The Imam Dur Mausoleum or Qubba Imam Al-Dur () was a

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type o ...

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

which dates back to the Uqaylid era. The mausoleum was located 20 kilometers north of

Samarra Samarra (, ') is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Saladin Governorate, north of Baghdad. The modern city of Samarra was founded in 836 by the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tasim as a new administrative capital and mi ...

Saladin Governorate The Saladin, Salah ad Din, or Salah Al-Din Governorate (, ) is one of Iraq's 19 governorates, north of Baghdad. It has an area of , with an estimated population of 1,042,200 people in 2003. It is made up of 8 districts, with the capital being T ...

History

The mausoleum dates back to the 11th century, and was first administered by the

Seljuk Seljuk (, ''Selcuk'') or Saljuq (, ''Saljūq'') may refer to: * Seljuk Empire (1051–1153), a medieval empire in the Middle East and central Asia * Seljuk dynasty (c. 950–1307), the ruling dynasty of the Seljuk Empire and subsequent polities * S ...

court, which was mainly a

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam is the largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any Succession to Muhammad, successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr ...

ic institution. The architect of the mausoleum was Abu Shakir ibn Abi al-Faraj. The building was among the many works that the chamberlain, Abu Jafar Muhammad, ordered to be completed. The construction of the mausoleum was eventually completed before 1094. The mausoleum was the earliest datable example of a building that used a

muqarnas Muqarnas (), also known in Iberian architecture as Mocárabe (from ), is a form of three-dimensional decoration in Islamic architecture in which rows or tiers of niche-like elements are projected over others below. It is an archetypal form of I ...

dome. The legal caretaker, or mutawalli, of the mausoleum was

Qadi A qadi (; ) is the magistrate or judge of a Sharia court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and minors, and supervision and auditing of public works. History The term '' was in use from ...

Mu'nis ibn Hamdan, who was succeeded in this role by Hasan ibn Rafi. At some point of time, a mosque was built next to the mausoleum, but only the mausoleum was present in photographs by travelers in the 20th century.

Architecture

The site of the Imam Dur Mausoleum is a walled enclosure. The mausoleum building is a cube-shaped structure topped with a

dome. The base of the muqarnas dome was a tall cube bolstered by pillars, one in each corner, that were made of baked brick.

Banna'i In Iranian architecture, banna'i (, "builder's technique" in Persian) is an architectural decorative art in which glazed tiles are alternated with plain bricks to create geometric patterns over the surface of a wall or to spell out sacred names ...

brickwork adorned each pillar and a band at the top of the base. Surmounting the cube was the muqarnas dome resting on a tall, octagonal drum. The shell of the dome consisted of three increasingly narrower octagonal drums, each rotated slightly to form a spiral effect. At the top of each drum was a dome-shaped cupola. The tomb chamber is entered through a door on the North side of the building. Inside, it features

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

ornamentation, which includes rows of blind lobed arches. The inner part of the muqarnas dome's highest cupola is decorated with fluting.

Imam Dur's identity

The identity of the entombed person is disputed. An inscription on the exterior of the mausoleum states that the building is a turba, or tomb, of Abu 'Abd-Allah Muhammad Al-Durri, a senior scholar of

Ad-Dawr Ad-Dawr () is a small agricultural town in Saladin Governorate, Iraq, near Tikrit. It includes a great number of people from four tribes, al-Shuwaykhat, al-Mawashet, al-Bu Haydar and al-Bu Mdallal. Al-Mawashet tribe is famous for supporting Saddam ...

and the son of the seventh

Shia Imam In Shia Islam, the Imamah () is a doctrine which asserts that certain individuals from the lineage of the Islamic prophet Muhammad are to be accepted as leaders and guides of the ummah after the death of Muhammad. Imamah further says that Imam ...

Musa Al-Kadhim Musa al-Kazim (; 745–799) was a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the seventh imam in Twelver Shia Islam. Musa is often known by the title al-Kazim (), apparently a reference to his patience and gentle disposition. He was born ...

. He was buried in 838. Another inscription states that the entombed is the

Uqaylid The Uqaylid dynasty () was a Shia Arab dynasty with several lines that ruled in various parts of Al-Jazira, northern Syria and Iraq in the late tenth and eleventh centuries. The main line, centered in Mosul, ruled from 990 to 1096. History Ris ...

amir, Sharaf al-Dawla Muslim ibn Quraysh who died in 1085.

2014 demolition

The Imam Dur Mausoleum was detonated by the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signi ...

on 23 October 2014. As of 2016, a reconstruction is taking place.

References

{{coord missing, Iraq Buildings and structures demolished in 2014 Mausoleums in Iraq Mosques in Iraq 11th-century mosques