Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
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In active religious use

This page groups sacred sites by whether their sacred status is still actively maintained. Wikipedia notes that Mircea Eliade "argues that while the concept of a sacred space is often associated with religious traditions, it is not exclusive to them," since secular societies can keep treating a place as significant too. Browsing this way lets a visitor tell a site with living religious observance apart from one preserved mainly for its history.

Facts
Overview
What Defines This Grouping
The three sanctuaries at the centre of Islamic sacred geography, with congregational and teaching mosques and the shrines of prophets and holy figures. Whether a shrine may be venerated at all is disputed within Islam, and some places here have been damaged by movements that reject it; the atlas records both without settling it. The Jerusalem compound is under contested control. 2
Size of the Traditional Set
Three: the sanctuaries toward which travel is enjoined in the hadith of the three mosques - the Sacred Mosque at Mecca, the Prophet's Mosque at Medina and the al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem. 2
Directory
Category
Sacred Sites 1
Learn More
The Holy Places of Islam

This group holds the sacred sites of Islam. Its sacred geography is anchored by the three holiest places, the Sacred Mosque at Mecca with the Kaaba, toward which Muslims pray and to which they make the Hajj; the Prophet's Mosque at Medina; and the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem, and extends to the great mosques and the shrines of prophets and holy figures.

The browser will find these central sanctuaries alongside other mosques and revered sites. The entries describe each place's religious significance and history, noting where veneration differs between Sunni and Shia traditions.

In active religious use
Filter Results27 entries

Ajmer Sharif

In active religious use

Al-Azhar

In active religious use

Bahauddin Naqshband Shrine Complex

In active religious use

Data Darbar

In active religious use

Great Mosque of Djenne

In active religious use

Gur-e Amir

In active religious use

Harar Jugol

In active religious use

Islamic Center of Washington

In active religious use

Khoja Ahmed Yasawi Mausoleum

In active religious use

Masjid al-Haram and the Kaaba

In active religious use

Medina

In active religious use

Mount Hira

In active religious use

Niujie Mosque

In active religious use

Nizamuddin Dargah

In active religious use

Quba Mosque

In active religious use

Shah-i-Zinda

In active religious use

Shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar

In active religious use

The Djinguereber Mosque and the Timbuktu Manuscripts

In active religious use

The Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque

In active religious use

The Great Mosque of Kairouan

In active religious use

The Mezquita of Córdoba

In active religious use

The Prophet's Mosque and Jannat al-Baqi

In active religious use

The Shrine of Sidi Bou Said

In active religious use

The Süleymaniye Mosque

In active religious use

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque

In active religious use

The Tomb of Rumi

In active religious use

The Umayyad Mosque

In active religious use
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. The Hajj: The Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca and the Holy Places
F. E. Peters, Princeton University Press, 1994View the Source
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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