In the winter of 1988, while surveying Wadi Shireh in the Hisma (or Wadi Ramm) Desert of southern Jordan, the 'Aqaba-Ma'an 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 article evaluates the mosque, together with several associated buildings discovered in Shireh, 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.
This article reports the discovery by the Hebrew University Expedition to Bet Shean of two unique wall mosaics with Arabic inscriptions under the ruins of the entrance gate to the Umayyad market in the south-eastern part of the excavated city centre. This gate consisted of two stone piers; on the front of each of these was a rectangular decorated stone frame and a mosaic inscription in square Kufic script executed in gilded tesserae on a deep blue background. The first inscription contains four lines of prayer, including the Basmallah and the testimony of al-Shahāda. The lower part of the inscription was not found and it is suggested that the three missing lines contained the quranic verse (IX, 33), most frequently quoted in the Umayyad period. The second inscription consists of seven lines, again starting with the Basmallah formula, and followed by the order given by the Caliph Hishām b. ‘Abd al-Malik (reigned 105–125 A.H./724–743 C.E.) to the governor of jund al-Urdunn Ishāq b. Qabisa to erect this building. The market structure is believed to have been completed in the year 120 A.H./738 C.E. It collapsed eleven years later in the earthquake of 749.
This paper presents a unique bronze weight manufactured by the order of a little-known son of [ain]Abd al-Malik, who was governor of Jund Filastîn for a short period. The weight, of the Byzantine disc type, but bearing Arabic inscriptions, was found in the excavations carried out by the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1990. It is discussed here in the context of other metal weights of the period which bear Arabic inscriptions but are of Byzantine form, and which sometimes also bear Byzantine symbols and Greek inscriptions.
The shops of Scythopolis are contemporary with the initial layout of the Roman city. Similarly to other Roman cities in the East, the major streets of Scythopolis were colonnaded with rows of shops on both sides. While certain monuments and buildings in the city centre changed their character, design and function through time, the streets with their shops alongside, remained the most dominant and unchangeable feature of the city during several centuries. The owners of the shops, and their religious and cultural background, changed during the Roman, Byzantine and Early Islamic periods, but they still used the same buildings and probably sold similar products from one period to another. Sometimes it is possible to determine the function of certain shops. Among these were the shops of a coppersmith, a blacksmith, and a goldsmith, and shops for selling glass, pottery, building materials, and even souvenirs. Bakeries, taverns, and probably a butcher, can also be identified.
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