Maqam of Shaykh Khalid al-Naqshbandi, Damascus

In the same corner of Damascus where the great Sufi master Ibn Arabi is remembered, at the foot of Jabal Qasioun, lies the resting place of another towering figure in Islamic spirituality, Shaykh Khalid al-Naqshbandi.

Who He Was

Born in 1779 near Sulaymaniyah, in what is today northern Iraq, Khalid Shahrazuri, better known as Mawlana Khalid al-Baghdadi, became one of the most influential Sufi teachers of the Ottoman era. He founded the Khalidiyya, a branch of the Naqshbandi order that spread rapidly across the Ottoman world, from the Kurdish lands of his birth to Syria, Lebanon, and eventually as far as the Caucasus through his students. Within just a few decades, leaders of Naqshbandi communities across the region traced their spiritual lineage back to him, a remarkable mark of how deeply his teaching resonated.

He passed away in 1827. Naqshbandi tradition holds that Damascus became his final home, and his maqam here, in the Salihiyah quarter near the shrine of Ibn Arabi, remains a place of quiet visitation for those who follow the path he taught.

Why It's Worth a Visit

A stop here pairs naturally with a visit to Ibn Arabi's shrine nearby, and together they give travelers a real sense of how deeply Sufi scholarship took root in this part of Damascus, generation after generation, century after century.