An Umayyad Era Mosque and Desert Waystation from Wadi Shīreh, Southern Jordan
Issue: Vol 2 No. 1 (2015)
Journal: Journal of Islamic Archaeology
Subject Areas:
Abstract:
In the winter of 1988, while surveying Wadi Shīreh in the Ḥismā (or Wadi Ramm) Desert of southern Jordan, the ʿAqaba-Maʿan Archaeological and Epigraphic Survey, directed by the late William Jobling of the University of Sydney, discovered a rare early Islamic open-air mosque in association with several exceptional early Islamic (Kufic) inscriptions, one of which gives a date of 109 H (727/728 CE). While a number of scholars have since commented on the site’s interesting inscriptions, there has been little discussion of the mosque within its broader archaeological context or immediate landscape setting. This paper evaluates the mosque, together with several associated buildings discovered in Shīreh, in relation to similar early Islamic open-air mosques and marginal desert settlements known from the southern Levant. Following a review and analysis of the site’s intriguing inscriptions, the authors then offer tentative conclusions regarding the site’s function as a desert waystation during the time of the Umayyads.
Author: Firas al-Bqāʿīn, Glenn J. Corbett, Elias Khamis
References :
Abu Danah, F., M. Shqiarat, and H. Falahat.
2010. “The Second Season of Excavations at Udhruḥ Preliminary Report.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 54: 45–49.
Addison, E.
2000. “The Mosque at Al-Qaṣtal: Report from Al-Qaṣtal Conservation and Development Project, 1999–2000.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 44: 477–491.
ʿAmr, K., A. al-Momani, N. al-Nawafleh and S. al-Nawafleh.
2000. “Summary Results of the Archaeological Project at Khirbat an-Nawāfla/Wādī Mūsā. ” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 44: 231–255.
ʿAmr, K., and A. al-Momani.
2001. “Preliminary Report on the Archaeological Component of the Wādī Mūsā Water Supply and Wastewater Project (1998-2000). ” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 45: 253–287.
al-ʾAṣbahānī, Abū Nuʿaym.
1998. Maʿarifat al-Ṣaḥābah wa Fadāʾilihim, edited by ʿAdl ibn Yūsuf al-ʿAzāzī. Riyadh: Dar al-Waṭan li-l-Nashar
al-ʿAsqalānī, Ibn Ḥajar.
1993. Al-ʾIṣābah fī Tamyiz al-Ṣaḥābah, edited by Ṭāhā Mūḥā al-Zāynī. 12 vols. Cairo: Maktabah ibn Taymiyyah.
Avner, R.
1996. “Elat-Elot—An Early Islamic Village.” ‘Atiqot 36: 21*–39* (in Hebrew), 124–125 (English summary).
2008. “Eilat Region.” In The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, Volume 5 (Supplementary), edited by E. Stern, 1704–1711. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.
Avner, U. and J. Magness.
1998. “Early Islamic Settlement in the Southern Negev.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 310: 39–57.
Avni, G.
1994. “Early Mosques in the Negev Highlands: New Archaeological Evidence on Islamic Penetration of Southern Palestine.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 294: 83–100.
2007. “From Standing Stones to Open Mosques in the Negev Desert: The Archaeology of Religious Transformation on the Fringes.” Near Eastern Archaeology 70: 124–138.
Barāmkī, D.
1964. “Al Nuqūsh al-ʿArabiyyah fī al-Bādiyah al-Sūriyyah.” Al-ʾAbḥath 17: 317–349.
Bisheh, G.
1980. “Excavations at Qasr al-Hallabat, 1979.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 24: 69–77.
Bittar, T.
2003. Pierres et stucs épigraphiés. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux.
Blair, S. S.
2006. “Kufic.” In Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, edited by K. Versteegh, 597–604. Leiden: Brill.
al-Bqāʿīn, F.
2004. “Dirāsat l-Masjid Shīrah wa Masājid ʾUmawīyah Mumāthilah fī Janūb al-ʾUrdun.” Master’s
Thesis, Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Jordan.
Corbett, G. J.
2011. “Preliminary Report on the Wadi Hafir Petroglyph Survey, 2005–2006, with Special Comment on the Distribution of Selected Thamudic E/Hismaic Inscriptions and Rock Drawings.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 55: 233–248.
2012. “Desert Traces: Tracking the Nabataeans in Jordan’s Wādī Ramm.” Near Eastern Archaeology 75: 208–219.
Creswell, K. A. C.
1979. Early Muslim Architecture. New York: Hacker Art Books.
Crone, P.
2003. Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of the Islamic Polity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Damgaard, K.
2009. “A Palestinian Red Sea Port on the Egyptian Road to Arabia: Early Islamic Aqaba and its Many Hinterlands.” In Connected Hinterlands: Proceedings of the Red Sea Project IV, edited by L. Blue, J. Cooper, R. Thomas and J. Whitewright, 85–97. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
al-Farajat, S. and S. al-Nawafleh.
2005. “Kitābāt Kūfīyah min Minṭaqat al-Dīseh wa Ramm.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 49: 29–37.
Foote, R. M.
2007. “From Residence to Revolutionary Headquarters: The Early Islamic Qasr and Mosque Complex at al-Humayma and its 8th-century Context.” In Crossing Jordan: North American Contributions to the Archaeology of Jordan, edited by T. Levy, 457–465. London: Equinox Publishing.
Genequand, D.
2002. “Une Mosquée à Quṣayr ʿAmra.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 46: 583–589.
2003. “Maʿān, An Early Islamic Settlement in Southern Jordan: Preliminary Report on a Survey in 2002.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 47: 25–37.
Gerber, Y.
2008. “The Byzantine and Early Islamic Pottery from Jabal Hārūn.” In Petra — The Mountain of Aaron: The Finnish Archaeological Project in Jordan, Vol. 1, edited by F. Zbigniew, 287–329. Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica.
Gil, M.
1984. “The Origin of the Jews of Yathrib.” Jerusalem Studies on Arabic and Islam 4: 203–234.
1992. A History of Palestine, 634–1099. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Goussous, N. G.
2004. Rare and Inedited Umayyad Copper Coins: The Goussous Collection in the Jordan National Numismatic Museum. Amman: Jordan National Bank.
Grabar, O.
1996. The Shape of the Holy: Early Islamic Jerusalem. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Haiman, M.
1995. “Agriculture and Nomad-State Relations in the Negev Desert in the Byzantine and Early Islamic Periods.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 297: 29–53.
Haldimann, M.-A.
1992. “Les Implantations Omeyyades Dans La Balqa: L’Apport d’Umm-El-Walid.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 36: 307–323.
Hamarneh, B.
2010. “Dynamics and Transformation of the Rural Settlements of Provincia Arabia and Palaestina Tertia in the Omayyad and Early Abbasid Periods. Archaeological Evidence.” In Proceedings of the 6th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, edited by P. Matthiae, F. Pinnock, L. Nigro, and N. Marchetti, 91–109. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Hasson, I.
1993. “Le Chef Judhāmite Rawḥ ibn Zinbāʿ.” Studia Islamica 77: 95–122.
1995 “Judhām entre la Jāhiliyya et l’Islam.” Studia Islamica 81: 5–42.
Healey, J. F.
2001. The Religion of the Nabataeans: A Conspectus. Leiden: Brill.
Helms, S.
1990. Early Islamic Architecture of the Desert: A Bedouin Station in Eastern Jordan. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Hoyland, R. G.
1997. “The Content and Context of Early Arabic Inscriptions.” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 21: 77–102.
Israel, Y.
2009. “Beʾer Ora (A), (B).” Hadashot Arkheologiyot: Excavations and Surveys in Israel 121: Internet Edition: http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/report_detail_eng.aspx?id=1136&mag_id=115.
al-Jbour, K. S.
2001. “Arabic Inscriptions from Wādī Salma.” In Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan 7, 673–679. Amman: Department of Antiquities of Jordan.
Jobling, W. J.
1989a. “ʿAqaba-Maʿan Archaeological and Epigraphic Survey.” In Archaeology of Jordan, Vol. 2, edited by D. Homes-Fredericq and J. Hennessy, 16–24. Leuven: Peeters.
1989b “Report of the Eighth Season of the ʿAqaba-Maʿan Archaeological and Epigraphic Survey (January-February 1988).” Liber Annuus 39: 253–255.
1993 “The ʿAqaba-Maʿan Archaeological and Epigraphic Survey, 1988–1990.” Syria 70: 244–247.
Johns, J.
1999. “The ‘House of the Prophet’ and the Concept of the Mosque.” In Bayt al-Maqdis: Jerusalem and Early Islam, edited by J. Johns, 59–112. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Karīm, J.
2002. “Naqashān Kūfīyān Mūrkhān min Shīrah bi-Wādī Ramm – Janūb al-ʾUrdun.” Dirāsāt: Social and Human Sciences 29(1): 259–282.
Kennedy, D. L.
2014. “‘Nomad Villages’ in North-Eastern Jordan: From Roman Arabia to Umayyad Urdunn.” Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 25: 96–109.
Killick, A.
1983. “Udhruh—The Frontier of an Empire: 1980 and 1981 Seasons, A Preliminary Report.” Levant 15: 110–131.
Littmann, E.
1914. Semitic Inscriptions: Section C, Nabataean Inscriptions from the Southern Ḥaurân. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
al-Maʿānī, S. and J. Karīm.
2000. “Thamānīyat ʿAshara Naqshan ʿArabīyan ʾIslāmīyan min Mawqaʿī al-Khaz ʿAlī wa ʾUm ʿIshrīn fī Wādī Ramm.” Mūtah li-l-baḥūth wa al-Dirāsāt 15.5: 270–321.
MacDonald, B.
2013. “The Byzantine to Early Islamic Period in Southern Jordan: Changes and Challenges.” In Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan 11, 143–157. Amman: Department of Antiquities of Jordan.
Magness, J.
2003. The Archaeology of the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.
2004. “Khirbet Abu Suwwana and Ein ʿAneva: Two Early Islamic Settlements on Palestine’s Desert Periphery.” In Changing Social Identity with the Spread of Islam: Archaeological Perspectives, edited by D. Whitcomb, 11–23. Chicago, IL: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
Musil, A.
1926. The Northern Hegaz: A Topographical Itinerary. New York: American Geographical Society.
al-Rāshid, S. A.
1980. Darb Zubaydah: The Pilgrim Road from Kufa to Mecca. Riyadh: Riyadh University Libraries.
1995. Kitābāt Islāmīyah min Makkah al-Mukarramah: Dirāsah wa-Taḥqīq. Riyadh: Maktabat al-Malik Fahd al-Waṭanīyah
Schick, R.
1994. “The Settlement Pattern of Southern Jordan: The Nature of the Evidence.” In The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East II: Land Use and Settlement Patterns, edited by G. R. D. King and A. Cameron, 133–154. Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press.
1995. The Christian Communities of Palestine from Byzantine to Islamic Rule: A Historical and Archaeological Study. Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press.
2007. “Al-Ḥumayma and the Abbasid Family.” In Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan 9, 345–355. Amman: Department of Antiquities of Jordan.
Schneider, M.
1986. Mubārak al-Makkī : An Arabic Lapicide of the Third/Ninth Century. Manchester: University of Manchester.
Shahid, I.
2010. Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Volume 2, Part 2. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Sharon, M.
1999. Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae, Volume Two, B-C. Leiden: Brill.
Sharon, M., U. Avner and D. Nahlieli.
1996 “An Early Islamic Mosque near Beʾer Ora in the Southern Negev: Possible Evidence for an Early Eastern Qiblah?” ʿAtiqot 30: 107–114.
Silvonen, S.
2013. “Nabataean-Roman, Byzantine and Early Islamic Pottery from the FJHP Survey.” In Petra — The Mountain of Aaron: The Finnish Archaeological Project in Jordan, Volume III, The Archaeological Survey, edited by P. Kouki and M. Lavento, 120–167. Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica.
Tabbaa, Y.
1994. “The Transformation of Arabic Writing: Part 2, The Public Text.” Ars Orientalis 24: 119–148.
Texidor, J.
1977. The Pagan God: Popular Religion in the Greco-Roman Near East. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Waliszewski, T.
2001. “Céramique byzantine et proto-islamique de Khirbet edh-Dharih (Jordanie du Sud).” In La Céramique Byzantine et Proto-Islamique en Syrie-Jordanie (IVe-VIIIe siècles apr. J.-C.), edited by E. Villeneuve and P. M. Watson, 95–106. Beirut: Institut Français d’Archéologie du Proche-Orient.
Walmsley, A.
2007. “Economic Developments and the Nature of Settlement in the Towns and Countryside of Syria-Palestine, ca. 565–800.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 61: 319–352.
Walmsley, A., and A. D. Grey.
2001. “An Interim Report on the Pottery from Gharandal (Arindela), Jordan. ” Levant 33: 139–164.
Whitcomb, D.
1997. “The Miṣr of Ayla: New Evidence for the Early Islamic City.” In Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan 5, 277–288. Amman: Department of Antiquities of Jordan.
2006 “Archaeological Evidence of Sedentarization: Bilad al-Sham in the Early Islamic Period.” In Die Sichtbarkeit von Nomaden und saisonaler Besiedlung in der Archäologie: Multidisziplinäre Annäherungen an ein methodisches Problem, edited by S. R. Hauser, 27–43. Halle: Orientwissenschaftliches Zentrum.
al-Wohaibi, A.
1978. The Northern Hejaz in the Writings of the Arab Geographers, 800–1150. Al-Risalah: Riyadh.
Yisrael, Y.
2002. “Beʾer Ora (Southeast).” Hadashot Arkheologiyot: Excavations and Surveys in Israel 114: 125*–129* (Hebrew section), 102–104 (English summary).