ABSTRACT
A few days’ march from Samarkand lies the land of Tibet (…) benjamin of Tudela
InTroducTIon: ProFane narraTIVes, sacred sPace
In his famous book Das Heilige und das Profane: Vom Wesen des Religiösen (1954),1 mircea eliade gives to understand – though without any clear demonstration – that the conception of a sacred space is intimately linked to the creation of profane narratives. The religious experience of territory is saturated with signs, symbols, myths and legends which grant meanings to places. hence the sacredness of such and such space is not only marked and named but also, necessarily, narrated. In Islam, the word ḥaram (sanctuary), also the term ḥimā (sacred land), which both come from pre-Islamic arabia, designate the concept of sacred space. Ḥaram is derived from the arabic root ḥrm denoting what is forbidden, not permitted or taboo; it also produces terms like ḥurm (refuge), ḥarām (unlawful, illicit), iḥrām (sanctification ritual during the ḥajj) and so forth. Whereas the Qurʾān contains about eighty occurrences of the root ḥrm, a famous ḥadīth makes a restrictive list of the muslim sacred places, that is mecca (ar. al-masjid al-ḥarām), Jerusalem (al-masjid al-aqṣā) and medina.2 yet, besides the sacred book and the Prophetic sayings, an exceptionally rich literature, hagiographical in particular, provides a much longer list including mosques, shrines and sufi buildings.
