38. ‘Aqaba, al- / Ayla | العقبة (أيلة)

al-‘Aqaba Governorate

Jāmi‘

JADIS no. 1488002

MEGA no. 36653. 36658. 36687

Coordinates: 29°31'51.0"N 35°00'00.0"E

29.530833, 35.000000

Plan: Broad rectangular, courtyard with a riwāq as a peristyle colonnade around three aisles (the E side has been  swept away by the wādī). The SW side has a second row  of columns marking this as the covered part of the mosque. In the center of the SW wall was a deep niche, the  miḥrāb, which indicates the qibla or direction of prayer. This direction should be toward Mecca, but the orientation, like many early mosques, is incorrect (after Whit- comb 1994/95, cf. also Schumm 2020).

Measurements: unknown. 

Exterior: unknown.

Interior: unknown.

Building Materials: Local sandstone, Egyptian granite and limestone.

Construction details: Walls out of semi dressed limestone  blocks set in horizontal rows, bound with lime mortar. In the interior remain the lower parts of pillars.

Preservation: excavated in 1993 as ruin and conserved, not in service for Muslim prayer.

Inscription(s): A monumental inscription of the 8th century quoting the Quranic “throne verse” (ayat al-kursi) was found in 1992 near the “Egyptian” (i.e. NW) city gate. It is not directly linked with the mosque. Mounted  above the city gate, it was felt as an appropriate verse for the protection of the urban community.

Date(s): Originally built by ‘Uthmān ibn ‘Affān around  AD 650, destroyed by the earthquake of AD 749, rebuilt  in the early Abbasid period (750-850 AD). From the 8th through the 9th centuries AD the city of Ayla was a center for hadith studies (traditions of the prophet). A local Ayli school developed around Ibn Shihāb al-Ẓuhrī (died in 124 H / AD 741/42), particularly his students ‘Uqayl ibn Khālid and Abū Yazīd Yūnus ibn Yazīd, were the heads of two prominent scholarly families...(cf. Cobb 1995, a place of study and discussion among the columns  (after Whitcomb 1994/95).

Traveler Reports: none known.

Bibliography: Whitcomb 1988.; Whitcomb 1994/95, 13-14; Hattab 2015, 178-179; Shqour 2015, 232-242; Tabbah - Taylor 2016, 232-233; Shqour 2019, 142-150; Schick 2020, no. 11.