311. Rujm al-Kursī | رجم الكرسي

‘Amman Governorate

Jāmi‘ / masjid

JADIS no.2215023

MEGA no. 2713

Coordinates: 31°58'13.2"N 35°50'19.3"E

31.970342, 35.838703

Plan: broad rectangular, slightly trapezoid, with entrance from the E, leading over three steps down to the prayer hall; miḥrāb in S wall, not centered but slightly shifted to the E; right beside it a broad buttress for a transversal arch corresponding with another pilaster at the N wall; further buttresses at the E and W walls; two rectangular rooms, separated by a blind corridor and in their total exterior dimensions corresponding to the mosque, have been added in a later construction phase.

Measurements: 42.75 m²

Exterior: 6.0-6.3 x 12 m.

Interior: 3.85-4.5 x 9.5 m.

Building Materials: roughly cut greyish ochre limestones and brown glossy chert, bond with mortar in the joints.

Construction details: irregular two-faced masonry of semi-dressed boulders up to seven courses, joints leveled with smaller flakes. The floor of the prayer hall is covered with an irregular pavement of flag stones. The mosque had a flat roof supported by three transversal arches, two immediately at the short W and E walls, a third one to the W of the miḥrāb. It seems very probable that these arches carried a flat roof of perpendicular wooden beams with cane mats and mud package.

Preservation: ruined and recently consolidated, not in use for Muslim prayer.

Inscription(s): A Kufic Inscription of Umayyad date is reported in MEGA Jordan 15363, but no details are known.

Date(s): Umayyad with later restoration in the Ayyubid-Mamluk periods.

Traveler Reports: none known.

Bibliography: Ghawanmeh 1986, 53; Ajlouni 1992, 32-33; Darakneh 1998, 44 with plan in appendix; Sqour - Abu Ghanimeh 2014, 10 with note 47.