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

Irbid Governorate

Maqām / Weli ash-Shēkh al-Mustarīḥī

JADIS no. 2121067

MEGA no. 46975 (maqām not registered as site element)

Coordinates: 32°31'18.0"N 35°42'20.0"E

32.521667, 35.705556

Plan: On a fissured rectilinear (N-S) stepped line of the naturally grown limestone cliff rises an impressive stone oak tree which shadows a group of recent tombs.

Measurements: unknown.

Exterior: unknown.

Interior: unknown.

Building Materials: local limestone.

Construction details: unknown.

Preservation: ruin.

Inscription(s): none known.

Date(s): Around the trunk of the stone oak tree are various light ochre to rose-limestones with fossil inclusions. Some of them, lying around the trunk of the tree, are partially of well-dressed workmanship. A local informant narrated about an indigenous Muslim saint named Shēkh Abd al-Khāder al-Jelānī, who spent his life in the (now collapsed) caves underneath the rocky spur. During the stay in this hermitage, he was miraculously fed by bees of the surrounding meadows and hills. He was venerated by the locals for various medical healing. 

Traveler Reports: “In Norden des Dorfes findet sich eine Gruppe prachtvoller mallûl-Bäume, schedscharât esch schêch el-mustarîhî mit den Resten eines Welis” (Steuernagel 1927).

Bibliography: Steuernagel 1927, A 419.