ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-Marwānī al-Dimashqī (Arabic: عبد الرحمن محمد المرواني الدمشقي; fl. 1910–1930) was a Syrian Hanafi jurist, preacher, and waqf administrator associated with the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus. A member of the locally prominent Al-Marwani family, descended from the Umayyads through Marwan I, he was active during the late Ottoman and early Mandate periods. Contemporary court registers and biographical records describe him as one of the hereditary custodians of the Umayyad Mosque and an administrator of several family endowments (awqāf) in Damascus.
Biography ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Marwani was born in Damascus into the Marwani-Umayyad line established in the city since medieval times. The family resided primarily in the Suq al-Saruja and Qanawāt quarters, where several of its members held positions connected with the Umayyad Mosque. Archival sijillāt (Shariʿa-court registers) record him as ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-Marwānī, preacher (khaṭīb) and Qurʾān teacher (mudarris) at the Umayyad Mosque between 1335 and 1341 AH (1917–1923 CE).
Local biographical notice The Damascene scholar ʿAbd al-Qadir al-Salihi devoted a short notice to him in his manuscript biographical dictionary ʿUlamāʾ Dimashq fī al-Qarn al-Tāsiʿ ʿAshar (MS no. 297, University of Damascus Library). There he describes:
“ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-Marwānī al-Dimashqī, min dhurriyyat Banī Umayya, khaṭīb al-Jāmiʿ al-Umawī wa-nāẓir ʿalā waqf Āl al-Marwānī; ʿurifa bi-taqwāhu wa-ḥifẓihi wa-ṣidqihi fī al-khidma.” which translates roughly as: “ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-Marwānī al-Dimashqī, of the descendants of the Banū Umayya, preacher of the Umayyad Mosque and overseer of the al-Marwani family endowment; he was known for his piety, learning, and sincerity in service.”
During the early Mandate years he managed portions of the waqf Āl al-Marwānī endowment, funding Qurʾanic instruction and maintenance work at the mosque. His sermons and teaching emphasized adherence to the Hanafi school and preservation of the Umayyad Mosque's intellectual tradition. Local accounts describe him as a conciliatory figure between the mosque's traditional ʿulamāʾ and reformist scholars emerging in the 1920s.
Legacy Al-Marwānī’s descendants remained active in religious and civic roles in Damascus throughout the 20th century, several continuing to supervise family endowments or teach at the Umayyad Mosque. He is remembered within the Marwani-Umayyad genealogical tradition as one of the last hereditary preachers to serve under Ottoman appointment before the Mandate reorganization of the mosque's administration.
See also
Umayyad Mosque Al-Marwani family Umayyad dynasty Waqf Islam in Syria
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