Bab al-Saghir Cemetery

One of the oldest cemeteries in Damascus, located just outside the Bab al-Saghir gate on the southwestern edge of the Old City and in use since the early Umayyad period. It is the resting place claimed for a number of figures central to early Shia history, most prominently Umm Kulthum bint Ali, daughter of Imam Ali and sister of Imam Husayn, alongside Bilal al-Habashi (the Prophet's muezzin) and Fidha, a companion of Fatima al-Zahra. A shrine within the cemetery, Maqam Ru'us al-Shuhada, is traditionally held to hold the severed heads of the Karbala martyrs. As with many centuries-old attributions, these identifications rest on popular tradition rather than documentary evidence. Note: the cemetery's most visited shrine, that of Sukayna/Ruqayya bint Husayn, is already recorded separately in this database as the Sayyida Ruqayya Mosque — the two names refer to the same site and same figure, so it is intentionally not duplicated here.