Al-Mu'alla Tombstone Inscriptions in Makkah al-Mukarramah

Al-Mu'alla Tombstone Inscriptions in Makkah al-Mukarramah are a collection of decorative texts and letters engraved on stones found in al-Mu'alla Cemetery in Makkah al-Mukarramah, located west of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The collection includes 586 stones dating from the seventh to the fifteenth century. The Heritage and Antiquities Museum in Makkah al-Mukarramah preserves several of these stones, which serve as valuable sources for recording and preserving historical events and studying script evolution over time.

Al-Mu'alla tombstone inscriptions in Makkah al-Mukarramah contain detailed information about the individuals whose names are engraved, including their titles, nicknames, and social statuses. These inscriptions also feature poetic verses, offering a rich resource and reference for studying historical events, genealogies, biographies, wisdom sayings, proverbs, poetry, the evolution of calligraphy, execution techniques, decorative styles, and the names and skills of calligraphers in Islamic art.

The Heritage and Antiquities Museum in Makkah al-Mukarramah showcases seventy-three tombstones, including seventy in Kufic script and three in scripts similar to Naskh and Thuluth, covering the period from the seventh to the eleventh century.

The exhibit features a notable tombstone of a woman named "Fatima Bint Abdullah Bin Abdul Malik al-Khuraiji," written in precise Kufic script with clear letters, containing several rare prayers.

Several publications have studied the inscriptions on al-Mu'alla tombstones in Makkah al-Mukarramah over different periods, including:

- "Al-Sharaf al-A'lā fī Dhikr Qubūr al-Mu'allā", a book by Abu Abdullah Jamal al-Din al-Shaibi, which includes twenty-three translations of some tombstones and their inscriptions.

- "Al-Durr al-Kamin bi-Dhayl al-‘Iqd al-Thamin fi Tarikh al-Balad al-Amin", a book by Omar Bin Fahd al-Makki, in which he highlights al-Mu'alla tombstones with scholarly materials in twenty different instances.

- "Islamic Writings from Makkah al-Mukarramah", a book by Abdulrahman Bin Ali al-Zahrani, was originally a doctoral thesis at King Saud University in 1997, titled "Islamic Writings from Makkah al-Mukarramah (seventh to thirteenth century): A Comparative Analytical Study". The study selected one hundred tombstones, including those with poetic inscriptions.

-"Tombstones of al-Mu'alla in Makkah al-Mukarramah", a book was published in 2004. It was prepared by a group of archaeology specialists under the supervision of Dr. Saad Bin Abdulaziz al-Rashed. The book focuses on highlighting the image of the tombstone, reading its inscription, the type of stone, and the name of its owner.

- "The Poetic Inscriptions in the Book of al-Mu'alla Tombstones in Makkah al-Mukarramah and Their Literary Value", a book by Abdulrahman Bin Nasser al-Saeed was published in the Journal of King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives (Darah), Volume One, Year Thirty-two. The study examines seventeen tombstones, analyzing the poetic inscriptions found in the book "Tombstones of al-Mu'alla in Makkah al-Mukarramah", and adds the meter of the verses.