Letter K
199. Khārja | خرجا
Irbid Governorate
Jāmi‘ / masjid Khārja al-qadīm
JADIS no. 2322021
MEGA no. 2789, mosque 16438
Coordinates: 32°39'32.5"N 35°53'12.5"E
32.659028, 35.886806
Plan: broad rectangular, oriented with the long sides from E-W, free standing without courtyard (saḥn), rising on a podium (ziyādeh) protruding in S, W and N; rounded miḥrāb protruding from S exterior wall slightly decentered towards E; entrance from E, flanked by two windows; a further window openings on both sides of the miḥrāb, in the W wall other three windows; at the NE corner stone blocks inserted into the exterior masonry serving as stairs to reach the minaret which occupies the NE roof corner. The minaret is square in plan and consists of three superimposed cubes of different dimensions; interior divided by five double arches of varying widths transversally from N-S into six bays, running perpendicular to the qibah wall. These arches rest each on a basalt column drums crowned by Roman cubic pedestals and one reversed basalt Attic-Ionic column base; there is a well inside the mosque on the NE side; miḥrāb recesses from the qibla wall in the S.
Measurements: 162 m2
Exterior: 15 m x 10.8 m
Interior: unknown.
Building Materials: dressed limestone of irregular block sizes, variously combined with basalt blocks and decorated Roman spolia; the voussoirs of the transversal arches of carefully cut limestones; the roof of the mosque built by reeds and wooden beams. In the foundation zone of the E side, S of entrance, is a reused Roman basalt sarcophagus displaying a garland (originally held on both ends by naked boys or Erotes) on the long side seen from outside, on the corresponding long side (seen from inside the mosque) two lion heads holding rings in their mouths (2nd – 3rd centuries AD); between entrance and S window of the E elevation fragment of a limestone tomb door decorated with perpendicular vegetal scrolls (2nd century AD). The lintel of the E main entrance is a Roman basalt molded cornice fragment. It carries a segmental arch of limestone.
Construction details: masonry outside in horizontal layers of bigger blocks altering with leveling layers of smaller flakes (opus listatum), bond with brown lime mortar.
Preservation: renovation of the mosque in 2017 by new whitewashed plastering of the interior walls and a new coverage of the cane reeds resting on peeled wooden beams of interior roof; New wooden structure for the minbar.
Inscription(s): none known.
Date(s): In present state Ottoman Period, 1872 AD with older predecessors (Mamluk?), according to oral information by local inhabitants, the mosque goes back to the years immediately after the near-by Yarmuk battle, allegedly founded by Khaled ibn Walīd in person.
Traveler Reports: „Im Südosten des Dorfes steht eine zerfallene dschâmi‘ mit Überresten von Säulenstümpfen, korinthischen Kapitellen und zwei Basaltsarkophagen, von den letzteren zeigt der eine Löwenköpfe als Ornament, der andere 2,46 m lang und 0,95 m breit, ist mit Kränzen und Gewinden verziert und diente ehemals als Trog zu einer Quelle, die 1897 verschüttet war; das Steintor der Moschee ist mit antikem Laubwerk geschmückt. Die Gebetsnische ist noch sichtbar.“ (Steuernagel 1927).
Bibliography: Steuernagel 1927, A 134. 139. 490; Mittmann 1970, 19. 27-28; Daire 1988, 71 s.v. Hardja; Ta‘an 2019, 99-102 figs. 3.73-76. http://www.historyofjordan.com.
