Letter M

250. Medwar Nōl, al- | المدور

al-Mafraq Governorate

Jāmi‘ / Masjid Salāḥ ad-Dīn

JADIS no. 2418020

MEGA no. 13009

Coordinates: 32°17'12.7"N 35°59'48.7"E

32.286861, 35.996861

 

 

Plan: The mosque rises on an artificial terrace. The plan is rectangular with entrance from N facing the miḥrāb incorporated in the S wall. The entrance is flanked on each side by double windows recessed to inside; two windows with arched lintels in the S-wall on both sides of the miḥrāb; another window in the center of W wall.

Measurements: 67.9 m2

Exterior: 11.5 - 10.9 x 8.3 m without terrace which is 3.8 m wide.

Interior: 6.90 x 9.80 m.

Building Materials: The used building materials consist of industrially fabricated naif (“clean”) limestone blocks which are generally well cut with or without rustica from stone cutting workshops.

Construction details: The masonry is executed up to 17 courses in isodomic, partly in “headers and-stretchers” bondage. The two windows in the S wall have arched upper frames. The double windows in the N wall are recessed in the wall in a broad niche terminating in a segmental arch, but their lintels consists each of a monolithic horizontal beam. The lower part of the N exterior elevation is plastered and whitewashed emphasizing the space above the windows with four flat arches and the semicircular upper end of the door. The door itself is recessing in its arched frame, in the tympanon the new Arabic inscription. Two massive pillars are placed in the center of the prayer hall. They support a grid of transversal steel I-beams laid upon them in the latitudinal extension of the prayer hall, embedded with their ends into the crowns of the short supporting walls. Superimposed on them, a series of perpendicular steel I-beams.

Preservation: intact, but presently not in use for Muslim prayer.

Inscription(s): rectangular reddish limestone slab with three lines of Arabic script in relief and painted black: The Muslim shuhāda followed by Q. 9 al-Tawbah, 18, in the last line the dedication date according to the Muslim calendar:

 

Translation: “There is no god but Allāh. Muḥammad is the messenger of Allāh.The mosques of Allāh shall be maintained by who believes in Allāh and the Last Day (Q. 9 at-Tawbah, 18, first part). This mosque was rebuilt with the efforts of the people of charity. In 15 Rajab, year 1343”

 

Date(s): 15th Rajab 1343 H = 9th February 1925 for the present building constructed in place of an older preceding mosque.

Traveler Reports: none known.

Bibliography: Mittmann 1970, 116 no. 303; Michel 2001, 423; Rjoub – Housan 2013, 477 no. 17.

 
Fig. 250.1 Sketch ground plan (NJ 2019).
Fig. 250.2 Sketch perspective from NE (NJ 2019).
Fig. 250.3 Exterior N elevation with door flanked by double windows (TMW-K 2019).
Fig. 250.4 Exterior S elevation with two windows with arched upper frames (TMW-K 2019).
Fig. 250.5 Interior view of S qibla wall with miḥrāb (TMW-K 2019).
Fig. 250.6 Interior view of prayer hall with miḥrāb from E (TMW-K 2019).
Fig. 250.7 Interior view of double window in N wall (TMW-K 2019).
Fig. 250.8 Roof construction with pillars an steel I-beams (TMW-K 2019).

Figures

[Fig. 250.1 ]
Sketch ground plan (NJ 2019).

[Fig. 250.2 ]
Sketch perspective from NE (NJ 2019).

[Fig. 250.3 ]
Exterior N elevation with door flanked by double windows (TMW-K 2019).

[Fig. 250.4 ]
Exterior S elevation with two windows with arched upper frames (TMW-K 2019).

[Fig. 250.5 ]
Interior view of S qibla wall with miḥrāb (TMW-K 2019).

[Fig. 250.6 ]
Interior view of prayer hall with miḥrāb from E (TMW-K 2019).

[Fig. 250.7 ]
Interior view of double window in N wall (TMW-K 2019).

[Fig. 250.8 ]
Roof construction with pillars an steel I-beams (TMW-K 2019).