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.
Among the thousands of Hismaic inscriptions found in the Ḥismā desert of southern Jordan are the signatures of countless authors and artists who carved their names, thoughts and drawings into stone. These signed carvings, which typically give not only the name of the author but also, on occasion, the name of his father, grandfather and even great-grandfather, provide an extraordinary record of the actual individuals who roamed the desert wadis 2000 years ago. This article, which focuses on a collection of Hismaic inscriptions and drawings from the Wādī Ḥafīr canyon of southern Jordan, illustrates how traditional epigraphic study of these names, combined with a GIS-based landscape approach, can provide a much clearer picture of not only who was carving the inscriptions and where, but also how the various authors may have been related or acquainted.
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