wanting who declare, that after Yazid’s death the head was found in his
treasury, and was shrouded and buried at Damascus. Such is the
uncertainty which hangs over the early history of Al-Islam[.]
[FN#28] The names of the fifth and sixth Imams, Mohammed al-Bakia and
Ja’afar al-Sadik, were omitted by Hamid, as doubtful whether they are
really buried here or not.
[FN#29] Moslem historians seem to delight in the obscurity which hangs
over the lady’s last resting-place, as if it were an honour even for the
receptacle of her ashes to be concealed from the eyes of men. Some
place her in the Harim, relying upon this tradition: “Fatimah, feeling
about to die, rose up joyfully, performed the greater ablution, dressed
herself in pure garments, spread a mat upon the floor of her house near
the Prophet’s Tomb, lay down fronting the Kiblah, placed her hand under
her cheek, and said to her attendant, “I am pure and in a pure dress; now
let no one uncover my body, but bury me where I lie!” When Ali returned
he found his wife dead, and complied with her last wishes. Omar bin Abd
al-Aziz believed this tradition, when he included the room in the
Mosque; and generally in Al-Islam Fatimah is supposed to be buried in
the Harim. Those who suppose the Prophet’s daughter to be buried in
Al-Bakia rely upon a saying of the Imam Hasan, “If men will not allow me
to sleep beside my grandsire, place me in Al-Bakia, by my mother.” They
give the following account of his death and burial. His body was bathed
and shrouded by Ali and Omar Salmah. Others say that Asma Bint Umays,
the wife of Abu Bakr, was present with Fatimah, who at her last hour
complained of being carried out, as was the custom of those days, to
burial like a man. Asma promised to make her a covered bier, like a
bride’s litter, of palm sticks, in shape like what she had seen in
Abyssinia: whereupon Fatimah smiled for the first time after her father’s
death, and exacted from her a promise to allow no one entrance as long
as her corpse was in the house. Ayishah, shortly afterwards knocking at