Mashhad Ruhin and the Tomb of Quss ibn Sa’ida

A small village on a plateau in the north of Idlib province, 7 kilometres north-west of Dana. It takes its name from its mashhad — a shrine built over venerated graves. The Aleppo historian Ibn al-Adim wrote that one of these graves was said to belong to Quss ibn Sa’ida al-Iyadi, a pre-Islamic Arab orator. The same village holds the remains of a ruined church, underground tombs and a villa doorway from the 6th century. Here the Byzantine layer of the Dead Cities and the record of medieval Arab writers sit in one place.

What Ibn al-Adim wrote

Ibn al-Adim, who wrote the history of Aleppo in the 13th century, names the place Deir Ruhin in his Bughyat al-Talab fi Tarikh Halab and counts it among the villages of the Jebel Sem’an. His description is short: a fine shrine, with three graves beside the mosque. The middle one, it is said, is Quss ibn Sa’ida al-Iyadi’s, and the other two belong to the apostles Sem’an and Shem’un. Safi al-Din al-Baghdadi also lists the village in his gazetteer of place names, the Marasid al-Ittila’.

Who was Quss ibn Sa’ida

An Arab orator remembered for his eloquence in the years before Islam. Arabic sources call him the bishop of Najran and put his death in 600. Al-Harawi, who wrote about places of pilgrimage, records that Quss’s grave is here together with those of two companions. The story goes that Quss wrote an elegy for the two and was buried beside them when he died.

What you see in the village

The sources list three things: the remains of a ruined church, underground tombs and a villa doorway from the 6th century. The village has a mosque and a primary school. At the end of 2000 it had 529 inhabitants. They belong to one family descended from Sheikh Ahmad al-Turmanini, who is buried in Turmanin. The village comes under Turmanin and lives from olive, fig, vine and pomegranate orchards.

Getting there

7 kilometres north-west of Dana. The ruins of Deir Turmanin are a few kilometres away, and the two fit into one half day. There is no public transport; you hire a car and driver in Idlib or Sarmada.

How it stands today

We found no verified recent record or photograph of the shrine or the church remains, and no information on visiting hours or access. This is a living village. Ask in the village before you enter the shrine, and wait outside the mosque at prayer times. Unexploded ordnance is a reported hazard in rural Idlib: stay on the path and do not touch metal lying on the ground.

Don’t miss

The villa doorway. Dated by the sources to the 6th century, it is the one named piece of the village’s Byzantine houses. Ask in the village where it is.