High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Ya y ibn Zakar y is a Prophet of Islam also known as the Biblical figure John the Baptist. He is believed by Muslims to be a witness to the word of God, and a righteous prophet who would herald the coming of Jesus. The name John is derived, via Latin and Greek, from the Hebrew name Yochanan meaning: "Yahweh is gracious". Arab Christians use the name Youhanna for John, coming directly from the Hebrew and Aramaic which was used at the time. The veneration of Yahya prevailed amongst some Muslim groups who were partly influenced by Byzantine Christian practices. This veneration, according to Muslim scholar al-B r n , included a feast commemorating Yahya's beheading on the 29th of the Hebrew month of Av. A shrine existing through to modern times is the oratory (maq m) of Yahya, located in the congregational mosque of Damascus. Some early reports mention that Umayyad caliph al-Walid I unearthed the head of Yahya and placed it in a pillar in Damascus, which had an architectural capital shaped like a basket of palm leaves.