Northwest of the Great Mosque ... opposite the entrance of the Ẓāhirīyyā (1). The first to build it was Nūr ad-Dīn Maḥmūd b. Zengī, the Martyr, but he died before it was finished. Thus it remained; later, al-malik al-ʿĀdil Sayf ad-Dīn abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Ayyūb, brother of Saladin, erected part of it .... He died on Ǧumādā II, 7, 615 (2) . . . . and was buried in the ʿĀdilīyyā. His son al-malik al-Muʿaẓẓam ʿIsā finished it and endowed it with waqfs. In 619, he buried his father there and called it after the name of this prince (3). . . The turbā was finished only in 620 (4).
Every word of the literary tradition is confirmed by the state of the building. It has no inscriptions, although the framed panels are prepared to receive them. As in many other instances, this indicates that the founder died before its completion. One may call that a rule.
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1. A description sufficient for identifying the building, which itself has no inscriptions.
2. August 31, 1218.
3. Henri Sauvaire, Description de Damas p. 423.
4. Ibid p. 485 n. 251.
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Ernst Herzfeld. Damascus, Studies in Architecture I. Ars islamica v. 9, University of Michigan Press, 1942.
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