BĀB AS-SAGHĪR CEMETERY
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The graveyard is a well-known landmark in the city and situated just outside the Bāb as-Saghīr city gate in the South of the old city.
- The Bab Al-Saghir cemetery is actually a series of small graveyards located along Bab Al-Saghir Street. It is the largest and most noteworthy of the Muslim cemeteries in Damascus housing the graves of many prominent Companions of Muhammad SAW.
- Not every grave has been verified, so differences of opinion do exist for some of them.
Numerous tombs have been built over the graves of the most prominent personalities and have survived many centuries of conflict and war. For this reason, some regard this graveyard as ‘the most intact surviving burial ground of early Islam anywhere.’ - Amongst those buried there are:
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- Bilal RA- the famous companion and first muethin of Islam
- Abdullah Ibn Umm Maktum RA – the blind Companion who was also one of the first muethins in Islam.
- Umme Salamah RA – one of the wives of Muhammad SAW
- Umme Habibah RA– one of the wives of Muhammad SAW
- Fatimah al-Sughra – the daughter of Husain RA
- Asma’ bint Umays – the wife of Ja’far al-Tayyar RA
- Abdullah ibn Ja’far al-Tayyar RA
- There are also many prominent scholars the likes of Ibn Kathir RA, Ibn Abidin Shami, Shams al-Din al Thahabi, Ibn Asakir that are interred here.
- Muawiya RA, the fifth Caliph of Islam and illustrious Companion of Muhammad SAW is said to be buried nearby as well.
- The ruler Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd Zengī who ruled the Syrian province of the Seljuk Empire from 1146 to 1174 is also buried nearby at the Nur al-Din Madrasa in Suq al-Khayattin.
