Letter R
297. Ramthā, ar- | الرمثا
Irbid Governorate
Funeral masjid Shēkh Irshed, full name Shēkh Rashīd Ibraḥīm Muṣṭafā al-Zu‘bī.
JADIS no. 2421003
MEGA no. 2902
Coordinates: 32°33'40.0"N 36°00'40.8"E
32.561111, 36.011333
Plan: approximately square, with door in the N wall shifted to the left; a double window to the right of it. Another window of the same shape is pierced in the E wall. In the middle of the S wall is the miḥrāb inserted. Another large wall niche terminating in a flat arch is incorporated in the masonry in the center of the W wall. In front of the exterior S wall lies the isolated tomb (‘maqām’) of Shēkh Mubārak Ibraḥīm Muṣṭafa al-Khaṭēb al-Zu‘bī (died 1830 AD). The ten tombs inside the burial chamber are arranged in two rows, each tomb oriented from E to W. The recessed door is the N façade has two sitting benches on either side; it is framed by a high pointed arch with a blind lunette. The door opening and windows terminate in segmental arches.
Measurements: 47 m2
Exterior: 9.65 (N) x 9,63 (E) x 9,57 (S) x 9,69 (W) m.
Interior: 6.80 (NS without miḥrāb) x 6.92 m.
Building materials: predominantly brownish white limestone with the occasional insertion of black basalt.
Construction details: masonry of well-dressed massive limestone ashlars laid up to 15 horizontal rows in isodomic arrangement. Three rows below the hexagonal pseudo-tambour zone runs a thin decorative band of well-dressed basalt stones all around the four façades. The flat new dome sits inside an hexagonal tambour resting in the interior on rounded wall arches and pendantifs on corner buttresses. The interior of the dome including the pendantifs are thickly plastered and whitewashed. The zones of the interior walls are clad with grey polished stone slabs.
Preservation: The original funeral mosque is well preserved despite several recent renovations. The cemetery surrounding the mausoleum is still in use by the Zu‘bī family.
Inscription(s): Above the entrance is an Arabic inscription in six lines carved on a recessed rectangular limestone slab, whitewashed, in flat relief:
Translation: “ In the name of Allāh, the most Merciful, the most Compassionatr ǀ A victory from Allāh and the salvation is coming soon! This holy shrine was constructed for ǀ Shēkh Rashīd, the son of the late Shēkh ǀ Ibraḥīm al-Zu’bī (in the year) 1191 (Hijri) ǀ The master Ḥaṣan (Bakr?) al-Nabūlsī (made it)” (N. al-Khazali, with additions by NAt).
Date: The inscription gives in the fourth line the date H 1191 = AD 1776 / 77. The mosque was built on 1776 AD by the Palestinian mason Ḥaṣan (Bakr?) al-Nabūlsī in honor of Shēkh Irshed by order of Aḥmad al-Jazzār (1722-1804). The building distinguished at the time due to its construction of limestone ashlars as the inhabitants of ar-Ramthā still dwelled in caves. The shrine maintained its original function as a funeral mosque since that time. Later on, it was used as a Sūfi Zawīya, where individual and collective religious rituals were practiced. Traditionally up to present day it serves as the private cemetery for the Zu‘bī family, because its leading Shēkh Irshed (Rashīd) himself was reportedly buried there. According to historical photos (fig. 297.5), the dome was collapsed in the 1960s. The mosque was restored for last time in 1995. In its present condition the authentic appearance is widely preserved.
Traveler Reports: “Ähnlich Sitte ist es bei dem Heiligtum von ez-Za'bi in Remthe im Hauran. Nach Mitteilung einer Seijid- Araberin wird bei gefährlicher Erkrankung des Familienvaters dessen kleine Tochter einmal um das Krankenbett herumgeführt und dem genannten Heiligen geweiht. Nach Erlangung des heiratsfähigen Alters wird sie in bräutlichem Gewände auf ein geputztes Kamel gesetzt und dem Heiligtum zugeführt, wo sie ‚einem Nachkommen ez-Za‘bis, der dort als Priester fungiert, als Weib übergeben wird. Ich hörte von einem der Betreffenden, daß diese Sitte bei den Arabern so weit verbreitet wäre, daß zwischen l0 und 50 Mädchen jährlich den Priestern zugeführt würden. Diese verkauften sie entweder an einen Liebhaber oder gäben sie für eine Entschädigung frei oder heirateten sie selbst. Naturgemäß hat die Sache bei den Priestern und Nachkommen ez-Za'bi´s, deren mehr als 30 zu Remthe als Fagire ansässig sein sollen, jeglichen religiösen Anstrich verloren. Sie betrachten die ganze Sache rein als Geschäft, wobei man sich gegenseitig den Rang abzulaufen sucht. Ein Bauer in Remthe erzählte mir mit der üblichen Begeisterung von ez-Za'bi. Mit gewissem Stolz bemerkte er, daß allein in Remthe 15 Mädchen ihm geweiht seien und den Tag der Heimführung erwarteten.“ – (English translation from German by TMW-K): „It is a similar custom at the shrine of ez-Za'bi in Remthe in the Hauran. According to a Seijid Arab woman, when the father of the family is dangerously ill, his little daughter is led once around the sickbed and consecrated to the afore mentioned saint. After attaining marriageable age, she is placed on a groomed camel in bridal garb and taken to the shrine, where she is 'given as a wife to a descendant of ez-Za'bis, who acts as priest there. I heard from one of the people concerned that this custom was so widespread among the Arabs that between l0 and 50 girls were given to the priests annually. The priests either sold them to a lover or released them for compensation or married them themselves. Naturally, the priests and descendants of ez-Za'bi, more than 30 of whom are said to reside in Remthe as Fagirs, have lost all religious flavor. They regard the whole thing purely as business, trying to outdo each other. A farmer in Remthe told me with the usual enthusiasm about ez-Za'bi. With some pride he remarked that in Remthe alone 15 girls were consecrated to him and awaited the day of the homecoming.” - “Noch auffälliger tritt diese Tatsache in Remthe im Hauran zu Tage. Bei einem Besuch des Heiligtums des berühmten ez-Za‘bi findet man dort ein schön in Stand gehaltenes Gebäude neben einer zerstörten Moschee, und diese steht, was noch auffälliger ist, in den halb mit Erde angefüllten Ruinen einer alten christlichen Kirche“ (English translation from German by TMW-K): „Even more strikingly, this fact comes to light in Remthe in the Hauran. Visiting the sanctuary of the famous ez-Za'bi, one finds there a beautifully maintained building next to a ruined mosque, and this, what is even more striking, stands in the half-earth-filled ruins of an old Christian church.” (all quotations from Curtiss 1903).
Bibliography: Curtiss 1903, 192-193; 290-291; For the Ottoman tax registers of ar-Ramthā dated to AD 1596 see Hütteroth - Abdulfattah (1977) 214; for the maqām see Schumacher 1987a, 67; Zu‘bi 2002, 144-147; the oral history of the mosque is presently (2019) studied by Nida’ al-Khazali in an IFPO project.
