Letter S
al-Kerak Governorate
Maqām Shajarat Bēt Allāh. The site name means “the tree of the house of God”, referring to a sacred olive tree that once grew at the site.
JADIS no. 2108.033
MEGA no. 5045
Coordinates: 31°19'00.5"N 35°43'56.0"E
31.316814, 35.732211
Plan: Worschech (1985) recorded the site as consist of a building that he considered to be a church, although he confused this building with Glueck’s reference to the church of Tadūn. The site is a small isolated building in the middle of plowed fields W of al-Qaṣr, reachable along a track going E-W between plowed fields. When RS first visited the site in the late 1980s, the building and the round “baptistery” were still in existence, but he found no traces of an apse or the chancel post. The round stone that Worschech identified as the baptistery was located just a few meters to the east of the building. His identification of the round stone as a “baptistry” is problematic, although it does bear a vague resemblance to other baptismal fonts, such as at Franj. The only thing definitely Christian about the site was the chancel post. This chancel post might have been a stray architectural element brought from Tadūn.That round stone was still more or less intact in 2006, but at the time of RS’ most recent visit in October 2018, it had been broken up into scarcely recognizable fragments.
Measurements: ca. 70 m2
Exterior: 10 x 7 m (Worschech 1985).
Interior: unknown.
Building Materials: “A round baptistery (monolithic with a diameter of 1.30 m and 0.15 m wall thickness), the foundation walls of an apse (7 m in diameter), and the fragment of a chancel post (0.45 x 0.23 x 0.23 m) were found. The chancel post is decorated with the typical geometrical ornamentation of early Arab Christianity. Since the church is located amidst fields the collected pottery (LR, Byz, Mam) is no criterium for dating the installation.” Worschech (1985) provided photographs of the chancel post and the baptistry.
Construction details: unknown.
Preservation: ruined and further demolished in recent time.
Inscription(s): none known.
Date: see above “building materials” (Worschech 1985). Traveler Reports: “To the right in the basin-like plan khôr ‘Abûr stands an olive tree, below which a ring-shaped stone wall had been built. Immediately at its trunk, lying on two stones is a stone slab on which the Ḥamâyde sacrifice sheep on certain occasions. In its branches cut-off strips of clothing are hung. Just as we rode past, a large eagle, ‘aqâb, sat on the tree. I wanted to photograph it in flight and asked our guide to flush out the bird with a small stone, which he rebuffed indignantly and stated that he would never profane this holy place in such a way. He emphasized repeatedly that this place was called Beyt Allâh and stood in great honor among the Ḥamâyde, who store their plows in its holy circle, without having to worry about them being pilfered. In el-Kerak the place is called shajara ‘Obeydallâh. In the presence of soldiers a Ḥamîdi also called it ‘Obeydallâh. I also heard him call it sajarat Beyt Allâh. It is possible that the Ḥamâyde hesitate before Mohammedans, people who believed differently and strangers to call the place by its correct name, because they consider it to be holy.” (Musil 1896 [1907], translated from German by RS). “We saw to the east shajarat Beyt Allah or ‘Obeydallâh” (Musil 1902 [1907], translated from German by RS).).
Bibliography: Seetzen 1854, 416; Musil 1907, 87. 375; Jaussen 1908, 333; Arabia Petraea III, 330; Glueck 1934, 62 no. 134 (confuses Sejerah (?) with the Tadūn church near Fāris); Worchesch 1985, 47, site 56; Miller 1991, 51 site 85; Schick 2020, no. 110. [entry written by RS].
