MUSLIMS: THE COMMUNITYbe recited over him there.^112 Ibriihim an-Nakha'i's request that there
be no illumination at his funeral caused his friends to bury him fearfully
at night in a dark cemetery.113
When the procession reached the cemetery, the body was placed in
a grave, which was usually shored up with baked or unbaked brick
or WOOd,114 with the dead person's mattress at the foot. The outer
clothing was then removed from the corpse and placed at the foot
with the mattress (this was done with both men and women), revealing
the scented powder which had been placed on the shroud, and finally
the perfume basket was removed.ns After the grave had been refilled,
a white cloth or garment was placed over it to mark it.^116 Again, the
objections to certain practices provide some of the best evidence of
their prevalence as well as of the resistance to their adoption. The
burial instructions of Suwayd ibn Ghafala (d. 700-701) at Kufa were,
"When I die let no one announce it, bring no plaster, baked brick or
wood near my grave, let no women escort me, and enshroud me in
nothing but my own clothing."117 Neither al-Aswad ibn Yazid (d. 694)
nor Ibriihim an-Nakha'i (d. 715) wanted brick in their graves,118 and
ShuraYQ wanted no garment to mark his grave.n^9 It must be noted,
however, that to the extent that resistance to these practices was gen-
erated by attitudes of piety, the Muslim Arabs whose objections are
recorded were merely adopting the position of the local Christian
ascetics.
After the interment the funeral party usually returned to the house
of the deceased for the funeral feast. Since the funeral feast was also
an Arab custom, local Iraqi and traditional Arab practices reinforced
each other. The only example in this regard that needs to be mentioned
is 'Imriin ibn al-I:Iu~ayn, who died at Basra in 672, whose instructions
were, "When I die, fasten my bed to me with a turban and when you
return, slaughter and eat."120
Muslims were buried more or less in the way people had been buried
in Iraq for millenia. The body was prepared, provided with spices,
112 Ibid., VI, 98-99.
113 Ibid., VI, 198.
114 Ibid., VI, 46, 50, 198; VII(l), 84.
lIS Ibid., VI, 117.
116 Ibid., VII(l), 101.
117 Ibid., VI, 46.
118 Ibid., VI, 50, 198
119 Ibid., VI, 99.
120 Ibid., VII(l), 6.