239. Malkā | ملكا

Irbid Governorate

Maqām Shēkh ‘Umar, today commonly known by the local inhabitants as maqām Shēkh Yūsef al-Malkāwi or maqām ar-Rūmī.

JADIS no. none

MEGA no. none

Coordinates: 32°40'26.2"N 35°45'08.0"E

32.673939, 35.752222

Plan: The mausoleum is located within an old abandoned cemetery, surrounded by a concrete enclosure wall with a gate in the SE; associated with several old and mostly destroyed tombs, partly with inscribed head-stones with dates of the late 19th century AD. Overshadowed by several highly grown conifers the domed maqām has an almost square ground plan with rounded corners; exterior walls stepped in the upper level. The entrance door is in the middle of the N wall. Opposite of it, in the S wall below the arch, a small square light hole (window) is opened. The chamber is covered by a semi globular dome resting on four semicircular wall arches along all four sides of the burial chamber with inserted pendatifs. In the W interior wall, to the left of the entrance door, is a small square wall niche. Perpendicularly to the E wall are two plastered tombs in E-W orientation (figs. 239.6.8). To the right side of the middle one might have been a third tomb, but it is today entirely dismantled and dug up by treasure hunters.

Measurements: 18.18 m²

Exterior: 5.18 x 6.0 m.

Interior: 4.3 x 4.23 m; thickness of N wall with door 1.05m; all other walls ca. 0.80 m.

Building Materials: brown to yellow soft limestone of local origin. The building is widely covered by whitewashed plaster; the tombs and the outside mantle of the dome are painted in bright turquoise (fig. 239.7).

Construction details: On the S and the W interior walls the plaster has been partly destroyed by treasure hunters. Under the plaster coarsely constructed masonry of semi dressed limestone blocks with brown earth fill in the joints (cf. fig. 239.6).

Preservation: In contrast to G. Schumacher’s (Steuernagel 1927) remarks on the careful maintenance of the shrine at his time, the shrine is widely neglected today. The metal door stands permanently open and the tombs are partly vandalized. The plaster floor from the threshold of the door onto the two preserved tombs has been broken with heavy tools and dug up. There are no indications for recent memorial visits of the site even though the buried individuals are said to be the ancestral Sheūkh of the large local Malkāwi family from the present village.

Inscription(s): none known.

Date: most probably earlier Ottoman period due to the similarity of the dome construction to other comparable buildings in the area such as at aṭ-Ṭaybe (no. 381), Ḥōfa al-Wusṭīyah (no. 137), Dēr al-Lyāt (no. 88), and others.

Traveler Reports: “The southern extremety of the village is decorated by a neatly-kept, whitewashed, and cupolated shrine called the Makâm esh-Sheikh Omar” (Schumacher 1890 (repr. 2010); “Am Südende (scil.: des Dorfes) bildet eine Zierde der saubergehaltene, weißgetünchte Kuppelbau des makam esch schēch ‘omar” (Steuernagel 1927).

Bibliography: Schumacher 1890 (repr. 2010) 80; Steuernagel 1927, A. 502