Letter K
Madaba Governorate
Jāmi‘ / Masjid
JADIS no. 221 2001
MEGA no. 5691, mosque 3034.
Coordinates: 31°44'34.0"N 35°47'16.0"E
31.742778, 35.787778
Plan: broad rectangular with central entrance in N wall facing miḥrāb in S-wall. The E and S exterior walls are reinforced by massive banquets, in the E one remains of the apse and pastophoria of the church. The interior was subdivided by four columns into three naves running parallel to the S-wall. The roof was supported by two arcades with triple transversal arches in the mid of prayer hall running E to W.
Measurements: unknown.
Exterior: unknown.
Interior: unknown.
Building Materials: local limestone.
Construction details: coarsely squared limestone blocks in two sided masonry in horizontal courses bond with mortar; many of the joints have new concrete due to recent conservation. The column shafts are obviously Roman spolia reused for the arcades of the church.
Preservation: Conserved and surrounded by a recently built field stone wall. The building is ruined, presently not used for Muslim prayer.
Inscription(s): Several Byzantine mosaic inscriptions, (cf. Gatier 1986). The mosaic were partly removed by the DoA and stored in the old governmental rest house, today in the archaeological Museum at Madāba.
Date(s): Mamluk (Picirillo 1988, 461): “La moschea fu costruita in epoca Mamelucca [a guidare dalla ceramica recuperata nel letto dell‘ intonaco de pavimento] nel corpo di una chiesa preestistente, con esclusione del presbiterio.”
Traveler Reports: “North of the Sarbut or pillar already described as the peculiar feature of this ruin, and about 50 yards from it, are remains of the tower, which is also a conspicuous object at this site. It measures outside 20 paces (50 feet) north and south, by 25 paces (67 feet) east and west. There are several pillar-shafts lying near this tower, and on the west is a well, the mouth of which has been stopped with such a shaft. Inside the tower a capital of the Corinthian order 17 inches in diameter, and a very simple base 20 inches in diameter of shaft, were measured and drawn. The tower walls are standing to a height of about 10 feet. The interior is much filled with accumulated rubbish. The sloping scarp has fallen down on the north side, showing the face of the vertical wall. This tower somewhat resembles the Jamia el Arbain at Shiloh (see ‘Memoirs Western Palestine’, vol. ii., p. 369) .... A building was also found west of the tower, of which only foundations remain, with fallen pillars shafts and ruined vaults, while on the ground close by lies a lintel-stone, broken at one end. It is 1 foot 9 inches high, and the present length is 4 feet's inches. A curious cross is incised upon it 2 feet broad and ii feet high, with the ends furcated, as shown in the sketch on p. 137*, about it was well built originally, with vertical walls, but onto these a sloping scarp of rougher masonry has been built, but is not bonded in. On the north side is a door, with a fallen lintel in front of it. The lintel and the doorjambs are of well-cut and squared masonry; the rest of the walls are built of stones more rudely finished. On the door are ausm, or tribemarks, of the Adwan and Beni Sakhr Arabs, including the cross, which is said to be used as a tribe-mark not only by the Christian men of es Salṭ when living as nomads, but also by the Jibbur, a division of the Beni Sakhr (this same tribe also uses the ‘raven‘s foot’ as a tribe-mark). The first mark is the ‘Adwan Mutluk, but the rest are Beni Sahkr marks. We have thus evidence that Kefeir Abū Sarbut is a Christian ruin, and, with the other sites near it, it is probably to be ascribed to the fourth century at earliest, as all the buildings existing at this site are of one style and character.” (Conder 1889); “Kfêr abû Sarbût erscheint als eine umfangreiche Ruine mit einer einzeln stehenden Säule und einen zerfallenen mohammedanischen Bethause. Man findet hier auch zahlreiche Bruchstücke schön ausgeführter Kapitäler” (A. Musil 1898, in: Arabia Petraea I).
Bibliography: Conder 1889,136-138; Arabia Petraea I, 216; Gatier 1986, 114-116 (Byzantine mosaic inscriptions); Piccirillo 1988, 461; Piccirillo 1992, 245 fig. 408; Ajlouni 1992, 32-33; Daradkeh 1998, 41-44; Kakish 2007, 275 no. 83 fig. 155; Sqour - Abu Ghanimeh 2014, 3 with note 14.
