Zāwīyat aš-Šayẖ ʿAlī al-Farīṯī

 

The name is differently spelled in the chronicles; Sauvaire and Sauvaget render it al-Faranṯī. Van Berchem left the reading open. I thought at first that the proper pronunciation is al-Qarnabī and asked Nabīh Fāris, who found the name, expressly spelled in al-Yāfiʿī's Mirʾāt al-Ǧinān: “ʾabu al-Ḥasan ʿAlī, known as al-Fārīṯī.” Farīṯ is mentioned by Yāqūt as a village belonging to Wāsiṭ, Iraq.

ʿAlī al-Farīṯī, a virtuous man, gifted with great power, a miracle worker, addicted to spiritual exercises, and living as a hermit. He had disciples and murīd, novices, and owned a zāwiyā on the slope of  Qāsiyūn. He died in Ǧumādā II 621 (June-July 1224 CE) and was buried on the slope of Qāsiyūn. They have built a turbā over his tomb. (al-Ḏahabī). 

H̱adīǧā H̱ātūn, daughter of al-malik al-Muʿaẓẓam . . . died in 650 (1252-1253 CE); she was buried in the turbā, which she had built next to that of aš-Šayẖ ʿAlī al-Farīṯī, on the ǧabal (ibn ʿAsākir).

The madrasā of H̱adīǧā H̱ātūn, al-Muršidīyyā, is contiguous to the tomb of al-Farīṯī from the east. ʿAli al-Farīṯī, with his murīdīn, was a muršid, one who is entitled to initiate novices into the order; thus, his turbā has more claim to be called al-Muršidīyyā than that of H̱adīǧā H̱ātūn.

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