Al-Sarif
Al-Sarif
A place on the Madinah–Makkah road, some ten miles northwest of Makkah, between Marr al-Zahran and the Haram. The Prophet married Maymuna here in the Umra of 7 AH; she died here in 51 AH and was buried where she had asked.
Plan your visit
Practical information verified separately from the historical record.
Before you go: Check with the operator or a local guide before departure; field access details have not yet been verified.
Why visit?
Ties a road-stage to a marriage and a willed burial, and keeps Saraf distinct from Marr and Tan'im.
Al-Saraf — Yaqut’s vowelling — is a manzil between Makkah and Marr al-Zahran, about ten miles from Makkah, before al-Tan'im on the Madinah road. It is not the whole of Wadi Fatimah, and not al-Jumum.
In the Umra of 7 AH the Prophet married Maymuna bint al-Harith al-Hilaliyya here, maternal aunt of Abd Allah ibn Abbas. She died in 51 AH after Hajj, asking to be buried where she had been married. Yazid ibn al-Asamm: we buried her at Saraf in the shelter where the Messenger had married her; she had shaved for Hajj. Ibn Abbas, her nephew, prayed over her.
The card is the place, not a dome to be touched. The burial is a hadith–sira notice. The earlier image in this record is generic Najd, not Saraf. Maltese tombstones that share a name were not used.