 12th, and it was during this time.. when they were no longer dealing from a position of strength.. that the leaders involved themselves in the construction of shrines. These shrines are united in their dedication to members of the 'Alid family (loyalty to 'Ali being the principal definition for Shi'a Islam). The Fatimids traced their lineage back to 'Ali, and they seem to have tried to stengthen their claims to legitimacy by encouraging the religious cult related to early 'Alid residents of the Fustat/Cairo. It is as if a dynasty from Sweden took over the United States, and looked for earlier branches of their family that had migrated to the United States a few centuries earlier.. in order to venerate them, and creating by that means the impression of their longevity. These shrines, then, were part of a political program.

That program is lost today.. but the shrines remain. Often the shrines have been reconstructed or rehoused.. so they are not always the most historic of buildings.. but their origins go back to the Fatimid period, about 900 years ago.

1. Sayidda Nafisa

Sayyida Nafisa was four steps removed from 'Ali and migrated from the Hijaz in Arabia to the Arab capital of Fustat in Egypt. Her grave appears to have been revered from early on: "She was buried in her house in a grave reportedly dug by her own hands. Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Khallikan says: 'The spot on which her house stood is now occupied be her mausoleum... This tomb has a great reputation, experience having shown that prayers said near it are answered'" (40). So the movement was from private house burial to the development of a shrine at that same place. Even before the Fatimids arrive on the scene these early saints were revered in a popular cult..

The mosque that now houses the shrine to Sayyida Nafisa is a manifestly modern building. The decorations and style being obviously of recent construction. Walking through the mosque proper one is hard pressed to distinguish it from others. There is the usual sleepfest:

Past this open area is a hallway featuring multiple pious pictures and texts. The dominant image is of the mosques in Mecca and Medina. Other framed hangings contain the 99 names of God or sections from the Qur'an. Below is the hall and then a detail of the kinds of pictures that line the wall:

At the end of the hall comes the shrine itself, bathed in the usual greenish fluorescent lights. The shrine is surrounded by a silver cover, and it is here that people give a show of veneration. Inside the metal cover is a tomb whose head is decked out in what looks like a wedding dress, and draped with silk. My favorite part of the picture below is the dangling bottle of Windex on the left, which, yes, I am sure is an important part of running a shrine like this.. with all the touching and kissing that is liable to smear windows.

2. Sayyida Ruqayya

Sayyida Ruqayya was a daughter of 'Ali and buried in Damascus. It is therefore strange that a shrine would be constructed for her in Cairo, but it appears to have been inspired by a dream. There is no reason, of course, to doubt the dream, but there is good reason to think that the Fatimids at this point in the early 12th century were more than happy to make use of it to mark more firmly their own waning legitimacy.

Once again the shrine itself is located within a silver casing, which visitors will kiss or rub in a show of veneration. The actual building that houses the shrine is from the 12th century.. and its diminutive size gives a sense of how the other shrines (which have been enlarged in recent centuries) would probably have looked in their Fatimid context. We are talking about a small domed building:

Behind the shrine itself is an original stucco prayer niche. It was hard to get a good picture of the niche because the metal shrine is now so imposing.. again a clue to the much more diminutive original setting. The prayer niche is quite striking (note again the dim green atmosphere):

3. Sayyida Zaynab

Who was Sayyida Zaynab? Caroline Williams in a footnote writes: "Most people in Cairo today believe that the Zaynab honored here is the sister of al-Husayn who survived the massacre at Karbala, even though she died and is buried in Medina" (58). This Zaynab was actually a more obscure figure, the niece of the above mentioned Sayyida Nafisa (44). Again, an early 'Alid resident of Cairo around whom their gradually developed a cult.. which was then encouraged by the Fatimids through building and restoration projects.

My only previous visit to this mosque came during a night visit to a Mulid.. which is a carnival-like celebration of a saint. It is generally an annual celebration. The Mulid at Sayyida Zaynab is quite large.. and I will testify that it is deafeningly loud and crowded with people, from the young to the sick. At the heart of the mosque is the shrine dedicated to Sayyida Zaynab. This was by far the most crowded of the three Sayyidas I visited today:

These are all men; the women are once again behind a wooden screen.. You can see the men rubbing the silver shrine cover.. and making signs of veneration. Along the wall are men sitting and praying or reading the Qur'an. The covering itself is beautiful, covered with silver and worked into marvelous patterns:

To sum up, then, we have seen how the original system of shrines was encouraged by the Fatimids, who were looking to take advantage of popular devotion to saints to build loyalty to their reign. But as the pictures above show, this original context is long past.. and the Sayyidas are now a part of popular Cairo religiosity. These shrines outgrew their context.. but the popular devotion to them continued and new contexts evolved. Today these shrines are a part of popular Sunni religious devotion.

But let's return to that original context briefly and ask the question: why all these women?? Williams has a speculative answer to that question:

The preponderance of female saints might be due also to their general appeal to the women of Fustat whose chief social and religious outlet was in the visitation of the dead in the Qarafa [Cemetery], and through whose sentiments their male kin might also be attracted to the dynasty. All these points indicate either an atmosphere of religious fervor for the saints or official manipulation to create such an atmosphere or, probably, both. [54]

These shrines are the living testimony of a failing dynasty whose final pitch was to stoke the religious emotions of its subjects.. and identify itself with those emotions.

Sayyid Harby
In conclusion I would like to mention my driver for the day: Harby. I am currently convinced that he is the coolest cat in Cairo. He knows all the local places, the dates for the mulids, and details of popular devotion. He seems to know people everywhere he goes.. which he explained to me is because he comes from a large family (9 kids). I also think he attends a lot of the popular religious festivals.. and knows people by means of that as well. His taxi haunt is out in front of Coptic Cairo.. that is where I first met him, and where I will be meeting him at least a couple more times.