المواسم والأعياد في حمص ٢_a .. كتاب حمص

The narrators traced the origin of the Thursday of the Sheikhs to the days of the Crusades, during the reign of Sultan Saladin Al-Ayyubi, who regained Jerusalem from the Franks and wanted to eliminate the joy of Easter for them, so he created the Thursday of the Sheikhs, which preceded Easter. People used to go out, in the city of Jerusalem and elsewhere, with flutes, drums, and flags, singing. Religious songs and prophetic praises.

This celebration took the name “Khamis of the Sheikhs” and has a counterpart in the city of Barzeh, near Damascus, where it was called “Barzeh Friday Season,” or. Thursday of the Sheikhs season (1) / also.

As for Homs, we find no trace of him in what was written about it before the nineteenth century, and even in the diaries of Muhammad al-Makki Ibn al-Khanqah (2), which include events. In the years 1100 - 1135 AH / 5 / 1688 - 1722 AD, we do not find any mention of the Khamiya of the Sheikhs, and in the first seven years, Easter is also not mentioned (3). Events / 1108 AH, mentions the following: “And” the first of Nisan, on Thursday day and the ruling on the deprivation of Christians, on Sunday day, became twenty-two days devoid of Ramadan, and on. In Rumi, “on four days that passed in the month of Nisan.” The Eid is not mentioned until the year 1113 AH, when it is mentioned at the end of it, “It was AH” (4). The first of the month of Nisan was on Wednesday, “and Thursday al-Bidh became on the second day of it.” However, he mentions news. On the authority of an outing that the sheikhs took in Akhbar in the year 122 AH. And two days before that, on Thursday, the sheikhs of Al-Jandaliyya and their fakirs went to our master Khaled, and Sheikh Abdul Quddous went to the side of Al-Asi, and they descended after the afternoon, so the Jandaliyah went to our master Jaafar Al-Tayyar, may God be pleased with him, and Abdul Quddous went down to The city, and the son of Al-Sayyid Dawud Al-Butcher installed the planter and ordered him to step on the backs of the men, while they were lying on their faces, while he became angry and shouted, “O two sheikhs,” and he did not know the situation to whom he would refer and turn. Six days had passed since the month of April, and ten days had passed from the good month of Safar (2). Before the last one, the writer indicates that some men were hurt.

And in the events of the year 1123 AH. It is mentioned: “On the twenty-third day of (1) 1 (d)” of the good month of Safar, the disbelief of the Christians occurred” and “Khamis al-Bayd” (4). It was mentioned in and in the events of / 1126 / It is mentioned on / 23 / Rabi’ al-Awwal that the remembrance began. And the birth of the Messenger in the Mosque of Virtues, on the night of Sunday, the night of the disbelief of the Christians, events of 1128 AH, and on the first day of the month of April, the disbelief of the Christians, “and the remembrance and birth of the Messenger took place in the Mosque of Virtues” (5). And in the events of the month of Jumada al-Awwal of the year 1130, he points out Until the coming of Easter, as usual, and also in the year 1131 AH. The last mention of Easter in the manuscript of Muhammad al-Haki Ibn al-Khanaqah is when he speaks about the events of Jumada al-Thani / 1132 AH. He says: “And the sheikhs will go to Baba Amr and the governor of Jaafar al-Tayyar.” (7) He does not mention today’s date or how they left.

Hence, it is clear that the Khamis of the sheikhs did not exist in the second half of the seventeenth century nor in the eighteenth century AD, and that if the sheikhs went out on occasion, their going out was only for a walk. We also conclude that “Khamis al-Bayd” is older in Homs than “Khamis al-Mashaykh,” and that some sheikhs used to gather on Saturday evening, the eve of Easter, to recite the prayers and perform dhikr in the “Al-Fada’il” Mosque/Bani Tulaymat Mosque. The situation remained like this until Sheikh Khaled Al-Saadi Al-Jabbawi, who died in the middle of Shaban 1289 AH = October 19, 1872 AD. He organized a procession on the Thursday of the Sheikhs to the Maqam al-Abrini, based on his great grandfather in Homs, the founder of the Saadiyya al-Jabbawiyya order there, who resided there in 1027 AH.

It seems that the inclinations of Al-Abrini Al-Saadia did not please the rest of the sheikhs of the Sufi orders, so they agreed to turn the area of ​​Al-Khamis into the shrine of the companion / Amr bin Ma’di Yakrib Al-Zubaidi / /542-641/AD, located in the southwest of Homs in the village that bears his name and which became part of the organization. What's new for the city, one of its neighbourhoods.

Thus, since the first quarter of the nineteenth century AD, the Khamis Al-Sheikh began heading towards the village of Baba Amr, where there is water, greenery, and security.

During the reign of the aforementioned Sheikh Khaled, the number of sheikhs participating in the celebration increased, and he entered