Al-Baqi'

About Al-Baqi'

First Islamic cemetery of Medina, Saudi Arabia

Al-Baqi', or Baqi' al-Gharqad, is the main cemetery of the people of Madinah since the time of the Prophet Muhammad, and the oldest and first cemetery in Islam. It lies facing the south-eastern side of the Prophet's Mosque and is still in use today. The name refers to the gharqad shrubs that once grew here; the cemetery now covers about 180,000 square metres after neighbouring land was added, and is surrounded by a high marble-clad wall. It is related that some ten thousand companions of the Prophet are buried here, among them the third caliph Uthman ibn Affan, the Prophet's wives (except Khadija and Maymuna), his daughter Fatima al-Zahra, his son Ibrahim, his uncle al-Abbas, his aunt Safiyya, his grandson al-Hasan ibn Ali, and descendants of al-Husayn such as Ali ibn al-Husayn, Muhammad al-Baqir and Ja'far al-Sadiq, together with countless residents of Madinah and visitors who died there over the centuries. For this reason the cemetery is held in deep reverence by Muslims of every school. Historically al-Baqi' contained domes and mausoleums; these were removed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and today the graves are plain, without structures, and mostly unmarked by names, following the practice observed in the Hijaz to discourage excessive veneration of graves.

Where:

Medina, Saudi Arabia