Mosque Name: Khirbit al Mufjar
Country: Israel
City: Jericho
Year of construction (AH): 95 AH
Year of construction (AD): 714 AD
GPS: 31°53’9.86”N 35°27’32.56”E
ArchNet: http://archnet.org/sites/4136
Gibson Classification:: Petra
Rebuilt facing Mecca: never
For a Link to the Qibla Tool Click Here
Description:
The Khirbat al Mafjar Mosque is located near Jericho in the Jordan Valley. Due to the poor state of the ruins, and the poor quality satellite photos, we have chosen to use a drawing of the ruins from Archnet. Khirbat al-Mafjar (see the plan below) remains one of the most highly sophisticated Umayyad palaces known for its elaborate mosaics, stucco carvings and overall sculptural magnificence.
Khirbat al- Mafjar was built during the reign of Hisham Ibn ’Abd al-Mali, and it was abandoned around 744 AD when the Umayyads dynasty collapsed and the Abbasids rose to power. The Abbasids never rebuilt the palace.
This palace contained two mosques with a third mosque to the south of it. The palace was located almost directly north of Petra, so the mosque at the north end aces south as shown in the floor plan. The mosque at the south of the palace building is turned slightly to the east, facing a Between qibla.
South of the palace buildings a third mosque was found. See: Whitcomb, Donald, 2016. “The Mosques of Mafjar: A Sequence and Some Implications for Understanding Qasr Hisham”, in: Denis Genequand (ed.), Proceedings of the 9th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, vol. 2: Islamic Archaeology, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 469-478. This mosque has a square mihrab.
Drawing of the palace
The ruins at Mafjar
Mafjar Decorations
References:
Baramki, D.C., 1938. “Excavations at Khirbet al Mefjer. III”, The Quarterly of the Department of Antiquitis in Palestine 8: 51-53. https://books.google.de/books?id=5mPVAAAAMAAJ&lpg=PP11&ots=bYuK5K96bo&dq=Excavations%20at%20Khirbet%20al%20Mefjer.%20III%E2%80%9D%2C%20The%20Quarterly%20of%20the%20Department%20of%20Antiquitis%20in%20Palestine&pg=PP9#v=onepage&q&f=false
Whitcomb, Donald, 2016. “The Mosques of Mafjar: A Sequence and Some Implications for Understanding Qasr Hisham”, in: Denis Genequand (ed.), Proceedings of the 9th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, vol. 2: Islamic Archaeology, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 469-478.
Hamilton, R.W., 1959. Khirbat al-Mafjar. An Arabian Mansion in the Jordan Valley, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
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