214. Kufr Jāyiz | كُفُر جايز

Irbid Governorate

Jāmi‘ / Masjid Kufr Jāyiz al-qadīm

JADIS no. 2222040

MEGA no. 2820, mosque 16745.

Coordinates: 32°37'07.8"N 35°49'27.0"E

32.618833, 35.824167

Plan: rectangular.

Measurements: unknown.

Exterior: unknown.

Interior: unknown.

Building Materials: local limestone

Construction details: unknown.

Preservation: intact, daily used for Muslim prayer.

Inscription(s): a modern sign above the entrance:

Plan: broad rectangular, single nave. Two pointed cross vaults rest on buttresses in the corners and at the N-S walls. They divide the room in two bays, the E one almost square, the W one rectangular. The door in the N wall opens in the NW corner of the E bay. The miḥrāb is slightly shifted from the door axis to the E. Single windows in the centers of the N, W and S walls of the W bay, another one in the center of the E wall of the E bay. At the exterior NE corner an external staircase leads from the N to the roof top for the prayer call.

Measurements: 77.72 m²

Exterior: unknown.

Interior: 11.5 m x 6.7 cm.

Building Materials: basalt and limestone blocks mixed. The Roman basalt sarcophagus mentioned by Mittmann (1970) as entrance lintel has disappeared.

Construction details: The cross vaults have a flat rounded curvature and are partly coarsely executed. The mosque was recently plastered from the exterior and interior; inside walls plastered and whitewashed, the pedestral zone is painted in blue; the miḥrāb is clad with green ceramic tiles (fig. 214.6).

Preservation: Intact, but recently renewed and enlarged by an additional prayer hall to the N.

Inscription(s): none known.

Date(s): The plan is frequently attested in the area. It occurs, for instance, at the mosques at Umm Qēs (no. 407) and Bishra (no. 69), both of them dated to the end of the 19th century. These parallels would consequently imply the same date of the Kufr Jāyiz old mosque.

Traveler Reports: “Über dem Eingang der Moschee ist eine mit zwei Rundscheiben ornamentierte Sarkophagwand (Basalt) als Türsturz vermauert”(Mittmann 1970).

Bibliography: Schumacher 1890 (repr. 2010) 22. 179; Steuernagel 1927, 480; Mittmann 1970, 27-28 no. 56; Rawadiyah 2007, II, 295; Ta‘an 2019, 109-110 figs. 3.95-98.