The Hırka-ı Şerif, one of the holy relics of the Prophet Muhammad, is on display at the mosque of the same name located in the historic district of Fatih, within the Istanbul’s city walls, on the occasion of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan which began on Monday. The relic will be open to visitors from Friday 15 March until the end of Ramadan on 9 April, from 10am to 5pm on weekdays and from 9am to 5.30pm on weekends.
The relic has been preserved since 1851 in the Hırka-ı Şerif Mosque, built specifically to house it, and has been preserved by 59 generations of the Al-Qarni family. According to tradition, Uwais al-Qarni was one of the first Muslims and lived in the 7th century at the time of the Prophet Muhammad. Al-Qarni travelled from southern Arabia (in present-day Yemen) to Medina to meet Muhammad in person, but eventually had to return home without being able to see him due to his mother’s illness.
The Prophet Muhammad, impressed by her story, gave his cloak to al-Qarni, who received it in Yemen through his companions. It is said that al-Qarni died 24 years after Muhammad and, having no children, gave the relic to his brother, whose family kept the cloak for generations until they emigrated from southern Arabia to Anatolia, in present-day Turkey. In the 17th century, the Ottoman Sultan Ahmet I asked the Al-Qarni family to bring the relic to Istanbul, where it was kept in a locked box with two keys: one for the sultan, and one for Al-Qarni’s descendants.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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