SHAFAQNA- Usually, in the spiritual journey of Karbala, most pilgrims only visit the shrine of Imam Hussain (AS) and Hazrat Abbas (AS). Meanwhile, beside the shrines of these nobles, there exists people and places that are often neglected.
The Palm of Maryam
On the south wall above and approximately two meters to the holy shrine, there was an altar called Nakhl Maryam. This altar was a sign of the place of the palm tree where Lady Maryam (S.A) was staying during the birth of Jesus (A.S). The same remote place that the Holy Quran mentions in verses 22-25 of Surah Maryam:
So [Mary] conceived him [Jesus] and took refuge with him in a remote place. Until the labor pains dragged her to the trunk of a palm tree. “I wish I had died before and been completely forgotten,” She said. So, from below [her] he [the angel] called to her not to grieve; Your Lord has created a spring beneath you, take the trunk of a date-palm towards you, and shake it so that fresh dates may fall upon you.
This place was an altar with marble stones and had two columns about half a meter long, in the middle and at the top of the two pillars was a round, reddish-black marble with a verse from the Quran written on it. According to a report, this black stone was found in the excavations of the shrine, although people believed that this stone came to this place with occult help, without human intervention.
In some of narrative texts, it is mentioned that Maryam left Damascus and came to Karbala and gave birth to Jesus at the place of martyrdom of Imam Hussain (A.S). The Altar of the Palm of Maryam was built by the order of the Sultan Oveys Jalayri and was destroyed by Tahir Qaisi in 1987 (1946).
Read more from SHAFAQNA:
Places of pilgrimage in Karbala: Porch of Ibrahim Mujab