Turbat Sitt aš-Šām aṣ-Ṣuġrā

 

The Turbā of “the Lesser Sitt aš-Šām” is located in the quarter of Sūq Sārūǧā, a short distance west of the “Greater Sitt aš-Šām.” 

Foundation Inscription

A slab, 53 by 65 cm., set into the wall over the pointed arch of the small door, with seven lines of old Nasẖī:

بِسۡمِ اللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

كُلُّ مَنْ عَلَيْهَا فَانٍۢ وَيَبْقَىٰ 

وَجْهُ رَبِّكَ ذُو ٱلْجَلَـٰلِ وَٱلْإِكْرَامِ

هذا ما بَنَتْهُ والدة الأمير الشابّ 

العزيب الشهيد علا الدين بن الأمير 

زين الدين رحمهما الله في ذي

الحجّة سنة ثمان وستّين وخمس مائة

In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Every being on earth is bound to perish. Only your Lord Himself, full of majesty and honor, will remain ˹forever˺. This is what the mother of the emir, the young bachelor, killed in the Holy War, ʿAlāʾ ad-Dīn bin al amīr Zayn ad-Dīn—Allahʾs mercy upon both! —  has built. In Ḏu al-Ḥiǧǧā 568 (July-August, 1173).

Zayn ad-Dīn was the honorific of ʿAlī Kuǧik bin Baktakīn, governor of Mosul under Zengī and later lord of Sinǧār, Ḥarrān, Takrīt, and Irbil. At his death in 563, his sons succeeded him: Nūr ad-Dīn Yūsuf at Irbil and Muẓaffar ad-Dīn Gōkbūrī first at Ḥarrān and, after 586, at Irbil. Gōkbūrī married Rabīʿā H̱ātūn, sister of Saladin and Sitt aš-Šām. He founded the “Great Mosque of the Mountain,” Ǧāmiʿ al-Ḥanābilā, in aṣ-Ṣāliḥīyyā. The Zayn ad-Dīn of this inscription is probably the father of Gōkbūrī, the Begtekinid (Baktakīnid) ʿAlī (who died only five years before his son, hence “Allahʾs mercy upon both!”), and the turbā was built by his wife for a young son killed in war.

Ernst Herzfeld. Damascus, Studies in Architecture III. Ars Islamica XI-XII 1946 (p. 1-71).