Letter J

176. Jenīn / Jennīn as-Safā | جنين (جنين الصفا)

Irbid Governorate

Jāmi‘

JADIS no. 2121067

MEGA no. 10574 / 46975 (mosque not registered as site element)

Coordinates: 32°31'12.0"N 35°42'19.6"E

32.520000, 35.705450

 

 

Plan: in the 1st phase almost square. After the reduction of the prayer hall in the 2nd phase the plan became broad rectangular with a triple arched exterior porch (three bays with cross vaults) in front of the N façade. This gave access to central doorway facing the miḥrāb in the S wall. Two pillars corresponding with wall and corner buttresses divide the interior into two naves running parallel to the qibla wall. The two naves are subdivided into each three bays covered by high pointed cross vaults. The cross vaulted exterior porch in the N originally formed a third interior nave. Hence the N façade in present condition dates to a secondary period after the space of the prayer hall has been reduced by blocking the three arches between the pillars of the N nave; in the E and W bay of the present N façade each a double window terminating in an semicircular arch on the inside, on the exterior with an horizontal lintel. A staircase running along the exterior E wall leads up to the roof; no minaret.

Measurements: 1st phase: 185 m2, capacity 255 persons; 2nd phase: 130 m2, capacity 130 persons (Khateb 2020).

Exterior: 14.78 (S)-15.17 (N) m x 12.65 (W)-12.7 (E).

Interior: 1st phase: 12.70 (S)-13.12 (N) m x14.34 (W)-, 14.43 (E) m; 2nd phase: 12.70 (S)-12.97 (N) m x 10.24 (W)-10.33 (E) m (Khateb 2020).

Building Materials: light brown to rose conglomerate limestone with fossil inclusions (fig. 176.8); a Byzantine chancel screen post (fig. 176.12) of Proconnesian marble in reuse as impost of the W arch of the porch.

Construction details: Two construction phases can be discerned: An older (1st phase) made of horizontally laid courses of coarsely dressed stones in the E façade with smaller flakes and hay mixed mortar in the joints. This technique can be seen in the lower foundation zone and in the W exterior wall of the N cross vaulted porch. This indicates that this part belongs to the original construction. The younger 2nd phase consists of isodomic regular masonry laid in 20 courses with minimal use of mortar. All the interior walls including the frontal hall with the N façade are covered by a new plaster and whitewashed.

Preservation: presently closed due to static problems and the danger of collapse of the ceiling, not used for Muslim prayer.

Inscription(s): Above the door, in the tympanum of the blind lunette, there are two rectangular brownish limestone slabs with an Arabic inscription in five lines in two corresponding columns, both with a flat smooth frame, executed in flat relief, with traces of whitewash and black paint upon the letters. The text quotes Q. 9 at-tawbah, 9, and it gives the date of the restored mosque’s inauguration in the last line (Photo, transcription and reading by NAt):

 

Translation: “In the name of Allāh, the Merciful, the Compassionate, the only one shall naintain Allāh’s mosque who believes in Allāh and the Last Day, and gives alms from his own money, and he does not fear (anything) apart from Allāh, in the month jumād (of the year) 1345 H(ijri)”.

Date: According to the ground plan, the original mosque (1st construction phase) blueprinted the larger threenaved Ayyubid / Mamluk plan represented by the ‘Ajlūn (no. 21), Irbid (no. 147), Kufranjā (no. 223) and Sūf (no. 373) Friday mosques. In the second construction phase, however, the space of the mosque was reduced to the central and S nave by inserting walls with a door and lateral windows into the N arcade. The former N aisle was thus changed into an open porch. It is not clear whether this happened at the refurbishment of the mosque dated by inscription to H 1345 / AD 1924, or even before. The presence of a Byzantine chancel screen pole may indicates the presence of a Christian church at the place of the actual mosque or in its environs.

Traveler Reports: “Der alte Kern des Dorfes in dem die Moschee steht, zieht sich den Osthang hinan; ... Über dem Eingang der Moschee ist der Chorschrankenpfeiler einer byzantinischen Kirche vermauert” (Mittmann 1970).

Bibliography: For taxation of the village in the Ottoman registers see Hütteroth-Abdulfattah 1977, 166 s.v. Nāhiya Kūra, Mīr liwā, Jinīn as- Safā. For the antiquities Mittmann 1970, 41 no. 93; Michel 2001, 422; for the mosque Khateb 2020, 144-145 no. 13 figs. 133-139.

 

1st phase (before 1935)

2nd phase (1935)

3rd phase (after 1935)

 
Fig. 176.1 Sketch ground plan of mosque with N courtyard (TMW-K 2019).
Fig. 176.2 Exterior view of courtyard with N elevation of cross vaulted porch entrance (TMW-K 2019).
Fig. 176.3 Exterior view from NE with different masonries of the two construction phases (TMW-K 2019).
Fig. 176.4 Detail of two construction phases masonry on exterior E evelation (TMW-K 2019).
Fig. 176.5 View of the SE corner with the S and E elevations (TMWK 2019).
Fig. 176.6 Frontal view of exterior S elevation (TMW-K 2019).
Fig. 176.7 Exterior view SW corner (TMW-K 2019).
Fig. 176.8 Detail of conglomerate fossile limestone blocks in isodomic construction with a minimal use of mortar (TMW-K 2019).
Fig. 176.9 Detail of the recessed entrance door of the 2nd construction phase in the N cross vaulted porch (TMW-K 2019).
 
Figs. 176.10-11 Views through the cross vaulted entrance porch, the former N nave of the 1st construction phase from W (left) und E (right) (TMW-K 2019).
 
Fig. 176.12 Detail of the marble Byzantine chancel screen post re- used as an impost of the NW arch of the porch (TMW-K 2019).
Fig. 176.13 Detail of tympanon of the recessed entrance door with the inscription of the 2nd construction phase in the N cross vaulted porch (TMW-K 2019).
Fig. 176.14 Interior view through the two cross vaulted W bays of the prayer hall, in the background qibla wall with miḥrāb and staircase of the minbar (TMW-K 2019).

Figures

[Fig. 176.1 ]
Sketch ground plan of mosque with N courtyard (TMW-K 2019).

[Fig. 176.2 ]
Exterior view of courtyard with N elevation of cross vaulted porch entrance (TMW-K 2019).

[Fig. 176.3 ]
Exterior view from NE with different masonries of the two construction phases (TMW-K 2019).

[Fig. 176.4 ]
Detail of two construction phases masonry on exterior E evelation (TMW-K 2019).

[Fig. 176.5 ]
View of the SE corner with the S and E elevations (TMWK 2019).

[Fig. 176.6 ]
Frontal view of exterior S elevation (TMW-K 2019).

[Fig. 176.7 ]
Exterior view SW corner (TMW-K 2019).

[Fig. 176.8 ]
Detail of conglomerate fossile limestone blocks in isodomic construction with a minimal use of mortar (TMW-K 2019).

[Fig. 176.9 ]
Detail of the recessed entrance door of the 2nd construction phase in the N cross vaulted porch (TMW-K 2019).

[Figs. 176.10-11 ]
Views through the cross vaulted entrance porch, the former N nave of the 1st construction phase from W (left) und E (right) (TMW-K 2019).

[Fig. 176.12 ]
Detail of the marble Byzantine chancel screen post re- used as an impost of the NW arch of the porch (TMW-K 2019).

[Fig. 176.13 ]
Detail of tympanon of the recessed entrance door with the inscription of the 2nd construction phase in the N cross vaulted porch (TMW-K 2019).

[Fig. 176.14 ]
Interior view through the two cross vaulted W bays of the prayer hall, in the background qibla wall with miḥrāb and staircase of the minbar (TMW-K 2019).