Tomb of Saladin

 

Saladin died 27 Safar 589 AH (March 4, 1193 CE) in the Citadel of Damascus, and his body was transferred on ʿĀšūrāʾ day, 10 Muharram 592 (December 15, 1195), to his turba, which his son malik al-ʿAzīz ʿUṯmān (of Egypt, 1193 - 1198) had founded as Madrasa al-ʿAzīzīya, in the Kalläsa quarter, adjacent to the exterior north wall of the Great Mosque. The turba was “in an iwän in the western part” of that madrasa, the foundation of which had been laid by his son, al-malik alʾAfḍal (of Damascus, 1193 - 1196). The door of the old Madrasa al-ʿAzīzīya existed at the time of Bourgoin. On the cenotaph of Saladin was an inscription in verses, composed by his qāḍi al-Fāḍil and read by ibn H̱allikān in Ramaḍān 680 (December 1281 - January 1282 CE):

"اللهمّ فارض عن تلك الروح وافتح له أبواب الجنّة فهي آخر ما كان يرجوه من الفتوح"

"O Allah, be satisfied with this soul and open  to him the gates of paradise! That is the last conquest for which he hoped!"

Porter, who deemed the mausoleum, along with Baybars tomb and at-Tikīya as-Sulaymāniya, "the only building deserving of particular notice" in Damascus, besides the ʾUmayyād Mosque, was unable to access the edifice. 

Ernst Herzfeld. Damascus: Studies in Architecture III

Photo Stironi.