221. Kufr Rākib | كُفُر راكب

Irbid Governorate

Maqām / Weli Shēkh Muḥammad (‘Abd Allāh) ar-Rabābah (“Abū Dhābleh”).

JADIS no. none

MEGA no. none

Coordinates: 32°47'14.7"N 35°41'25.2"E

32.487417, 35.690333

Plan: The mausoleum has a closed narrow trapezoid courtyard with an entrance separated from the common cemetery. In the SE corner of the courtyard is a simple plastered green painted tomb of an unknown personality. The building is rectangular in its ground plan with centralized high miḥrāb niche incorporated into the masonry of the S wall. The E sector has a rectangular annex covered by a barrel vault. The tomb occupies the space immediately in front of the miḥrāb in E-W orientation; door in the N wall shifted to the W from the axis of the niche; in the E and W walls each a broad window with semicircular top, newly arranged as a double window by the modern revetment.

Measurements: 44.64 m²

Exterior: ca. 8 x 9 m.

Interior: 7.44 x ca. 6 m.

Building Materials: local brown limestone, the interior is entirely plastered and whitewashed. The concrete dome is painted green on its exterior surface. Construction details: The exterior masonry has been covered by a revetment of new industrially fabricated greyish-white limestone slabs (thickness 0.35m) in 2008. The semiglobular, slightly pointed concrete dome rests on pendentifs in the groins of flat semicircular arches.

Preservation: located at the NE border of the cemetery, surrounded in the S and E by graves of mainly recent date. The mausoleum has been restored in 2008 and is still today visited by the local community, maintained by the ar-Rabābah family.

Inscription(s): none known.

Date(s): According local apocryphical tradition, Shēkh Muḥammad ‘Abd Allāh was the ancestor of the ar-Rabābah family and the owner of the thermal springs near Tabaqāt Faḥl (Steuernagel 1927). He is said having lived in the later 16th century and died around AD 1600. The maqām, therefore, might date back to the early Ottoman period and underwent various restorations in subsequent time. A close parallel in plan is the maqām of Shēkh Bakr al-Liyāḥ al-Qāderi at Dēr Liyāt (no. 88). The dome had been collapsed and was rebuilt in the year 2008. Information submitted by Dr. Hussein ar-Rabābah, Mu’tā University (rabab3h @mutah.edu.jo)

Traveler Reports: “Das oben erwähnte Dorf Kafr Râkib, bei dem sich das mit einer Kuppel bedeckte Weli des Shêch Mohammad abû dâble, des Eigentümers der hammet abû dâble, befindet, liegt am Oberlauf des Tales an dessen Südrand... Mit dem Weli steht auch die medâfe (Herberge), die zâwijet abû dâble, in Zusammenhang” (Steuernagel 1927).

Bibliography: Steuernagel 1927, A 405; Rawadiyah 2007, II, 298.