Dayr al-Jamajim
دير الجماجم
Monastery near Kufa; in al-Baladhuri — per al-Sharqi ibn al-Qatami — Iyad fought Bahra' ibn Amr ibn al-Haf of Quda'a and Banu al-Qayn ibn Jassr, many of Iyad falling; they buried their slain by the monastery, and later diggers kept turning up skulls, hence 'the Monastery of Skulls' — while Muhammad ibn al-Sa'ib al-Kalbi holds Malik al-Rammah ibn Mukhriz al-Iyadi killed Persians and set their skulls by it.
At a glance
- Era
- The Rashidun Caliphate
- Region
- Levant & Iraq
- Review
- Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it
Overview
A monastery in the districts of Kufa. al-Baladhuri reports, on the authority of al-Sharqi ibn al-Qatami, that a battle took place between Iyad and Banu Bahra' and Banu al-Qayn, in which a great number of Iyad were killed, and they buried them by the monastery. Afterwards people used to dig and bring out skulls, so it was called the Monastery of the Skulls. Muhammad ibn al-Sa'ib al-Kalbi gives another explanation: that Malik al-Rimah al-Iyadi killed a group of Persians and set up their skulls by the monastery. 1
Sources
- Futuh al-Buldan — al-Baladhuri (Mu'assasat al-Ma'arif edition), p.398
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Dayr al-Jamajim”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/place/dayr-al-jamajim/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-17.