Jannat al-Baqīʿ

Jannat al-Baqīʿ—often called simply al-Baqīʿ or Baqīʿ al-Gharqad, after the boxthorn (gharqad) that once grew there—is the principal cemetery of al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah, lying immediately to the south-east of the Prophet's Mosque (al-Masjid al-Nabawī). The word baqīʿ denotes a level, open ground with trees, and jannah (garden) was joined to it in honour of its sanctity. As the burial place of a great number of the companions (saḥābah), of members of the household of the Prophet ﷺ (Ahl al-Bayt), and of the scholars and pious of Madīnah across the centuries, al-Baqīʿ holds a place of singular importance in the sacred geography of the sīrah and in the devotional memory of the Muslim community.