22. ‘Ajlūn | عجلون

‘Ajlūn Governorate

Maqām Shēkh (Sidi) Badr.

JADIS no. none

MEGA no. 58152

Coordinates: 32°19'50.0"N 35°45'05.0"E

32.330556, 35.751389

Plan: The maqām consists of two domed burial chambers, one in the NE (2) and the second in the SW (1). Both have adjoining prayer houses with niches in the S walls. The SW burial chamber has a cruciform floor plan formed by deep wall arches with pendentifs. There is a small window in the W wall, which corresponds with the door in the E wall. A corridor extending from there to the E wall connects the mausoleum with the long rectangular mosque. In the NE sector of the mosque’s N wall the second tomb building with a rectangular ground plan adjacent. Today this is opened to N by a wide arch. W of it there is a second, but partly destroyed mosque of  rectangular ground plan. Its S wall joins the N wall of the first mausoleum.

Measurements: Total area 133.3 m2

Exterior: unknown.

Interior: unknown.

Building Materials: brown and yellow limestone blocks of different sizes, partly of ancient origin.

Construction details: two sided masonry with rubble fill. Both funeral chambers have four arches along the interior walls carrying the domes with pendantifs inserted into the groins.

Preservation: partly ruined, both burial chambers intact; recently restored.

Inscription(s): long Arabic inscription, lost today. Date(s): Ayyubid-Mamluk.

Traveler Reports: “Jenseits des Flusses, im Süden des Dorfes, liegt ferner ein altes, halb zerfallenes Weli des Sheikh Badr mit einer langen, gänzlich vermoosten Inschrift und mit Bäumen. Dabei befindet sich ein auffallend ausgedehnter alter Friedhof, auf dem die Beduinen von weit her begraben haben müssen. Hier fanden sich sehr viele arabische Münzen aus der Zeit Saladins. Demnach scheint Adschlun in der arabischen Geschichte, etwa um das 12. und 13. Jahrhundert, eine sehr große Rolle gespielt zu haben.“ (Steuernagel 1927).

Bibliography: Steuernagel 1927, A 304; Ghawanimeh 1986a, 71-82figs. 57-65; McKenzie 2002, 618-619 fig. 4; MMU IV, 318 (A. M. al-Qudhah).; Hattab 2015, 196.