Turbat abī ʿAbdalla al-Ḥasan ibn Salāmā: Inscription

 

The inscription is carved in small letters on a tabula ansata on the lintel of the window, on the street side.

١-٢. بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ. كُلُّ مَنْ عَلَيْهَا فَانٍۢ. وَيَبْقَىٰ وَجْهُ رَبِّكَ ذُو ٱلْجَلَـٰلِ وَٱلْإِكْرَامِ. هذه تربة العبد الفقير الغريب الراجي

۳. رحمةَ ربِّهِ أبو عبد الله الحسن ابن سلامة الرقّي توفّي شهر المحرّم

٤. سنة عشر وستّمائة رَحِمَهُ اللهُ تعالى وبعدَهُ ولديهِ عليهما رحمة الله

٥. جدَّدَهُ العبدُ الفقير الراجي الرحمة من المولى المودود الحاجّ أحمد مسعود

1-2 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 Honour, will remain ˹forever˺. This is the turbā of the humble slave, the exiled, the one that longs for

3. the mercy of his Lord, ʾabū ʿAbdallah al-Ḥasan, son of Salāmā al-Raqqī; he passed away in Muḥarram

4. 610—Allah be merciful upon him!—and after him his two sons—Allahʾs mercy upon both!— 

5. The humble slave who desires the mercy from the Lord the Beloved, the pilgrim ʾAḥmad Masʿūd has built it anew.

The last line rhymes: mawdūd—masʿūd, but the term mawdūd is chosen not only for rhymeʾs sake, but also to indicate the Ṣūfism of the writer, who took care of the construction when death took away the two sons with their father. Ṣūfism flourished under Nūr ad-Dīn and the ʾAyyūbids in Syria. The names aṣ-Ṣāliḥīyyā at Damascus and aṣ-Ṣāliḥīn at Aleppo mean settlements of Ṣūfis. Šayẖ Ḥasan is called Riqqī from ar-Raqqā; he was a ġarīb, i.e., stranger, as wandering Ṣūfis called themselves. 

The building is a perfect example of its type, built just after 610 AH (1213-1214 CE). 

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