Letter J
about 40 km southeast of Safāwi (Mafraq Governorate)
Explicitely named “masjid” in inscription (5) line 7, open air desert mosque
JADIS no. none
MEGA no. none
Coordinates: 32°02'23.6"N 37°30'16.2"E
32.039900, 37.504500
Plan: approximately circular, only faint traces of the miḥrāb are still visible.
Measurements: unknown.
Exterior: unknown.
Interior: unknown.
Building Materials: basalt.
Construction details: walls piled up of unworked basalt boulders; probably once partly covered by a tent.
Preservation: destroyed because only one layer of stone lining is preserved (Manaseer - Elis 2018).
Inscription(s): six stones with eleven Arabic inscriptions mainly with Islamic invocative contents (photos, transcription and translations by Manaseer - Elis 2018).
(1) Incised on an unworked basalt stone in five lines, in the upper sector of the stone:
Translation: “Oh Allāh|, forgive (al-Waḥid ibn al-Hadhīl |and his parents and his sons. Amen | Lord of the worlds.”
(2) continues on the same stone but with a different Arabic handwriting. Therefore, it might be of later, may-be of recent date. Manaseer - Ellis 2018 did not give neither an transcription nor an translation.
(3) is an Arabic Islamic inscription incised on stone no. 2 in four lines framed by an oval line:
Translation: “It is related to the prophet of Allāh, Allāh bless him and grant him peace, | that he said, bless him, three [kinds of people] will not smell the smells | of paradise, whose smells can be smelt from a 500-year walk away: addicts | to al-khamar (alcohol) and disobedience [towards] both of one’s parents and the adulterer [if they] are not [will not be] penitent” Immediately below it, the dated Arabic islamic inscription (4) is incised running over five lines:
Translation: “ Oh Allāh, forgive Mash‘al ibn | Jābir ibn Salmān ibn |Khazaʿl from al-Mashārkah | [and] he wrote [it in] the year 747 [H].”
Inscription (5) is on stone no. 3, incised over nine lines:
Translation: “In the name of Allāh, the Merciful, the Compassionate (bismillāh). | Oh Allāh, forgive Ziyād bin | Wahab and his parents | and their offspring and the | (male) believers and (female) believers and | whoever prays in this | mosque [scil.: “masjid”] among | the Muslims. May | Allāh hear and accept (his/her prayer).”
Inscription (6) is chiselled on a broad oval basalt boulder over four lines:
Translation:”In the name of Allāh, the Merciful, the Compassionate (bismillāh)| Oh Allāh, forgive Hamīd | bin Sahmān for what he formerly committed | [in the way of] sins.”
Inscription (7) runs on two lines only:
Translation: “Allāh forgive Rayyān bin ʿAṭā for what he formerly committed | in the way of sins and what he will do in future. May Allāh hear [his prayer].”
Inscription (8) is chiselled on a trapezoid boulder and occupies one line only on top of the subsequent one:
Translation: “Allāh forgive Muḥammad bin Qāhir bin Sulaymān.”
Inscription (9) follows on the same stone immediately below it. The duct of the characters is slightly oblique and it runs on seven lines:
Translation: “Praise be to Allāh, Who created | the heavens and the earth. And He | hath power over all things. Who knows | (all things) both secret and open. I | ask [Allāh] that the paradise [be his] residence and the believers as companions [in the paradise]| Mankind who saith: “Our Lord! Give unto us in the world”,| and he hath no portion in the Hereafter.”
Inscription (10), together with the two following ones, has been engraved on an unworked basalt slab with pointed lower and rounded upper end. It is at the top sector of the stone and runs over three lines:
Translation: “Oh Allāh, forgive ʿAbd al-Waḥid | bin al- Hadhīl his sins. | Amen Lord of the worlds.”
Inscription (11) is in the central sector of the stone and runs over three lines:
Translation: “Oh Allāh, forgive | Saʿīd | bin Qadāmah.”
Inscription (12) is in the lower section of the stone and runs over three lines:
Translation: “Oh Allāh, forgive Kalhā | [bin] Salīm and | his parents.”
Date(s): Inscription (4) gives the date H 747 = AD 1346. A recent visit dated to 1982 is witnessed by a modern grafitto.
Traveler Reports: none known.
Bibliography: Manaseer - Elis 2018, 68-86.
