Tombeau shaykh Murad (736/1336)
Localisation
Dans un cimetière à 2,5km à l’est de la ville, à l’angle des rues Kibbutz Galuyot et Hachmei Lubin.
Bibliographie
Clermont-Ganneau (1896), II, p.152-154 ;
Conder/Kitchener (1882), p.275-278 ; Meinecke (1992), 9C/338 ;
Petersen (2001), n°60 ; Pringle (1993), p.268-269 ; Sharon (2007),
p.113-119 ; Sharon/Schrager (2013), p.139-158
Sharon (2017), p.58-62
Site internet
Inscriptions
Clermont-Ganneau (1896), II, p.154 ; Kay
(1898), p.247 ; Pedersen (1928) ; RCEA 5687 ; Sharon (2007),
p.115-118 ; Sharon (2017), p.58-62 ; Sharon/Schrager (2013),
p.139-158 ; TEI, n°7349, 59950
Historique
L’édifice renferme la tombe du shaykh Murad, un saint local ; c’est un édifice présentant deux salles couvertes chacune par une coupole. Le bâtiment actuel est une restauration.
En 1949, l’archéologue Jacob Ory[1] revisite le site et en fait la description suivante :
« The maqām contains two chambers. It has a domed roof and a small uncovered yard. One of the chambers contains a tomb and in the other one a recent tomb. The entrance to the maqām is through the yard. The height of the walls is 1,5m. At the western wall next to the corner, inserted into the wall is a slab of marble stone 34×60 cm., bearing an Arabic inscription with four lines. It seems to be an epitaph and it is not the Mamlūk inscription mentioned above ».
En 1874, une inscription latine mentionnant un évêque mort en 1258 est découverte près du tombeau (ill.8).[2] Le dos du bloc a été réutilisé pour recevoir une inscription de restauration de l’émir Jâmal al-Dîn xxx, datée 736/1335. Cette inscription, appartenant à la collection Ustinow, est conservée au Musée d’Oslo.[3]
Une autre inscription est retrouvée en 1932, scellée dans la maçonnerie du tombeau[4] ; datée 626/1229 elle mentionne le travail de l’Empereur Frederick II.[5] Ce bloc inscrit est un remploi provenant certainement d’un linteau de porte de la citadelle de Jaffa. Seule une partie de l’inscription a été retrouvée, une partie du texte de l’inscription et une partie reconstituée sont exposés au Musée National (ill.7).
Epigraphie
626/1229. Inscription au nom de l’Empereur Frederick II, 4 lignes (35x56 à l’origine) concernant le mur d’enceinte de la ville, retrouvée enchâssée dans le mur, aujourd’hui au Musée National d’Israël (ill.7).[6]
« [The august Caesar]
Emperor of Rome, Fre[derick, the victorious by (the help of) God, ruler of
Germany and Lombardy, and Calabria and Sicily and the Syrian kingdom of
Jerusalem ; the fortifier of the imam of Rome, the protector of the
Christian community, [in the month of february of the year 1229 of the
incarnation of our lord Jesus Christ… »
736/1336. Texte de construction 7 lignes (37x72) au dos d’un bloc de remploi portant une inscription latine, conservé à la collection Ustinow au Musée d’Oslo.[7]
« Coran IX, 18. (La fondation de) cette
mosquée bénie (a été ordonnée par) xxx l’émir Jamâl al-Dîn xxx à la date de
l’année 736 (1366) ».
Illustrations
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1/ vue du cimetière |
2/ le tombeau depuis l’est |
3/ le tombeau depuis le nord |
4/ le tombeau depuis l’ouest |
5/ l’intérieur depuis le nord |
6/ les 2 coupoles depuis l’est |
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7/ l’inscription au nom de l’Empereur Frederick II
conservée au Musée National d’Israël |
8/ copie de l’inscription latine datée 1258. Au
recto l’inscription de construction datée 736/1336 |
Documents anciens
Clermont-Ganneau (1896), II, p.152-154. Visite entre novembre 1873 et novembre 1874.
Slab from the tomb of a Bishop of the
Crusaders: While exploring the gardens round Jaffa to find the exact position
of the ancient burying-ground, I penetrated as far as the wely
of Sheikh Murad, which lies on the extreme edge of the gardens, in the
north-east corner, about 2500 m. from the town. The Sanctuary is guarded by an
old Mussulman, who told me he had found close to the Kubbeh
a large inscription and bas-relief. The object had been removed by someone
whose name he did not know. Finally, after much searching, I discovered that
this someone was a converted Jew, and found the
stone in question at his house.
Afterwards, in 1881, I again saw the original in the possession of Baron
Ustinoff, who had acquired it meanwhile from its possessor.
This important fragment, for such it
is, consists of a slab of veined white marble, measuring at the present time 0’’70 by 0’’55, and only 0’’05 in thickness. Even this fragment is broken into two
portions, which fit one another exactly.
Here we see, carved in outline, a
full-face representation of a man with shorn beard, with a mitre on his head,
and holding in his left hand the episcopal crozier. It is hard to say, a
priori, whether this is a bishop or an abbot with crozier and mitre, the rule
as to the position of the crozier on the right or left side being far from
absolute in the Middle Ages. The head and
shoulders are surrounded with a
trilobated arcade resting on a small column with a capital. In the right
portion of the arcade there is represented a winged angel, with a nimbus,
carrying incense, which he wafts round the head of the deceased. This bit is
wonderfully life-like. The whole of the drawing is remarkably bold and decided
and recalls at first sight the 13th century style. Evidently, we have here the
remains of one of those flat tombs, sunk to ground level, that were so numerous
at this period. I am much inclined to think that the
slab was not only carved, but inlaid, as the grooves of the letters have
vertical sides, and were probably destined to be filled with a
hard coloured paste. One can further notice
some deep holes on the mitre and the crozier, where
enamel and coloured glass were let in, to imitate precious stones. This slab
must have represented the deceased at full length, but all that is left of it
is the left half of the head as far as the place where the shoulders spring
from. The primitive slab must have been divided into five or six pieces; I
shall endeavour presently to determine the date when
this occurred.
All round the figure of the deceased
there ran a Latin inscription in mediaeval letters, forming a kind of border. This it is possible to restore in part. It commenced
apparently at the left-hand top corner of the slab, then turning downwards it
passed along the right side, the long way of the
stone, and continued along the other two sides till it ended where it started
from.
The following is my reading, the parts
that can be restored with certainty being enclosed in brackets:
« [Anno d(omi)ni millesim]o ducentesimo,
qui (n)quagesimo octavo, in festo
sanctorum ».
In the year of our Lord one thousand
two hundred and fifty-eight, in the day of the feast
of the saints...?
The day mentioned may be, according as the last letter, which is partly obliterated, is read O or C, either the feast of All Saints {Sanctorum
Omnium), that is to say November 1st, or else that
of Saints Cosme and Damian, that is to say September
27. The date of the year is beyond doubt, it is 1258. What high
functionary of the Church can this have been? A bishop, or an abbot with
crozier and mitre? If a bishop, was he Bishop of Jaffa, and was there a
bishopric of Jaffa at the time of the Crusades? Does the stone belong to Jaffa
itself, or was it, as so often happens, transported from some other place on
the coast? I have elsewhere entered into a detailed
discussion of these different points. They are difficult to settle with
precision, and I am not concerned to recur to them now—it would take me too
far—but some day perhaps I will. There is however one peculiarity that I cannot
refrain from mentioning, the stone is opisthographic. The back has subseqently been covered with an Arabic inscription, which
I will merely give here in translation:
« In the name of the forgiving
and merciful God. Of a certainty, he builds (or restores) the mosques of God,
who believes in God, and in the day of resurrection, who prays, who gives alms,
and fears God only; it may be that there will be among those that follow the
right road (Koran, Surat IX, verse 18). The building of this blessed mosque (mesjed) was ordered by the humble Emir and poor before God
most High, Jemal ed Din . . . son of Ishak, on whom may God have mercy. In the
year seven hundred and thirty-six ».
This Arabic inscription is arranged in
such a way on the reverse ot the fragment of
gravestone, as to prove that the original slab was already divided into five or
six pieces in the year 736 of the Hegira, answering to the year 1335-1336 of
our era. It was about this date that a piece of the slab, in shape nearly
square, was cut away and the Arabic inscription engraved on the back. It is
most annoying that we have not the full name of the Emir Jemal ed Din, for this
would enable us the more easily to find mention of him in Arab writers. Then it
would appear if he was Emir of Jaffa or of some other
town on the coast, in which latter
case Jaffa would not have been the first home of the stone of the Crusaders,
and in this roundabout fashion we might perhaps succeed in establishing the
identity of the deceased, who was contemporary with the Crusade of St. Louis.