Image shared with false claim it shows 'Prophet Mohammed daughter's former home'

This article is more than one year old.
Published on April 27, 2023 at 11:35
Updated on April 27, 2023 at 11:35
2 min read
By AFP Bangladesh

An image of a traditional Turkish beehive house has been shared hundreds of times in social media posts that falsely claim it shows a house that was once inhabited by the Prophet Mohammed's daughter, Fatima. However, the Christian minister who took the picture told AFP it shows a house in a southern Turkish town, where experts said there is no historical record of the prophet or his daughter ever having lived or visited.

The photo was shared here on Facebook on April 12, 2023 alongside a Bengali-language caption that translates as: "The house of Fatima, the beloved daughter of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and the leader of women in heaven."

The image also has a text overlay that reads: "House of Mother Fatima, say Ameen if you see it for the first time."

A screengrab of the misleading post. ( Qadaruddin SHISHIR)

According to historical records, the Prophet Mohammed was born in 570 AD in the holy city of Mecca, part of modern-day Saudi Arabia (archived link). His only daughter Fatima is revered by Muslims as the "leader of women in heaven" (archived link).

The photo has been also shared here and here with a similar claim.

However, the photo was taken in Turkey, and experts said there is no historical evidence that the prophet or his daughter ever lived or visited the country.

Turkish beehive house

Reverse image and keyword searches in Google found a flipped and larger version of the photo on the website of the Church of Christ in Zion in the United States (archived link).

David Padfield, a minister at the church, told AFP he took the photo in Haran -- a town in southern Turkey -- in 2007.

"It is an area associated with Abraham in both the Christian Bible and the Koran," he said.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading Facebook posts flipped by AFP (left) and the photo posted on the church's website (right):

A screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading Facebook posts flipped by AFP (left) and the photo posted on the church's website (right)

Padfield published multiple other photos from the same town on his website (archived link), some of which show other angles of the same group of traditional houses.

Scholars in Islamic studies told AFP there is no evidence that the prophet or his daughter visited or resided in Turkey.

Abdul Kalam Azad, a professor of Islamic History and Culture at Dhaka University, said: "There are no historical records of the Prophet Mohammed or his daughter's physical presence or them having any residence in Turkey."

Ataur Rahman Miazi, vice chancellor of America Bangladesh University and a scholar of Islamic history, also told AFP that there is no credible record of the Prophet Mohammed or his daughter visiting Turkey.

"I did not come across anything like this in my life from any credible sources."

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