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Baalbek

بعلبك

City in Damascus's Sanir district holding the temple of Baal — the Baal of the Qur'anic verse — its two mighty shrines of carved stone between Lebanon and Sanir mountains unmatched even in wood-carving for their columns and vaults 1.

Depth

At a glance

Region
Levant & Iraq
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

Overview

Baalbek: a city among the districts of Damascus, in the province of Sanir. al-Mas'udi reports that in it is the house of Ba'l, the idol mentioned in the Qur'an. 2

The temple

al-Mas'udi reports that the Greeks chose for this temple a piece of land between Mount Lebanon and Mount Sanir, and made it a place for idols. There are two great buildings, one older than the other. In them are wonderful carvings cut in the stone, together with the height of their structure, the greatness of their stones and the length of their columns. 2

In the books of antiquities

Ibn Fadl Allah al-Umari counted "the playground of Baalbek" among the famous monuments, from the remains of the buildings of the ancients in al-Sham. 3

Connections

Explore the connections

Home of
Abdallah al-Yunini· al-Shaykh Sultan al-Ba'labakki
Burial place of
Abdallah al-Yunini· Shaykh al-Islam al-Yunini
Birthplace of
al-Fakhr al-Ba'labakki· Amin al-Dawla al-Samiri
Place of death of
Ibn Sana' al-Dawla· Shaykh al-Islam al-Yunini· Muhammad b. Abdallah al-Yunini
Site of
the Jazīra raid — Kumayl's counterattack and Shabīb's pursuit to Baʿlabakk (39 AH)

People and things also explored

Abdallah al-Yunini· Shaykh al-Islam al-Yunini· Damascus· al-Fakhr al-Ba'labakki· Muhammad b. Abdallah al-Yunini· al-Shaykh Sultan al-Ba'labakki· Ali ibn Abi Talib· Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri

Sources

  1. Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi , p. 554-555
  2. Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi , p.554
  3. Masalik al-absar fi mamalik al-amsar — al-Umari (1924 printing) , p.231
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Baalbek”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/place/baalbek/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-16.

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Abdallah al-Yunini

Abu Uthman Abdallah ibn Abd al-Aziz ibn Jafar al-Yunini, the great ascetic, 'Lion of Syria', from the village of Yunin among the villages of Baalbek. He was an awe-inspiring, tall shaykh of intense spiritual state, complete in courage, who enjoined right and forbade wrong, was often in jihad and constant in the remembrance of God, without equal, a man of ascetic striving and marvels. The prince Amjad, lord of Baalbek, used to visit him, and the shaykh would rebuke him: 'O Amjad, you are oppressing.' It was said his bow weighed eighty ratls, and he never missed a campaign in Syria. When he came to Homs for the campaigns, al-Malik al-Mujahid Asad al-Din gave him a horse; he rode into the enemy and performed wonders. He never rose for anyone out of reverence for God, stored up nothing, never touched a dinar or a dirham with his hand, and wore only undyed cloth and a sheepskin cap. He died in the year 617, on a Saturday after the Friday prayer, asleep with the prayer beads in his hand, past eighty; his tomb is visited in Baalbek.