Mosque Name: Ashdod Yam
Country: Negev
City: Ashdod
Year of construction (AH): 82
Year of construction (AD): 701
GPS: 31.780290 34.621629
Gibson Classification: Unknown
Rebuilt facing Mecca:
Description:
Located on the Israeli sea coast, Ashdod Yam was a fortification built by the Umayyads. The fort of “Minat al-Qal’a” (lit. “the port with the castle” in Arabic) was then reconstructed by the Fatimids and Crusaders. The initial purpose was to hold off the strong Byzantine navy and it constituted one link in a chain of Muslim coastal fortifications.
Notice, the qiblas are all very close from this location, so we have nto been able to accurately determine the Qibla direction. If someone visit this site with a GPS unit and records the Qibla direction from the mihrab, we would be interested in knowing what you think it is.
From the air.
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References:
Nahlieli, Dov, 2008. “Ashdod-Yam”, in: E. Stern (ed.), The New Encyclopaedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, vol. V, Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1575-1576.
Raphael, Sarah Kate, 2014. Azdud (Ashdod-Yam): An Early Islamic Fortress on the Mediterranean Coast, BAR International Series 2673, Oxford: Archaeopress.
Raphael, Kate, and Kool, Robert, 2014. “The Coins”, in: Sarah Kate Raphael, Azdud (Ashdod-Yam): An Early Islamic Fortress on the Mediterranean Coast, BAR International Series 2673, Oxford: Archaeopress, 38-58, 101.
Masarwa, Yumna, 2011. “The Mediterranean as a frontier: The Umayyad Ribāṭs of Palestine”, in: Hendrik Dey and Elizabeth Fentress (eds.), Western Monasticism Ante Litteram: The Spaces of Monastic Observance in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 177-199.
Amitai-Preiss, Nitzan, 2014. “Two Glass Weights from the Ribat at Ashdod-Yam”, in: Sarah Kate Raphael, Azdud (Ashdod-Yam): An Early Islamic Fortress on the Mediterranean Coast, BAR International Series 2673, Oxford:
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