Letter F

105. Faḥl / Pella of the Decapolis | فحل ( طبقة  فحل)

Irbid Governorate

Jāmi‘

JADIS no. 2020002

MEGA no. 15202. 15214. 15215

Coordinates: 32°27'00.5"N 35°36'49.5"E

32.450139, 35.613750

 

 

Plan: broad rectangular with miḥrāb (flanked by reused column shafts) in the S wall, protruding to the exterior. In axis of the miḥrāb one entrance in N-wall flanked on both sides by each three low windows. At the E and W walls each two buttresses engaged with reused limestone columns (one with Tuscan capital), in alignment to them two interior columns to support a triple arch in E-W direction. They divide the interior of the mosque into two naves running parallel to the qibla (S) wall. The transversal arches carried either a flat or a triple barrel vaulted roof. Between the impost walls low benches set in field stones.

Measurements: ca. 110.6 m2

Exterior: 15.8 m x 7 m.

Interior: unknown.

Building Materials: roughly cut limestone blocks with a large number of reused older (Hellenistic-Roman) spolia, set in horizontal layers of masonry with mortar. The NW column shaft in the interior consists of grey Troade granite.

Construction details: The flat roof was carried by two triple transversal arches. They rest on buttresses protruding from the interior short walls with engaged columns and on four free standing reused columns.

Preservation: ruined, excavated and conserved;  temporarily in use as an open air muṣallā for Muslim prayer.

Inscription(s): none known.

Date(s): Mamluk / (early) Ottoman (MEGA).

Traveler Reports: none known.

Bibliography: Walmsley 2001, 537-537 fig. 15,12; Khouri 1988, 26; Hattab 2015, 152-153; 190-191; Shqour 2015, 115-116; Shqour 2019,110-113; Samma - Tabbah 2019, 134-135; Ta‘an 2019, 76-77 figs. 3. 31-34.

 
Fig. 105.1 Sketch gound plan (EQ, DT, AH 2018).
Fig. 105.2 Panorama view from NW, on the right Jebel Ḥuṣn, the acropolis of Pella of the Decapolis (TMW-K 2018).
Fig. 105.3 Exterior E and N walls with Islamic cemetery from NE (TMW-K 2018).
Fig. 105.4 ExteriorW and S walls from SW (TMW-K 2018).
Fig. 105.5 Prayer hall interior, E-sector with NE granite column shaftas a spolium-support of transversal arch (TMW-K 2018).

Figures

[Fig. 105.1 ]
Sketch gound plan (EQ, DT, AH 2018).

[Fig. 105.2 ]
Panorama view from NW, on the right Jebel Ḥuṣn, the acropolis of Pella of the Decapolis (TMW-K 2018).

[Fig. 105.3 ]
Exterior E and N walls with Islamic cemetery from NE (TMW-K 2018).

[Fig. 105.4 ]
ExteriorW and S walls from SW (TMW-K 2018).

[Fig. 105.5 ]
Prayer hall interior, E-sector with NE granite column shaftas a spolium-support of transversal arch (TMW-K 2018).