Letter R
‘Ammān Governorate
Maqām Aṣḥāb al-Kahf, complex consisting of three units: the venerable cave of the Seven Sleepers (no. 299) and two mosques (nos. 300-301)
JADIS no.: 2424002
MEGA no.: 2673
Coordinates: 31°53'55.6"N 35°58'25.6"E
31.898778, 35.973778
Plan: The complex consists of a rupestrian cave (no. 299) of the cross shaped arcosolium type with an elaborated rock-cut façade. The rocky terrain is artificially terraced and the tomb occupies the lower level. On the upper terrace a small mosque of square plan (no. 300) surmounts in part the underlying tomb. In front of the tomb’s façade extends a second mosque of broad rectangular plan ( no. 301). The E and W arcosolium annexes are filled with reach three rock-carved sarcophagi (two at the long sides and one at the short sides). There is an annexed square chamber in the N with three further rock-cut arcosolia. In the curved upper ceiling of the E arcosolium is a narrow vertical shaft connecting this burial chamber with the mosque above it (fig. 298.2).
Measurements: see here nos. 299-301.
Building Materials: The cave is cut into the extant limestone rock, while the two mosques have been constructed of blocks which have most probably been quarried in the immediate environments.
Construction details: described in the discussion of each of the three monuments (nos. 299-301).
Preservation: Before systematic excavations only the entrance to the tomb was known. The site underwent clearance and excavation by DoA in 1963 (Dajani), 1973 (G. Bisheh), 1978 (Zabian) and 1992 (M. Waheeb) uncovering the monuments seen today (Mhaoesh 2019, 16). The pilgrim complex is presently under the custody of the Jordanian Ministry of Wafq and Religious Affairs. The maqām and the two mosques related to it are protected by an enclosure fenced and maintained with much attention and care. The ancient monuments have been recently conserved. A sumptuous mosque was constructed in the earlier 2000s in the immediate western vicinity of the sacred tomb. The other rupestrian Roman hypogaea of the ar-Raqīm (figs. 298.5-6) are located today to the W of the new mosque and are not easy to access.
Inscription(s): quoted in the discussion of each of the three monuments (nos. 299-301).
Date(s): Late Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad, Ayyubid Mamluk, Ottoman and modern. Quranic Tradition: A full sura of the Q. (15 al-Kahf) is named “The Cave” and it alludes in verses 9-26 (The Dwellers of the Cave) to the Christian tale of the Seven Sleepers*.
* It may be worth to mention that the tale of the Seven Sleepers at ar- Raqīm was subject of an essay by Sasha Habjouqa, GJU, Department of Languages, submitted to a German writing competition. This was organized in 2013 by the novelist Felicitas Hoppe under the auspices of DAAD. Language students from 38 countries worldwide participated on it. The Jordanian student Sasha Habjouqa was awarded the 1st prize. Her essay has been published in: “Ein Märchen geht um die Welt”, ed. DAAD, Bonn 2013, 58-61. It reports on the apocryphal anecdote of a group of youths who hid inside a cave outside the city of Ephesus around 250 AD to escape a religious persecution and emerged some 300 years later. Various notices in the sura have been connected by Islamic commentators to the complex at ar-Raqīm even tough the place name is not explicitly mentioned. It is historically unclear at what time the Christian myth of the Seven Sleepers has been adopted by Islam. Those verses (reprinted after www.alkalam. pk) relevant for the religious interpretation of the site are the following ones: Q. 18 al-kahf, 17:
Translation: “Thou wouldst have seen the sun, when it rose, declining to the right from their cave, and when it set, turning away from them to the left, while they lay in the open space in the midst of the Cave. Such are among the signs of God; He whom God guides is rightly guided; but he whom God leaves to stray, – for him wilt thou find no protector to lead him to the Right Way” (Translation after Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The meaning of the Glorious Qur’ān (1934).
Traveler Reports: The earliest visits to the site are reported by Yāqūt and al-Muqaddasī for ‘Ubādah ibn as-Shāmit in H. 11/632 AD, for Mujāḥid ibn Yazīd in H 102/720 AD and the astrologer of Caliph al-Wāthiq Bi’llāh, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Munāyyim (between H 227-232 / 842-847 AD; for their treaties of this subject matter see Le Strange 1890, 277-283); Further later reports: (Harawī 18, 1) “Al-Balqā’ is a town that contains the Cave (al-Kahf) and al-Raqīm (Qur’ān 28:7-8/25- 26). Near it is a city called ‘Ammān that contains ancient ruins. Tradition maintains that it is the city of Diqyānūs (Decius). It is said that it also the city of the Giants (Q. 5 al-Mā’ida, 22). God knows best. We visited the Cave and al-Raqīm in Byzantium near the ruined city called Absis (Ephesus), which contains wondrous ruins and is near Ublustayn which is the city of Diqyānūs.” (Meri 2004, 36; cf. Sourdel-Thomine 1957, 46); ibn ‘Atīyyah (12th century): “In the Levant, there is a cave and inside the cave, there are dead bodies and remains of the bones of a dog. The people there claim that it is the cave of Seven Sleepers. There also is a mosque above the cave.” (ed. 1990, 1175). Usāma ibn Munqīdh (around AD 1150): “My route took me by the cave of the Seven Sleepers. So I stopped there and went to pray in the mosque, but I did not go through the narrow passage that one finds there. One of the amirs of the Turks who were with me, called Barshak, came, wanting to enter by the narrow cleft. I said ‘What are you doing for? Come and pray outside!’ -‘There is no God than God’ he replied. ‘I must be a bastard then if I can’t get through this narrow cleft’.- ‘What are you talking about?’ I asked. He said ‘This is a place that no son of adultery can pass through – he cannot enter’. What he said forced me to get up, enter by that spot, pray and come out again without - God knows - believing what he said. Indeed, most of the troops came and entered and prayed. Yet, in the army with me was Baraq al-Zunaydi, who had with him a slave of his, a black man, devout fellow, taken to praying a lot, and one of the tallest and leanest people. He came to that spot and tried with all his might to enter, but he could not get through. The poor fellow wept, moaning and sighing over and over, and then was left after failing to enter” (§ 88 = 174, translation P. M. Cobb 2008).
Bibliography: Le Strange 1898, 277-283; Clermont-Ganneau 1900, 1903; Provincia Arabia II. 1905, 195-207; Dajani 1964; Zayadine 1971; Lescot 1968; Ajlouni 1992, 32-33; Walmsley 2001, 534-536 figs. 15, 9-10; Zayadine 2002, 36-38; Waheeb 2003; Hübner 2006, 24-30; Hiyyari 2008, 15-17; Waziri 2010; Neveu 2010, 327-337; A. Tozzi di Marco 2011, 112-113; Sqour - Abu Ghanimeh 2014, 10 with note 46; Redlinger 2014, 14; Hattab 2015, 156-164; Tabbah - Taylor 2016, 350-351; Bitar 2017; Samma - Tabbah 2019; Mhaoesh 2019, Schumm 2020, 5.
