139. Ḥubrāṣ | حبراص

Irbid Governorate

Jāmi‘ with tomb of Shēkh ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān Ḥubrāṣi

JADIS no. 222 3007

MEGA no. 16840

Coordinates: 32°40'19.5"N 35°50'29.0"E

32.672083, 35.841389

Plan: “The mosque actually consists of two sanctuaries, one built within the prayer hall of an earlier one, in the heart of what was the Mandate-period village. The larger component, which is medieval, documents a history of congregational worship in the village from the Umayyad period until the 1930s, when the smaller, and better preserved, mosque was constructed. The medieval mosque, thus, remained in use, on and off, for over a thousand years, with the village population using the ruins for Friday prayer and Quranic instruction until the Mandate period. The smaller mosque was constructed at this time, when large stone farmhouses, many still standing today, were gradually replacing the humbler homes of an area further to the north, documented by travelers, such as Schumacher and Steuernagel. The smaller mosque was used for prayer and children‘s education until the l970s. Together, the two mosques arguably represent the longest history of a place of prayer for Muslim congregations in Jordan. The first season of excavation of both mosques was in 2006. What remains today is a long, quadrangular enclosure, the exterior faces of which are entirely obscured. No medieval superstructure survives in situ, but large, worn flagstones still pave the space throughout. Two miḥrābs articulate the south, or qibla wall - one of which is enclosed by the small in-built Mandate mosque. Numerous reused architectural fragments of basalt are incorporated into the extant remains of both the medieval and Mandate phases and are also strewn about the site. The early Islamic phase of the building is best preserved in the southwest corner of the site and includes the western miḥrāb. There, the lower parts of the walls are hewn from the living rock of the surrounding slope, while the upper sections are constructed with distinctive, large scale masonry. It is from this area that large stone tesserae, of limestone and basalt and measuring 2 x 2 cm, were found below the level of the Middle Islamic paving stones. Evidence on the north wall suggests that a door once opened opposite the western miḥrāb. While the superstructure of this early mosque can only be conjectured, it is likely that its support system employed the basalt column drums that litter the site and are reused in the Mandate section. At this early stage, the mosque may have consisted of a relatively small, single-miḥrāb prayer hall (perhaps measuring around 15 x 12 m internally), designed with the simplicity and relative symmetry characteristic of other Early Islamic mosques in the region, such as those at Qasr al-Hallabat, al-Qastal, Umm al-Walid, Khan al-Zabib, Jabal Says, and Khirbet al-Mafjar. The white plastered walls and black and white mosaic floor would have made a bold, and somber, visual impression. The second (Middle Islamic) phase of the building‘s history involved the eastward expansion of the prayer hall, employing different masonry and including both an additional miḥrāb and a new door opposite it, a revised system of roof supports that incorporated wall piers as well as columns, and a new flagstone pavement. Moreover, either as a separate commission or in connection with this expansion, a minaret was constructed at the northeast end. Today entirely lost, this minaret stood in an increasingly dilapidated state until the 1970s. Fortunately, it attracted the attention of travelers who preserved it in their descriptions.... (cf. figs. 129.6-7). It is uncertain whether the present east wall of the site represents the eastern extent of this medieval expansion, which elongated the interior width to at least 27 m. By the late 19th century, however, the medieval mosque had fallen into disrepair, as attested in travelers’ accounts. Nonetheless, it remained in use as a place of prayer, and appears to have belonged to a larger complex that included the grave of one Sheikh ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Hubrasi immediately west of the mosque and a domestic complex with a flagstone pavement adjacent to and sharing the east wall of the mosque. In the Mandate period, the residents of Hubras reconfigured the space anew: they erected three walls upon the existing pavement, enclosing the eastern miḥrāb in a chamber of approximately 6 x 10 m internally. A double arcade supported on reused columns served as the frame for a flat roof of the traditional timber, cane, and mud type. External stairs of black basalt slabs built into the south wall of the prayer hall lead up to the roof and similar staircases can be seen in the Late Ottoman- Mandate ruins of Umm Qeis” (Walker – Kenney 2006).

Measurements: ca. 180 m² (early Islamic mosque).

Exterior: ca. 15 x 12 m (early Islamic mosque).

Interior: 6 x 10 m (Mandate time mosque, cf. Walker – Kenney 2006).

Building Materials: predominantly brownish local limestone with many reused basalt elements and blocks, most of them from pre-Islamic buildings.

Construction details: see the above description by Walker – Kenney 2006.

Preservation: “According to the archives of the Ministry of Waqf in al -Kfarat Municipality, both the minaret and roof of the smaller mosque had collapsed, and the village wanted to form a committee to collect donations for repairs (Letters of 11 and 15 November 1969). ln 1970, a paved road was laid that cut the mosque off from the larger settlement and caused further damage to the structure. The mosque was closed soon afterwards and other places of prayer were constructed elsewhere in the village” (Walker – Kenney 2006). Still in ruined condition, not used for Muslim prayer.

Inscription(s): “The north face of the minaret bore an inscription rich in historical information about the date and patronage of its construction, and now it belongs to the epigraphy collection at Yarmouk University. The date it records, A.H. 686 / A.D. 1287, serves as a terminus ante quem for the eastward expansion of the mosque and the associated alterations” (Walker – Kenney 2006).

Inscription after cleaning (Ghawanimeh 1986b, 60 fig. 4).

Translation (DT): “In the Name of Allāh, the Merciful, the Compassionate. The mosques of Allāh shall be maintained by who believes in Allāh and the Last Day (Q. 9 at-Tawbah, 18, start). Ordered the construction of this minaret the noble lord, al-Ḥusamī Ṭurnṭāy al-Manṣūrī (deputy) of the Sultanate, the servant in need of Allāh Lu’lu’ al-Manṣūrī al-Ḥusāmī in the month of Ṣafar, year six and eighty and six hundred.” (= 18^th March to 16^th April 1287 AD, translation by RS).

Date(s): “The Umayyad date is based on excavated Umayyad mosques the two quarters of the village, and on the road to samâr, there stands the mêdanet hebrâs, one of those peculiar towers we so often met in haurân. The tower rises to a height of of 30 feet, and is 8 feet square. At its southwestern end was a jamaâh, and ruins of a mosque were still visible. The upper part is fallen in, but on its northern front I found a weathered Arabic inscription, which as much I could make out, refers to the date of the building in the year 686 of the hejira.” (Schumacher 1889a).

Bibliography: Schumacher 1889a, 49-50; Schumacher 1897, 183; Steuernagel 1927, A 539-540; Wiet 1932, 92; Mittmann 1970, 22 no. 38; RCEA, XIII, n° 4880 (= TEI, XIII, 2015, no. 3580); Ghawanimeh 1986b, 49- 64; Michel 2001, 422; Dwekat 2002, 81-90; 188-196 figs. 50-66; Salem 2005, 72-73. 86 figs. 19-21; Walker 2006, Walker 2006, 67-111; Walker - Kenney 2006, 2-3; Walker 2007a, 440-446 figs. 11- 18; Walker 2009, 78-82 figs. 3-9; Rawadiyah 2007, I, 373; Walker 2011, 153 fig. 1; Salem 2005, 72-73, 86 figs. 19-21; Hattab 2015, 187; Ta‘an 2019, 83-86 figs. 3.46- 49.