Early Mosques in the Negev Highlands: New Archaeological Evidence on Islamic Penetration of Southern Palestine

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. This content downloaded from 155.69.24.A number of early mosques associated with a widespread system of settlements that existed during the sixth to eighth centuries c.E. have been discovered in recent years throughout the Negev Highlands. Thus far, 12 mosques of different types have been recorded. These include mosques built either within urban settlements or adjacent to rural settlements, and mosques connected with nomadic populations in the southern Negev Highlands. Recent archaeological evidence suggests that the source of the open mosques constructed near rural and nomadic sites in the Negev Highlands is to be sought in the stele cult that was widely disseminated in Nabataean and Byzantine times. The chronological framework of the early mosques, their connection to dated settlements, and the formal relations between the stele cult and the mosques seem more consistent with a picture of gradual Islamic penetration into southern Palestine than with a swift adoption of canonical Islam in the wake of a single wave of conquest. til now has focused upon historical sources (e.g., : 55-66 for a detailed bibliography). Over the past few years, however, archaeological findings in various parts of the Negev, especially the Negev Highlands and the Arava, have shed new light on the settlement patterns and the material culture of the period. The Negev Highlands, between the Mediterranean zone of central Israel and the Saharan zones of the southern Negev and Sinai, form an environ-mental transition area between the sedentary north and the nomadic south. Irano-Turonian vegetation is characteristic of the region, except in the south, where it is replaced by more desertic Saharo-Arabian elements (Danin 1983: 42-44, 52-53). Annual rainfall averages between 50 and 200 mm. Archaeological surveys were conducted in the central Negev throughout the 1950s and 1960s (Glueck 1965; Cohen 1981; 1985); but the Negev Emergency Survey, carried out during the last decade, has provided the impetus for exploration of the Negev Highlands on an unprecedented scale ().1 During the emergency survey, dozens of settlement sites were discovered dating to the end of the Byzantine period and the Early Islamic period (sixth to eighth centuries C.E.). Many of the sites in the Central Negev Highlands are distinctly agricultural (Haiman 1990), whereas those in the south are seasonal and nomadic (Avni 1985; 1992a; Rosen 1987a; Rosen and Avni 1989; Rosen and Avni in press). Structures identified as early mosques were found adjacent to several of the sites. Very few appear to have

Fragments of an early Islamic Arabic papyrus from Khirbet Hamrā Ifdān

“…Archaeological suggestions of an early Islamic mosque at KHI dating to the seventh or eighth century are supported by the find of the papyrus. KHI certainly fits the model of the Negev desert mosques that are located on hilltops near settlements and in some instances, near water (Avni, : 84, 89, 91–92). In this case, the mosque would have been located near the spring of ʿAin el‐Fidān.…”

“…At that time, the remains of a structure were noted on the surface of KHI. This structure, a small stone outline of a building with a distinct mihrab, was reminiscent of the desert mosques found in the Trans‐Jordan and Negev region (Avni, : 83–100). While dating is not at all certain, the direction of prayer (qibla) was not towards Mecca but rather towards Jerusalem (Adams, personal communication, 4/12/16) although the lack of any plan of the structure means this cannot now be confirmed.…”

“…It would, however, be highly unusual since most similar mosques in the Negev and early Islamic mosques in general, have their qibla oriented generally towards Mecca. The question of qibla orientation in early Islamic mosques has been the matter of considerable discussion (Bashear, : 267–280; Hoyland, : 564–570) and examined in a number of early Islamic contexts in Palestine (Avni, : 95; : 133; : 284, no. 461; Saifullah et al., ; Sharon, Avner, & Nahlieli, : 112–114).…”

Chronological Trends in Negev Rock Art: The Har Michia Petroglyphs as a Test Case

“…In the mid seventh century CE, Arab tribes expanded into the Negev (Avni 1994) [62]. The Arab conquest did not abruptly change the life of the Negev population; sites were not demolished and the ceramic assemblages show only a slow and gradual change with the introduction of new vessel types (Avni 1996:8;Nahlieli 2007) [63][64][65].…”

Maps and the settlement of southern Palestine, 1799–1948: an historical/GIS analysis

“…63 The number and extent of settlements in the Negev has varied throughout history as a function of climatic conditions, the available technology and the strength of the central government to control the nomadic population of the Negev. 64 In such areas, on the margins of the desert, attacks by Bedouins led the local population to concentrate in large villages that could withstand such raids. 65 This led to larger villages at a lower density in the southern Hebron Hills.…”