“May God be pleased with all the Companions of His Prophet”: Sunni Patronage of Shi’i Shrines in Medieval Aleppo In 592/1196, the Sunni ruler of Aleppo, al-Malik al-Zahir, decided to invest in the renovation of a magnificent shrine to the Shi’i martyr al-Husayn. Aleppo had a strong Shi’i community in the medieval period, and the inhabitants of the city had been the first to construct a modest shrine on the site. Under al-Zahir, however, this Shi’i shrine would become one of the most outstanding works of Sunni Ayyubid architecture in Syria. This inter-confessional act of patronage seems remarkable: for it occurred during the “Sunni revival,” an era conventionally portrayed by the medieval sources and by secondary scholarship as a time of intense Sunni hostility toward Shi’ism. However, the architecture of such sites tells another story, for it reveals that behind the political rhetoric of Sunni ascendance, an ongoing and complex inter-confessional negotiation often took place. In fact, al-Zahir was only one of numerous Sunni sovereigns who actively invested in shrines to the ahl al-bayt (family of the prophet) and other ‘Alid places of pilgrimage. The Sunni Abbasid caliph himself renovated numerous ‘Alid shrines, including one for the twelfth Imam. Thus, throughout the medieval period, there was a consistent habit of Sunni intervention in sites of Shi’i devotion. Though visited by Sunnis, these sites were foundational loci of Shi’i popular practice and were especially beloved by Shi’i communities. The architecture and iconography of two Aleppan shrines – the shrine to al-Husayn, and the Mashhad al-Dikka, devoted to a stillborn son of ‘Ali – suggest that this intervention was a conscious act of conciliation by al-Zahir. This act simultaneously demonstrated his tolerance toward Twelver Shi’ism while reinforcing a claim to the family of the Prophet as legitimate objects of Sunni devotion. Augmenting the architectural evidence, the medieval sources suggest that such projects were part of a broader attempt at a kind of “Sunni ecumenism” advocated by the Sultan al-Zahir and his contemporary the Caliph al-Nasir. This ecumenism fostered a measured rapprochement between Sunni and Shi’i communities by emphasizing their common veneration of the ahl al-bayt. Such architectural projects functioned both to placate sometimes-restive Shi’i communities, while simultaneously directing and influencing the practice of popular religion among both Sunnis and Shi’is. Their architecture reveals the nuanced complexity of a period often portrayed in starkly sectarian terms.