180. Jerash / Gerasa of the Decapolis /Antiocheia ad Chrysorrhoam | جرش / جراسا

Jerash Governorate

Jâmi’

JADIS no. none

MEGA no. 2987

Coordinates: 32°16'45.1"N 35°53'40.7"E

32.279192, 35.894647

Plan: The Muslim prayer hall was built into the preexisting Roman baths. For this purpose, the northern frigidarium was only slightly transformed by the installation of the two prayer niches in its S-wall. The W passage from the neighboring bathing hall (fig. 180.5) probably served as the main entrance at that time, since a Roman limestone sarcophagus with peltae-decoration on the long sides is reused as a water trough for liturgical ablution. This bathing hall is of rectangular plan and was accessible from the N through an arched doorway and a smaller door from the neighboring halls at the W. In the S wall a central miḥrāb has been built into the Roman wall and to the left of it is a second niche (fig. 180. 3-4). After the Circassian resettlement a circular pool was dug in front of the central niche.

Measurements: unknown.

Exterior: unknown.

Interior: unknown.

Building Materials: original Roman limestone blocks with dowel holes for attaching marble wall cladding panels.

Construction details: The miḥrāb is in the S-wall in the typical technique with half-dome, constructed of curved

ancient stone blocks (fig. 180.4).

Preservation: Ruin.

Inscription(s): none known.

Date(s): The prayer hall was in operation before the Circassians arrived. In 1879, they built their own mosque (no. 181) outside to the SE area of the Roman Eastern Baths. The abandonment of this prayer room is witnessed by the round water basin dug by the Circassians in front of the miḥrāb. The use of the Roman frigidarium for the Islamic religious liturgy can only be guessed to some extent. For the time of this secondary use, the ‘Abbasid, Mamluk and early Ottoman epochs can be assumed.

Bibliography: Lepaon 2013, without interpretation of the frigidarium reused as a prayer hall in the Islamic period.