Medina, Saudi Arabia
Jannat al-Baqi
Hasan ibn Ali . Ali ibn al-Hussain (Zayn al-Abidin) . Muhammad al-Baqir . Ja'far al-Sadiq
The domed shrines that once marked these graves were demolished by Wahhabi forces in 1925 and have never been rebuilt; the graves are now unmarked within the open cemetery.
The oldest Islamic cemetery in Medina, established by the Prophet Muhammad in 622 CE after his migration from Mecca, and one of the two holiest burial grounds in Islam. It holds the graves of four Shia Imams — Hasan ibn Ali, Ali al-Sajjad, Muhammad al-Baqir, and Ja'far al-Sadiq — along with Muhammad's daughter Fatima (whose exact grave site is disputed), several of his wives, his infant son Ibrahim, and numerous companions. Domed mausoleums once stood over the graves of the Imams and other prominent burials, but these were twice demolished by Wahhabi forces — first in 1806, and again in 1926 after the Saudi state took control of the Hejaz, on the grounds that such structures encouraged grave veneration. The destruction is still commemorated annually by Shia Muslims as the Day of Sorrow, and repeated calls from across the Muslim world for the tombs to be rebuilt have been rejected by Saudi authorities. Today the cemetery remains a bare field of unmarked graves, administered by Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Islamic Affairs.
Jannat al-Baqi
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