Mosque Name: Qasr Al-Fedayn Mosque
Country: Jordan
City: Mufraq
Year of construction (AD): 700-744
GPS: 32°20’44.32”N 36°12’2.55”E
Gibson Classification: Between (181.8)
Rebuilt facing Mecca: never
For a Link to the Qibla Tool Click Here
Description:
This site is located in the city of Mafraq near the old Hejaz railway station, beside the Mafraq Antiquities Office. It was occupied in the Neolithic, Bronze ages, and in the Iron Age. This fortified structure was built to defend the area. In the Byzantine period the site accommodated a monastic complex which was later transformed into a palatial residence in the Umayyad period. Al-Fudayn belonged to what might be called privately reclaimed land, and it was referred to in the Arabic chronicles as an agricultural estate (day‘a) (al-Asad, et al., 2000). The Umayyad building is to the right of the main structure in the photograph below, and is 2.55° from the Between Qibla. Yaqut said it was built by Saʿīd ibn Khalīd ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān. (Yāqūt (III, 859)
The Qibla wall is not straight. The bottom is much straighter than he top, so Qibla measurements were based on the bottom part of the wall. The rooms north of the main room with the mihrab were a later addition and the orientation of these rooms was turned slightly more to the east, which measured to be 178.19 degrees. The walls to the east and to the west of the mosque do not follow a straight line, but the qibla wall appear to be more in line with the wall to the west. The building has gone through several phases of construction. From the QIbla wall we can see that a change was taking place as square pillars were being phased out and circular pillars were becoming popular. This mosque includes both the earlier Rashidun square pillars, and the later Umayyad pillars.
More information can be found on page 528 in: Islamic Heritage Sites in Jordan, A Student’s Gazetteer, prepared by the MA-Students of The German-Jordanian University, in Architectural Conservation School for Architecture and Built Environment Academic Years, 2017 - 2020, edited by Thomas M. Weber-Karyotakis & Ammar Khammash with Hussein al-Aza‘at, Nader Atiyeh, Catreena Hamarneh, Khairiyeh al-Kukhun & Robert Schick. GJU, Amman 2020
Satellite Photo
Location of various buildings. The Qasr proper is on the lower right with the baths at the top and the mosque at the bottom.
The Qibla wall is not straight making measuring difficult. © Peter Harremoes 2021
Sarcophagi near the fence
Seats in the bathhouse.
A warm room in the bathhouse
Water was heated under the floor in the bathhouse. At the top right you can see how the people were above the hot water.
Various rooms in the Qasr
Various rooms in the Qasr
Various rooms in the Qasr
Various rooms in the Qasr
The mosque is covered and a silhouette shows where the dome would have been. Note the large square cut stones that supported arches.
There was a door to the right of the mihrab
The complete mihrab, richly decorated with both square and circular columns.
The church from inside. Note the square cut stones that supported the arches.
The floor of the church had mosaics, now covered with sand to preserve them
The church had square pillars, typical also of early Islamic architecture at the time.
The church had square pillars. Similar pillars can be seen in Rashidun mosques, before the Umayyads began to use round pillars. This is why the round pillars on each side of the mihrab are important as they are NOT used in the church.
The altar also had mosaics, and the altar fence seems to have been made of marble.
Marble posts have been smashed.
Doorway in the church
Side entrance to the church
The curved stones show that the room was roofed at one time.
Looking from the side room into the church
The rear of the church seems to have had a solid wall.
The rear of the mosque.
Locations
References
Labisi, Giuseppe, 2015. “al-Fudayn: An Umayyad Residence in Northern Jordan”, Vicino Oriente 19: 65-84.
Al-Husan, Abdel-Qader, 2001. “Preliminary Results of the Archaeological Excavations at al-Mafraq, 1991-2001”, Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 45: 5-13 (in Arabic). http://publication.doa.gov.jo/Publications/ViewChapterPublic/2444
Al-Husan, Abdel-Qader, 2002. “The New Archaeological Discoveries of the al-Fudayn and Raḥāb – al-Mafraq Excavation Projects, 1991-2001”, Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 46: 71-93 (in Arabic). http://publication.doa.gov.jo/Publications/ViewChapterPublic/2420
Humbert, J.-B., 1986. “El-Fedein/Mafraq”, in: “Ricerca in Giordania”, Liber Annuus 36: 354-358.
Bisheh, Ghazi, 2020. “Fudayn”, in: Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, http://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;isl;jo;mon01;6;en.
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