in Pakpattan (Pakistan), Hajji Bektash and Jalal
al-din rUmi in Turkey, ahmad al-badaWi in Tanta
(Egypt), and Moulay Idris in Morocco. The shrine
of Sunan Giri, also known Raden Paku, a legend-
ary warrior saint who is known for having won
many converts, is one of the major pilgrimage
sites in indonesia.
Although ziyara has become a widely accepted
practice among the Shia, its acceptability as a reli-
gious practice has been debated by Sunni Muslims
for centuries. Many of the Ulama and Sufis have
approved it, or at least said it was permissible.
Those who favored a strict interpretation of the
Quran and the sunna believed that it was a form
of bidaa (innovation) and should be avoided or
forbidden. Critics also say that it is a form of
idolatry (shirk). Among the foremost proponents
of this opinion in the medieval era was Taqi al-Din
ibn taymiyya (d. 1328). His views were revived in
the puritanical reformism of mUhammad ibn abd
al-Wahhab (d. 1792) and the Wahhabi brand of
Islam that swept through the Arabian Peninsula in
the 18th century and then was established as the
reigning Islamic ideology of the Kingdom of saUdi
arabia in the 20th. Wahhabi warriors led a raid in
1801 on Karbala in southern Iraq, killing several
thousand and desecrating the shrine of Husayn. In
1804 they plundered the mosque of Muhammad
in Medina and prevented pilgrims from visiting it.
When they retook Medina in 1925 they destroyed
hundreds of shrines belonging to members of
Muhammad’s family, his Companions, and promi-
nent scholars. Today the only pilgrims allowed
into the country are those who are going for hajj or
umra. Outside of Saudi Arabia, shrine visitation is
opposed by Muslims who have been influenced by
Wahhabi teachings, by reform-minded Muslims,
and by some secularized Muslims who see such
practices as antiquated. Nevertheless, for many
Muslims, visiting the shrines of the holy dead
remains an important part of their religious life.
See also dhikr; intercession; miracle; saint;
wali.Further reading: Anne H. Betteridge, “Muslim Women
and Shrines in Shiraz.” In Everyday Life in the Mus-
lim Middle East. 2d ed., edited by Donna Lee Bowen
and Evelyn A. Early, 276–289 (Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 2002); P. M. Currie, The Shrine and
Cult of Muin al-Din Chishti of Ajmer (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2007); Muhammad Umar Memon,
Ibn Taymiya’s Struggle against Popular Religion (The
Hague: Mouton, 1976); Yitzhak Nakash, The Shiis of
Iraq (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994),
163–184; Christopher S. Taylor, In the Vicinity of the
Righteous: Ziyara and the Veneration of Muslim Saints in
Late Medieval Egypt (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1999).zuhd See asceticism.
K 724 zuhd