306. Rēmūn, old name Dēr Limūn | ريمون

Jerash Governorate

Jāmi‘

JADIS no. 2218012

MEGA no. 5834

Coordinates: 32°16'54.7"N 35°49'35.2"E

32.281867, 35.826436

Plan: broad rectangular with central door in the N wall facing miḥrāb in S wall. The niche is projecting to the exterior and rests on a low podium of an older preceding building (church?). The interior of the prayer hall is divided by two massive pillars into two naves running parallel to the qibla wall. These pillars carry six cross vaults of square plans which divide the two naves into six equal bays. The vaults are separated from each other by pointed arches. In the E and W short walls are each two windows, the miḥrāb in the S wall is flanked on both sides by each a window in the axis of the E and W bay. The minaret of square plan at the NE exterior corner is a later addition. It is adjacent to the NE sector of the exterior N wall and can be accessed via a spiral staircase at the NE interior corner of the prayer hall. The staircase has some wall slits for lightening.

Measurements: 170 m²

Interior: 15.66-15.75 m (N-S) x 11.30 m (Khateb 2020).

Exterior: 18.42-18.90 m (N-S) x 15.34-17.53 m (E-W) (Khateb 2020).

Building Materials: local limestone, few Roman spolia.

Construction details: masonry partly constructed of massive blocks, in the upper courses two sided with rubble fill in the core.

Preservation: The mosque has several medieval and recent renovation phases and is still in use for daily Muslim prayer.

Inscription(s): 1) At the eastern exterior elevation of the lower part of the minaret is a fragmented Greek funeral inscription of local limestone in reuse, dated to the 17^th (or 27^th) February AD 238 (reading and transcription by Julien Aliquot, Lyon):

[- - - - -]

[ἒ]τους τʹ,

[Δ]ύστρου

[ικ]ζʹ, τελ-

[ευτήσας ?]

[- - -]

Translation (Aliquot): “In the year 300 (= 238 AD), month Dystros (= February) the 17th (or 27th), having finished his life (?) . . .”

In the N sector of the minaret was an Arabic inscription (2) in Mamluk Kufi script, carved on four lines in flat relief on a rectangular limestone plate. The lines are separated by horizontal lines. The reading is ensured by Ghawanmeh (1986, 20-21; see Khateb 2020, 7-8 fig. 1) who has documented the inscription prior to its disappearance after 1986:

Translation: Translation: “ In the name of Allāh, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Ordered the establishment of this blessed minaret the Amīr ‘Izz ad-Dīn Aydamir al-Ẓāhirī under the supervision of the Amīr Nāṣir al-Dīn Mankalī in the year six and seventy and six hundred. Muḥammad Aydamir.” (676 AH = 1277 AD) (RS).

In the E sector of the interior N wall, an almost square slab of reddish-brown limestone has been inserted in 2013 during recent renovation. The slab displays an Arabic inscription (3) in Mamluk Kufi executed in flat relief over six lines which are separated by horizontal lines (facsimile by Khateb 2020 fig. 32).

Translation: “Ordered the construction of this minaret our Lord the Sulṭan al-Malik al-Ẓāhir, may Allāh have mercy on him and support the Sulṭan al-Malik al-Sa‘īd, may Allāh perpetuate his rule, may Allāh have mercy on him and we seek aid.” (Khatab 2020, 58, edited by RS).

Another Arabic inscription (4) in Mamluk Kufi script can still be found today in the W exterior elevation of the minaret, approximately in mid height: It is accessible from the roof top of the mosque and the recent N extension of the prayer hall. Only two and a half of the originally four lines are still visible today as the lower portion of the lab has been covered by concrete of the roof slab of the recent N extension of the prayer hall. The full text, however, can be read grace to Ghawanmehs (1986) documentation who has still seen the inscription in full. The script was running over five lines in flat relief set into a recessing rectangular pannel if reddish brown limestone. The lines are separated from each other by horizontal lines (Photo by TMWK-2017; facsilime by Khateb 2020, fig. 33)

Photo of the Inscription by Ghawanmeh 1986 (Khateb 2020, 62 fig. 40):

Translation: “In the name of Allāh most Gracious and most merciful Almighty, lasts for magistrates gentlemen ‘Izz ad-Dīn chief judge and to Jamāl ad-Dīn, and judge Ṣafī ad-Dīn, Allāh be pleased with them” (Khateb 2020, 63).

Another Arabic inscription (5) is written on a segmentally arched lintel above the entrance to the old mosque, today whitewashed and partly covered by a recent revetment, testifies the mosque’s renovation in AD 1946:

Translation (NAt): “Thanks to God! This construction was completed during the days of King ‘Abd Allah bin al-Ḥussein (in the year) 1946 (AD). ”

The youngest Arabic inscription (6) refers to a renovation of the upper sector of the minaret in 1965. It is chiseled on a square limestone slab with profiled frame in four lines in flat relief, quoting Q. 9 at-Tawba, 18 (Photo by TMW-K 2017, facsimile, transcript and translation by Khateb 2020, figs. 52-53):

Translation: “The mosques of Allāh shall be visited and maintained by those who believe in Allāh and The Last Day 1382 H(ijri).”

Date(s): The date of 607 H = 1210 AD given by Schumacher (= Steuernagel 1927) and MacKenzie (2002) cannot be reconfirmed by the inscriptions at the site and is probably an error of the reading of inscription no. 1; Therefore, the exact date of the construction of the mosque remains unknown. It certainly antedates the construction of the minaret in H 676 = AD 1277. This work was executed during the last year of the reign of Sultān al-Malik az-Ẓāhir Rukn ad-Dīn Baybars (July 1^st, AD 1277), and it was continued, according to inscription no. 3, under his successor al-Malik as-Sa‘id an-Nāṣir Barakah (reigned until August AD 1279). During the Mamluk and Ottoman periods, the region was hit by many severe earthquakes which seem to have effected damages to the building. The three judges named by inscription 4 financially contributed to repairs between H 862 and 687 / AD 1282-1288. Despite the desasters and the demographic decline from the 14^th to the 15^th centuries AD the mosque seems to have been in use and the Ottoman tax register of 1587 lists the mosque as an endowment (wafq) with an amount of 1000 agis, sufficient for the annually necessary maintenance of the roof. According to the suggestion by Khattab (2020), the earthquake of AD 1705 may have caused a major collapse of the minaret and damages along the E and S walls of the building. In the early 19^th century AD, Buckingham assigns the mosque as “deserted.” Newer interventions and rebuildings are attested for 1946 and 1965 by the inscriptions 5 and 6. For a limited time, a pseudo-dome covered the central bay in front of the miḥrāb (fig. 306.10). Interviewing the local community, Khateb (2020) assembled a number of narratives by recording oral history covering the past 80 years. For this reason, the Rēmūn mosque can be considered up to date as one of the best documented historical mosques in the Hashemite Kingdom.

Traveler Reports: “Near it, was also a deserted mosque, with pillars on the inside, and a tolerably good exterior, with a small inscribed tablet half way up the wall, on the northern face of the building. There were many trees in the surrounding soil...” (Buckingham 1825); “Südwestlich von ‘ēsarā liegt, ebenfalls an den Abhängen des afrūn, in einer Höhe von 828 m, das Dorf Rēmūn mit aneinandergebauten Hütten, zwei Welis, er-rēmūnī und schēch ed-dschebel, am Wege nach t-kitti, und mit einer alten Moschee, deren viereckige, noch 8 m hohe mi’dāne(Turm für den mu’eddīn) zwei arabische Inschriften trägt, beide in ziemlicher Höhe, die eine ein Koranspruch, die andere eine Bauinschrift, die die Errichtung der Moschee in das Jahr 607 d.H. (=1210 n. Chr.) zu verlegen scheint“ (Steuernagel 1927).

Bibliography: For taxation of the village in the Ottoman registers see Hütteroth - Abdulfattah 1977, 164 s.v. Nāhiya Bani ‘ilwān, Za'āma wa tīmā, Rīmun. For the mosque in particular Buckingham 1825, 133- 134; Steuernagel 1927, A 133.74; 277-278; Mittmann 1970, 29-30; Ghawanimeh 1986a, 19-36; Mac Kenzie 2002, 618-619; Salem 2005, 69-70 figs. 12 a-b-13. 75-76 figs. 24-25-26; Rawadiyah 2007, I, 557; Khateb 2020.