Mausoleum of Ibn al-Muqaddam (Talha Mosque), Damascus

An Ayyubid tomb dated 1201, inside a neighbourhood mosque on a corner of Al-Umawi Street in Souq Saruja, just north of the Old City of Damascus. The Ayyubids were the dynasty founded by Saladin. The emir Fakhr al-Din Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik Ibn al-Muqaddam built it; he died in Damascus in 597 of the Islamic calendar, that is 1201, and was buried here. In 1993 a modern mosque was built against three sides of the tomb and named the Talha ibn Ubaydallah Mosque. Locally the building is known as the grave of Sidi Talha or the Talha Mosque, and that is the name to use when asking the way.

Who was Ibn al-Muqaddam

He was an Ayyubid emir. He governed the castle of Mardin and several fortresses; the French historian Jean Sauvaget refers to him as emir of Aleppo. His grandson, al-Malik al-Hafiz Ghiyath al-Din Shahanshah, is buried in the tomb as well. He died in 693, that is 1293, under the Mamluks, the Cairo-based sultans who followed the Ayyubids. The tomb was founded in the Ayyubid period and stayed in use as a family grave into Mamluk times.

How the dome is built

The plan is square: about 47 square metres, with sides of 688 centimetres. The walls are yellowish limestone, laid in courses between 40 and 50 centimetres high. The four fronts are symmetrical. Each has at its centre a tall pointed-arch opening 230 centimetres wide. The north and east openings were later glazed.

The hemispherical dome has 12 ribs. It sits on two stone drums, each with 12 sides and a mihrab-shaped niche on every side. The niches are filled with stucco of interlaced leaves and flowers. The drums rest on transition pieces in the corners. The dome is painted tile-red on the outside and topped by a copper crescent finial with two knobs.

From 1945 to 1993

Between 1945 and 1948 the antiquities department exposed the tomb’s foundations and paved its floor. In 1414 of the Islamic calendar, that is 1993, a modern mosque was built against the north, south and west faces of the tomb. Its minaret is at the north-west corner, and four half-domed porches run along the west front. The tomb was absorbed into the mosque. According to the record of the Damascus Directorate of Awqaf, the office that manages religious endowments, the men buried in the tomb are Ibn al-Muqaddam and his grandson; the mosque carries the name Talha that local people gave the building.

Where it is and how to find it

The address is the Masjid al-Aqsab quarter of Saruja, on the corner of Al-Umawi Street and Sulayman Niyazi Street. Dahdah Cemetery, which has its own page on this site, is about 80 metres to the west. The Aqsab Mosque and the market lanes of Souq Saruja are within the same short walk. The Awqaf record from 2012 describes the mosque as in use. We found no source from the past year on access; its current state and visiting hours are not verified. Fifteen minutes covers the dome and the mosque.

Don’t miss

The east face of the tomb. The mosque joins the tomb on the north, south and west, so those three faces are now interior walls of the mosque. The east is the only face left free. Its big pointed arch has been glazed, but it still shows most clearly how the 1201 building opened on all four sides.