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Makam-ı Şerif Mosque.
Both the Ulu Mosque, and the Makam Mosque, which some claim to be the burial site of the prophet Daniel, have seen various alterations to their building structures. (Picture) The site of the the grave is located in the oldest section. According to an inscription, which dates to 1875 (or H. 1274), the ritual place of prayer was commissioned by a philanthropist. Ten years later an Albanian, Salih Ağa, added a minaret (1867 A.D).
The prophet Daniel lived during the reign of the second Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 B.C) and was renowned as a skilled administrator. According to one rumor, King Nebuchadnezzar, by means of a dream, learnt that one of the sons of Ishmael would take his throne. He therefore ordered the death of all sons born to Ishmael. As Daniel was growing up he was supposedly left in a cave and raised by a both a male and a female lion. Upon maturity, he was alleged to have gone back to his people, the Jews, recognized as prophet and saving them by means of his scientific and soothsaying skills.
Every place that the prophet Daniel stayed was blessed and due to a drought leading to a famine, he was invited to Tarsus. After living, and later supposedly dying here, he was counted as being among the prophets as found in the Torah. The whereabouts of his tomb was forgotten until the 17th year after the Hegira, when one of Omer’s commanders, Ebu Musa El-Es’ari became aware of it. The body that was discovered to be resting there was of a person who was tall, his garments containing threads of gold. That this was indeed the prophet Daniel was revealed because of a ring that showed two lions licking a young man. Following this, it was decided to rebury the prophet in order to prevent the Jews from stealing his body. He was laid to rest in what was previously the Berdan riverbed, next to what remained of a small stream. Very recently, repairs were made to the mosque and at the entry to a water source, wide regular steel bars were discovered. The prophet Daniel body was buried much deeper than the embrasure found.
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