191. Kerak | الكرك

al-Kerak Governorate

Jāmi‘ al-’Umari

JADIS no. none

MEGA no. none

Coordinates: 31°11'07.6"N 35°42'19.8"E

31.185444, 35.705500

Plan: not retrievable since the historical mosque which laid in ruins during the 19th century has entirely been rebuilt in recent times.

Measurements: unknown.

Exterior: unknown.

Interior: unknown.

Building Materials: unknown.

Construction details: unknown.

Preservation: entirely modern built on the ruins of the old congregational Friday mosque.

Inscriptions (communicated by UHü): Three inscriptions are displayed at the N façade with modern stone frames to the left of the present entrance. The middle one (1)has five lines in Mamluk nashki and refers to a construction during the reign of the Ayyubid al-Malik alĀdilī (ruled 592 H /1196 AD) and his deputy officer Bargdash / Bazghush (608 H /1211-1212 AD): 

Translation: “ In the name of Allāh, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Of what ordered its construction, the most splendid Lord,│the ruler, the just, the victorious, the generous, the supporter of Islam, the aider of humankind, the sword │ of the world and religion, the sulṭān of Islam and the Muslims, the repressor of the unbelievers and the polytheists,│Abū Bakr ibn Ayyūb, the reviver of the state of the commander of the faithful, under the supervision of the most splendid commander │Ṣārim al-Dīn Abī Mizwad Bazghush al-‘Ādilī in Jumādā the first, year seven and six hundred.” (Translation by NAt and RS).

Date: Jumādā 1^st 792 H. / 17^th April-16^th Mai 1390 AD.

Bibliography: RCEA X (19 ) 276, No. 3800A; D. S. Richards, in: Pringle 1993. 287, no. 129; Momani 2015, 150-151 No. 10.

The second inscription (2, at the bottom) is as well of Mamluk date and written in three lines on a long marble slab (0.39 m x 2,26 m). It reports about tax privileges granted to the inhabitants of al-Kerak. It does not make reference to any construction work:

Translation: “May Allāh make his reign last, to be magnanimous to the people of al-Karak, the well-guarded, with regard to their possessions and their homes and their endowments and their gardens from the ḥikr taxes, │and its total is seventy thousand dirḥams, in a liberal way, permanently, continuously with the passage of the days and the years.‘Whoever changes it after it was granted, his sin is upon those who changed it, for God is All-Hearing, All-Wise’. (Q. 2 al-baqarah, 181) │and that in the deputyship of the ruler al-Ṣayfī, the ruler al-Ẓāhirī, the deputy of al-Karak and al-Shōbak, may God strengthen his victories, on the date of the month of Jumādā the First, year two and ninety and seven hundred.” (Translation by NAt and RS).

The third inscription (3, in the present position the upper one) is the lintel most probably of the old congregational mosque as it had been reported by travelers of the 19^th century (Duc de Luynes 1871, 201) lying close to the door of the minaret. It dates to the reign of Sulṭān Barqūq 784 H /1382 AD with Manklī (780-783 H/ 1378-1382 AD) as governor al-Kerak. He was the dedicator himself, or his Mamluk officer Zayn ad-Dīn Barka al-Jūbānī, amīr maghlis in 779 H/1377-78 AD, who according to Mayer (1933, 21999 101) was “Perhaps identical with Z. Baraka al-Ǧūbānī, amīr maǧlis in 779/1377-78, [...] who was imprisoned in Alexandria and executed in 782/1380.” The inscription was already damaged in the time of the visit of L. A. Mayer (1933); it preserves only the three upper lines in flat relief. The fourth line is missing today. The text was either undated or the Hijri year (original or added later) is destroyed in the present text.The inscription, therefore, can be dated prior to 1380/81 AD (according TEI no. 1448):

Transcription: Compassionate. Renewed the construction of this door and the blessed corner the most noble ruler al-Zaynī Barakah, the head of the deputy of al-Malik al-Manṣūr, may God glorify his victories, from his blessed money, with the mediation of the ruler Sayf al-Mankalī al- Ṭarkhānī, the deputy of al-Karak, the well-guarded, may Allāh secure it and that in the year two and eighty and seven hundred.” (H 782 / 7th April 1380-28th March 1381 AD [translation by NAt and RS]).

Date: Momani 2015, 138 traces the origin of the mosque back to the Rashidūn Caliph of ‘Umar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb but such an assignation lacks any historic evidence. Inscription 1 is precisely dated to Jumādā 1^st 792 H. / between 17^th April and 16^th Mai 1390 AD, but it remains undecided whether the celebrated inauguration was that of the congregational mosque or of any other building in the town. Inscription 2 witnesses tax privileges of the people of al-Kerak in 792 H /1390 AD. Inscription 3 mentions a “renewed construction”, probably the addition of a minaret, ten years earlier in 782 H / 1380/81 AD.

Traveler Reports: “A good mosque, built by Melek el Dhaher, is now in ruins” (Burckhardt 1822); “There are also the remains of a mosque with pointed arches, and an octagonal minaret, with a band of black stone carried around it; the whole is much in ruins. Over the doorway is a pointed horseshoe arch like that at the khan at Bysan; and amongst the ornaments the cup is repeated several times” (Irby - Mangles 1845).

Bibliography: Burckhardt 1822, 380; Irby - Mangles 1845, 110; H. Sauvaire, in: Duc de Luynes 1871, 201-202 no. 18-19; RCEA X (1942) 276, No. 3800A; XVII (1982) 314, no. 782 004 (= TEI no. 1149); RCEA, XVIII (19), n° 792 003. = TEI no. 7082; Sharon 2007, 126- 130. No. 54, MvB67-69; Mayer 1933. 21999, 101-102; D. S. Richards, in: D. Pringle, Corpus I, 1998, 287, Nr. 129; Meinecke 1992, 263; Majali 2005, 37-41; 163 plan 1; 208 sections 1-4; 233-234 figs. 1a-c; Rawadiyah 2007, II, 264; Momani 2015, 137-164; Hattab 2015, 200-201; Schick 2020, no. 56.