Letter U

406. Umm Qēs, Gadara of the Decapolis | أم قيس / جدارا

Irbid Governorate

Masjid or muṣallā in the late antique baths

JADIS no. none

MEGA no. none

Coordinates: 32°39'23.0"N 35°40'37.0"E

32.656389, 35.676944

 

 

Plan: rectangular room units fitted into the plan layout of the late antique baths, added miḥrāb niches in the S wall projecting to the exterior.

Measurements: unknown.

Exterior: unknown.

Interior: unknown.

Building Materials: reused Roman/Byzantine limestone and basalt blocks.

Construction details: The added miḥrāb niches of the sudatorium are still well traceable by the irregular semicircular setting of coarsely dressed limestone blocks.

Preservation: ruined and not in use for Muslim prayer.

Inscription(s): none known

Date(s): The Danish excavators date the refurbishment of the demolished late antique bath with the installation of a humble smaller ḥammām to the later Umayyad or ‘Abbasid periods. By addition of two S-ward oriented niches in the tepidarium and the neighboring steam bath (sudatorium), these former bathing rooms have been reconverted into a small mosque or muṣallā. The conversion of older baths to mosques in the larger Greco-Roman cities was a common practice: cf. the use of the frigidarium in the Roman E baths of Gerasa (no. 180) into an Islamic prayer place. Also, the congregational Umayyad Mosque of Gerasa (no. 178) had been erected on the ruin of a Byzantine public bath.

Traveler Reports: none known

Bibliography: Weber 2002, 352-353 no. BD 23 fig. 78 p. 13 A-E; Ta‘an 2019, 138-139 figs. 3. 145-147.

 
Fig. 406.2 Panoramic view on the late antique baths at the decumanus maximus seen from NW (TMW-K 2018).
Fig. 406.1 Domed niche of the caldarium seen from SE (TMW-K 2011).
Fig. 406.3 Plan of the late antique baths by S. Holm-Nielsen and Andersen 1997; the two rooms converted into Muslim prayer halls indicated by the red circle (after Weber 2002, fig. 78).
Fig. 406.4 Former steam bath (sudatorium) chosen for for the installation of a small mosque (TMW-K 2018).

Figures

[Fig. 406.2 ]
Panoramic view on the late antique baths at the decumanus maximus seen from NW (TMW-K 2018).

[Fig. 406.1 ]
Domed niche of the caldarium seen from SE (TMW-K 2011).

[Fig. 406.3 ]
Plan of the late antique baths by S. Holm-Nielsen and Andersen 1997; the two rooms converted into Muslim prayer halls indicated by the red circle (after Weber 2002, fig. 78).