Hala Sultan Tekke

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Hala Sultan Tekke or the Mosque of Umm Haram is a very prominent Muslim shrine near Larnaca, on the island of Cyprus. Umm Haram (Hala Sultan is the Turkish language name) was the Islamic prophet Muhammad’s ‘wet-nurse’ and the wife of Ubada bin al-Samid. Most accounts^{[weasel words]} establish a connection between the site and the death of Umm Haram during the first Arab raids on Cyprus under the Caliph Muawiyah between 647 and 649, which were later pursued throughout the Umayyad and the Abbasid periods. According to these accounts, Umm Haram, being of very old age, had fallen from her mule and had died during a siege of Larnaca. She was buried near the salt lake and her grave became a sacred shrine. The shrine, and later the mosque and the whole complex was named after her.

In Ottoman times, a mosque complex was built in stages around the tomb, especially as of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The shrine structure was first erected by Sheikh Hassan in 1760. Later the mosque was constructed and the complex assumed its present form around 1816/17. Hala Sultan Tekke complex is composed of a mosque, mausoleum, minaret, cemetery, and living quarters for men and women. The term tekke (convent) applies to a building designed specifically for gatherings of a Sufi brotherhood, or tariqa, and may have referred to an earlier feature of the location. The present-day complex, open to all and not belonging to a single religious movement, lies in a serene setting on the shores of the Larnaca Salt Lake, which appears to be an important site also in prehistory (see below). Hala Sultan Tekke is a listed Ancient Monument.

Contents 1 Description of the Tekke 2 Holy status in Islam 3 The site in prehistory 4 See also 5 References

[edit] Description of the Tekke

Most available accounts on Hala Sultan Tekke date from recent times, when the complex was built. Some of the foreign travellers who visited Cyprus refer to the pre-existing tomb as the "old woman’s tomb". Both Muslims and Christians considered the tomb as a sacred place. Therefore it attracted the faithful from both religions.

The same accounts relate that the tomb was discovered in the 18th century by the dervish called Sheikh Hasan, who also built the first structure here. It is highly probable that Sheikh Hasan travelled around Cyprus and spread the word about Umm Haram, attracting visitors who soon attributed legends to the site. Dervish Hasan managed to convince the administrative and religious authorities of the site’s sacred nature and with the permission he received, he built the shrine around the tomb in 1760 and had it decorated. The wooden fences around the tomb would have been built by the 19th century Ottoman governor in Cyprus, Seyyid Elhac Mehmed Agha, which were replaced by fences in bronze and two doors by his successor Acem Ali Agha.

In another account, Giovanni Mariti, who visited Cyprus between 1760-1767, wrote that the shrine was built by the Cyprus governor he names as Ali Agha. According to Mariti, until 1760 they used the stones of a standing church in a ruined village nearby as construction materials. In another source, it is mentioned that the construction of the mosque was initiated by the Cyprus governor Seyyid Mehmed Emin Efendi in classical Ottoman style, and it was completed in November 1817.

Above the entry gate to Tekke garden is an Ottoman inscription dated 4 March 1813. Sultan Mahmud II’s monogram appears on both sides of the inscription and reads, "Hala Sultan Tekke was built by God’s beloved great Ottoman Cyprus governor". The garden itself was designed by a pasha and came to be known as "Pasha garden". The complex of buildings adjacent to the Tekke was known as "Gülşen-Feyz" (the rose garden of plenitude or of enlightenment). To the north (left) of the entrance there used to be a guesthouse for men. On the right side of the entrance, there was another guesthouse of which one block was reserved for men (Selamlik) and the other for women (Haremlik). It was a custom for visitors to take the oath of dedication to serve the Hala Sultan Tekke if their wishes were realized. The domed mosque is square-shaped with a balcony and was built in yellow stone blocks. The minaret was repaired in 1959.

Umm Haram’s tomb is located behind the mosque wall of the qibla (in the direction of Mecca). A further inscription dated 1760 is found here. Aside her, there are four other tombs, two of them former sheikhs. Another important tomb is a two-leveled marble sarcophagus, carrying the date 12 July 1929. The tomb belongs to Adile Hüseyin Ali, who was the Turkish wife of the Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca of the Hashemite House, himself a grandson of the Ottoman grand vizier Koca Mustafa Reşid Pasha and a descendant of Muhammad. At the eastern corner of the mosque and the Tekke, there is a cemetery, which was closed to burials at around 1899. A number of past Turkish administrators are buried here.

Opposite to the mosque, there is an octagonal fountain, which was built around 1796-1797 by the then governor of Cyprus Silahtar Kaptanbaşı Mustafa Agha. The information on the construction is recorded on the marble inscription located on the fountain. On another inscription dated 1895, which was recently discovered in the Tekke’s garden, it is written that the infrastructure for bringing in the water was built upon the instructions of the Sultan Abdülhamid II.

[edit] Holy status in Islam

There are varying expressions and rankings cited by contemporary sources for describing the site's status of holiness.

The mosque was described by the United Nations Development Programme in Cyprus as Islam’s third holiest site, after the Kaaba in Mecca and the Mosque of the Prophet in Medina. ^[1] In an assessment of the environmental and cultural assets of Cyprus, Professor George E. Bowen, a senior Fullbright scholar at the University of Tennessee, is also quoted as referring to the Hala Sultan Tekke as the third holiest place for Muslims in the world.^[2] A number of other sources also refer to Hala Sultan Tekke as Islam's third-holiest site.^{[3] [4] [5]}

"It is the main Muslim pilgrimage site of Cyprus and the third most important holy place of Islam" is also the definition published by Cypriot administration's Department of Antiquities.^[6]

Other sources state that the site is the most important one for Cypriot Muslims.^[7]

According to the United Nations Peace Keeping force in Cyprus, Hala Sultan Tekke is not just the holiest Muslim shrine in Cyprus, it is one of the holiest shrines in the Islamic world, after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.^[8]

In Ottoman times, as aside above mentioned interventions at imperial level and by high-ranking administrators for the maintenance and the development of the complex, Ottoman-flagged ships also used to hang their flags at half mast when off the shores of Larnaca, and salute Hala Sultan with cannon shots ^[9].

[edit] The site in prehistory

During the second half of the second millennium B.C, the area of the Hala Sultan Tekke was used as a cemetery by the people who lived in a large town a few hundred metres to the West. A part of this town was excavated by a Swedish archaeological mission and proved to be a major urban centre of Late Bronze Age Cyprus. More recent archaeological investigations conducted by the Department of Antiquities under the women’s quarter of Hala Sultan Tekke have revealed building remains dated to the late Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods (6th - 1st c. B.C). Several finds indicate that the site might have been used as a sanctuary but the limited scale of the investigations precludes definite conclusions about its use.

[edit] See also

• Holiest sites in Islam

[edit] References