The Killing of the Kings of Damascus and
Egypt
This hadith draws attention to the fact that the rulers
of Damascus and Egypt will be killed before the coming of
the Mahdi.
When we examine Egypt's recent history, we see that a ruler
was killed: Anwar al-Sadat, who ruled Egypt from 1970-81,
was killed by his opponents during a military review in
1981. Other Egyptian leaders who have been killed include
Prime Ministers Boutros Ghali (1910), and Mahmoud Nukrashy
Pasha (1948).
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(left) Turkiye,
October 7, 1981
(right) NewYork Times, September 15, 1982
Bashir Gemayel
Ahmed Maher Pasha
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The word “Sham” is not only
used for Damascus, for it also means “left” and has long
been used to refer to those countries to the left of the
Hijaz (where the cities of Makka and Madina stand)1.
Many leaders have been killed in the region, among them
former Syrian prime ministers Salah al-Deen Beetar (1920),
Droubi Pasha (1921), and Muhsin al-Barazi (1949), King Abdullah
of Jordan (1951), and Lebanese Phalange leader Bashir Gemayel
(1982). 2
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1. Ottoman-Turkish Dictionary, Istanbul:
2000, p. 896.
2. “Individual Murders and Assassinations Inside Syria and
Abroad,” Syrian Human Rights Committee; http://www.shrc.org/books/hr.20year/hr6.htm
