Letter H
132. Ḥayān Mishrēf | حيّان المشرف
al-Mafraq Governorate
Jāmi‘ / masjid.
JADIS no. 2518014.
MEGA no. 7505; 34887.
Coordinates: 32°16'02.3"N 36°09'13.0"E
32.267306, 36.153611
Plan: broad rectangular with entrance from the NE corner. The mosque occupies evidently an older building in precise cardinal orientation. The miḥrāb, possibly built into a pre-existing S door, has been shifted in its interior for some degrees to the SE in order to achieve the correct qibla direction. The E and W walls had been re-built when the older building had been converted into a mosque.
Measurements: 43.7 m2
Exterior: ca. 9.60 x 7.90 m.
Interior: ca. 8.40 x 5.20 m.
Building Materials: white, brownish and reddish well-dressed limestone blocks, mixed with some coarsely broken fieldstones. The carefully dressed ashlars might have been reused from older buildings at the site.
Construction details: The E wall with the only entrance to the small prayer hall was newly built as it is evidenced by the small scaled random masonry construction in comparison with the more uniform regular masonry at the long sites of the building. An older photo (fig. 132.5) of the building, showing springers for voussoirs along the long walls, affirms that the prayer hall had been covered by a barrel vault spanning over the reinforced long walls in E-W direction.
Preservation: excavated as a ruin, not in use for Muslim prayer. The upper pointed end of the miḥrāb (fig. 132.4) has been destroyed since the building was excavated. The small size of this mosque and the fact that several intact churches are excavated at the site point to a fairly small Muslim community in early Islamic times.
Inscription(s): none known.
Date(s): Umayyad (Rajoub - Housan 2013).
Traveler Reports: unknown.
Bibliography: Piccirillo 1993, 315; Michel 2001, 206-212; Rjoub – Housan 2013, 477 no. 12.
