| Popis: |
A key aspect of al-Qarāfa, the Muslim inhabitated cemetery in Cairo is the devotion to seven ancient sacred tombs and its relative pilgrimage. The Cairene graveyard was renowned for the local and interregional pilgrimages because of its high concentration of awliyā’s graves (literally friends of God), as holders of baraka, the divine grace. In particular, in the XIII century the famous circuit of the Seven tombs was formalized by the shaykh al- Fārsī who, according to the scholar El Kadi, also called it “pilgrimage of the seven sleepers”. Hence the multitude of Muslim pilgrims who spent the night on the holy spot without taking into account the social code about the separation between sexes. Nowadays some mausoleums of the circuit have disappeared and local people have no memories of them, whereas the most renowned holy men’ tombs are still venerated by a large crowd of devotees, even if the nightly practice of incubation is missing. The author, in considering the scholars’ studies on this issue, explores the current veneration and the contemporary pilgrims’ pattern of habits, comparing it with the Medieval ones. |
