Maqam (shrine)

A Maqām (مقام) is a shrine built on the site associated with a religious figure or saint, typical to the regions of Palestine and Syria. It is usually a funeral construction, commonly cubic-shaped and topped with a dome. Maqams are associated with Muslim traditions, but many of them are rooted in ancient Semitic, Jewish, Samaritan and Christian traditions. During the 19th century, Claude Reignier Conder described maqams as an essential part of folk religion in Palestine, with locals attaching "more importance to the favour and protection of the village Mukam than to Allah himself, or to Mohammed his prophet".The maqams of Palestine were considered highly significant to the field of biblical archaeology, as their names were used in the 18th and 19th centuries to identify much of biblical geography. From Arabic literally "a place" or "station." It is used to denote a "sanctuary", such as a commemorative burial shrine or an actual tomb. Its meaning can be restricted only to built structures that can be entered at such sites. The literal meaning of maqam is "the place where one stands." Such name for a holy tomb is mostly used in Syria and Palestine. The form Mukam appears in the essays of European travelers of the 19th century; as well as words Waly, Wely (ويلي – tomb of a saint), Mazar (mausoleum), Mashhad. In Maghreb similar tombs are known as Marabout, in Turkic-speaking Muslim countries as Türbe, Dürbe, Aziz and in Iranian-speaking countries – Dargah. Maqams were dedicated to Biblical and Quranic, real or mythical, male and female figures from ancient times to the time of the Arab conquest or even late Ottoman rule. Ali Qleibo, a Palestinian anthropologist, states that this built evidence constitutes "an architectural testimony to Christian/Moslem Palestinian religious sensibility and its roots in ancient Semitic religions." In 1877, the British explorer Claude Reignier Conder wrote that: It is in worship at these shrines that the religion of the peasantry consists.