death and burial practices: The Islamic World 289 With the rise of Hadith literature, or literature relating to traditions established by Muhammad, in the two centuries after the Prophet’s death (in 632 c.e.) new sacred canonical texts emerged introducing a legal system of practices and doctrines to the Muslim community Hadith literature played a central role in determining how Islamic jurists ought to conduct various forms of funerary rites in order to treat the dead in a religiously appropriate manner Based on this literature, precise religious rulings, called fiqh, were carried out by diverse medieval Muslim communities, highlighting shared patterns of funeral practices Central to the Koranic concept of resurrection is the belief that the decomposed, scattered corpses of the deceased will be recomposed for the Day of Judgment The ritual treatment of the corpse, accordingly, has played a significant role in Islamic history, especially in the medieval period As with birth and marriage, medieval Muslims held diverse attitudes toward death, such that various practices were employed in the treatment of the corpse Nevertheless, in accord with overarching Islamic theology and practices, Shia and Sunni communities alike have shared certain funerary customs Also, Islamic death ceremonies share many features with Christian and Jewish ceremonies, as the ritual of earth burial plays a predominant role in the funerary proceedings of the three religions Medieval Muslim funerary rites usually involved the three stages of preburial, burial, and postburial proceedings For deceased males, in the preburial stage, bereaved women of the family and community would wail, and senior male family members of the deceased—or hired hands—would wash the corpse three times, in order to protect it from earthly contamination In the case of a deceased female, usually the senior female members of the household or professional corpse washers would perform the washing The washing ritual would resemble the ritual ablution performed by Muslims before prayer in being a physical and symbolic display of entering a temporary stage of bliss and meditation Fragrance would be applied to the body, which would then be covered with clean cloth or a shroud, called a kafan, which was usually white but at times green—especially if the deceased was believed to be a descendant of the Prophet The only two exceptions to this particular ritual performance occurred when the person had died while performing the ritual purity (ihram) ceremony during the pilgrimage to Mecca or when the person had died a martyr’s death while fighting for God In such cases, the body would be quickly buried with the clothes on without the performance of the washing ritual Otherwise, the washed body would be taken to the cemetery on a bier before the end of the first day of death The place of burial typically would be somewhere outside a city; however, Tombstone, marble, Iran, 12th century (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of Nasli M Heeramaneck, Photograph © 2006 Museum Associates/ LACMA [M.73.7.1]) at times a Muslim cleric or major saint would be buried in a mosque At the burial stage a cleric or pious man would lead the prayer for the deceased, and the assembly of faithful, both men and women, would recite the prayer and patiently attend the burial The body would be placed in the grave with the head facing in the direction of Mecca Immediately after the burial, food would be offered to the family of the deceased, completing the burial stage The postburial stage would include the performance of three major commemorative ceremonies: mourning ceremonies on the seventh and 40th days after the death and on the first anniversary of the death In these ceremonies animal slaughter, communal feasting, and public recitation of the Koran and sayings of the Prophet would be central features After the first anniversary ceremony the family of the deceased would occasionally visit the grave, washing the tombstone with water and performing prayers According to certain Sunni theological schools of thought, attending to the deceased after the proper stages of