al-Isharat ila Marifat al-Ziyarat
- Author died
- 611 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Thaqafah al-Diniyyah
al-Isharat ila Marifat al-Ziyarat (Signposts to the Knowledge of Pilgrimage Places) is a concise geographical and topographical guide by the traveler and historian Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Abi Bakr al-Harawi (d. 611 AH / 1214–1215 CE), documenting sacred shrines, tombs of prophets and saints, and notable monuments across the medieval world .
Background and Circumstances of Composition
Al-Harawi, known as al-Sa'ih ("the Wanderer"), spent decades traveling extensively by land and sea across the Islamic world, the Mediterranean islands, Byzantium, and beyond . He composed the work after companions repeatedly asked him to record the pilgrimage sites (ziyarat), architectural wonders, monuments, ancient relics, and talismans he had observed . He initially declined until he attended a gathering with an envoy from the Abbasid court in Baghdad, where attendees discussed shrines in the Levant and debated the authenticity of various reported prophetic graves .
The book was conceived as an abridgment, partly because many of al-Harawi's original notes and manuscripts were lost . Some were seized by the Crusaders during an encounter at al-Khuwaylifa in 588 AH—where King Richard I of England (referred to as al-Inkitarr) sought to meet him in exchange for returning his books, though al-Harawi refused—and others were lost when his ship sank at sea . He noted that over the intervening years he had forgotten much of what he had observed, apologizing for any omissions .
Scope and Structure
The primary stated aim of the text was to catalog the pilgrimage sites of the Levant along with the resting places of prophets, companions of the Prophet ﷺ, and adjacent pious figures, though its scope expanded to cover extensive regions across the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and Central Asia .
The work begins with Aleppo and proceeds regionally along established travel itineraries:
- The Levant and Palestine: Covering Homs, Baalbek and the Biqa Valley, Damascus and Mount Qasyun, Hauran, the Balqa, Ma'ab, Tiberias, Nablus, Jerusalem, Hebron, and Ascalon .
- Egypt and North Africa: Covering Cairo, the cemeteries of al-Qarafa, Fustat, Upper Egypt, Nubia, Alexandria, Damietta, Rashid, and lands of the Maghrib .
- The Mediterranean and Byzantium: Including the islands of Sicily and Cyprus, Constantinople, and Anatolia (Bilad al-Rum) .
- Upper Mesopotamia and Iraq: Covering Diyar Bakr, the Khabur, Jazirat Ibn Umar, Mosul, Samarra, Baghdad, Kufa, and Basra .
- The Arabian Peninsula and the East: Covering Mecca, Medina and its al-Baqi cemetery, Yemen, as well as Persian lands and Transoxiana, ending with entries on cities such as Tus and Samarkand .
Method and Content
Al-Harawi adopted a succinct, direct descriptive style based on personal observation rather than lengthy narrative elaborations . Alongside Muslim mausoleums and shrines, he recorded Christian churches, pre-Islamic monuments, ancient talismans, and natural phenomena such as Mount Etna in Sicily . He frequently exercised critical discretion, noting where historical graves had disappeared over time or where popular attributions of prophetic tombs were disputed . At the end of the text, he noted that he also compiled a separate, broader geographical work titled Manazil al-Ard Dhat al-Tul wa-l-Ard (The Stations of the Earth in Its Length and Breadth) .
Editions
The text was critically edited and published by the French Orientalist Janine Sourdel-Thomine in Damascus in 1954 .
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