Letter U
407. Umm Qēs, Gadara of the Decapolis | أم قيس / جدارا
Irbid Governorate
Name: Jāmi‘/ masjid
JADIS no. 2122001
MEGA no. 4169, 2654
Coordinates: 32°39′18.2″N 35°40′48.8″E
32.6550518, 35.6802088
Plan: broad rectangular, single nave, with covered terrace added along the N front in more recent times (1966 AD). Corner and wall buttresses divide the prayer hall in two rectangular naves with cross vaulted ceilings. Each of these bays has a single centralized window. The E Bay is accessible by the main door with rounded lintel at its NW corner: The door is recessed in the façade and has a high niche with pointed arch. Another entrance opens in the center of the W bay. The miḥrāb of the S wall does not correspond in its axis to the door but is slightly shifted to the E.
Measurements: 223.10 m2
Exterior: unknown.
Interior: 16.65 m x 13.4 m (Qudat 2005).
Building Materials: Well-dressed white limestone blocks of medium size with mortar, interior plastered and white washed.
Construction details: masonry in regular isodomic bonded with mortar joints. The door and window frames are emphasized by slightly projecting indented frames, terminating above with segmental arches. The main door is recessed into a niche with pointed arch and blind lunette. Its imposts consist of carefully profiled pilaster capitals (fig. 407.6).
Preservation: intact, still used for Muslim prayer.
Inscription(s): The Arabic building inscription (1) above the main entrance dates to H 1320 = 1902 AD.
Transcription (NAt):
Translation: “The jāmi’ was built with the approval of Fāliḥ al-Falāḥ al-Rūsān and trust is in Allāh, year 1320.” (NAt, edited by RS).
A second inscription (2) is chiseled on a square limestone slab has been mounted upon the architrave of the entrance porch in front of the N façade (Transcription NAt):
Translation: “Indeed, all mosques are for Allāh, so do not pray to anybody else than Allāh.Year 1966” (NAt).
There are a number of old graffiti in and around the miḥrāb which came to light during the recent renovation. They have been written on different layers of the wall plaster and thus date to different periods of the use of the mosque. Most of them are quotations of verses of the Qur‘an, some of them include personal invocations. Since these graffiti are overlapping, the reading is difficult.
The following samples are figured, transcribed and translated (NAt): Graffito A (inscription 3):
Translation: “From the people of Mkēs: My father Maḥmūd al-Aḥmad Abū ‘Īsā (?), died on Dhū al-Qa‘dah 11, year 1338. May Allāh forgive him and all Muslims, Amen. Muṣṭafā al-Maḥmūd died on Muḥarram 21, year May Allāh forgive him and all Muslims, Amen. Muḥammad (‘Alī ?) Ṣāliḥ al-Maḥmūd born on Dhū al-Hijjah 7, year 1337. Ṣālih al-Maḥmūd al-Rāfi‘ī (?) born (in the) year 1315. May Allāh keep those who are expecting and who (do good ? cf. Q. 16 an-Naḥl, 128). There is no power except in Allāh, the High, the Magnificent.”
This graffito was written during the memorial prayer for deceased prior to their funerals. The dates are: 1897/1898 as the years of the burials of Maḥmūd al-Aḥmad Abū ‘Īsā (?) and Muṣṭafā al-Maḥmūd. The birthday of Ṣāliḥ al-Maḥmūd al-Rāfi‘ī is 27th October 1918, 3rd September 1919 and 27th July 1920 are the dates of death of the other two persons. All of them are close relatives of the local Rūsān family.
Another graffito (inscription 4) from the same context is a testimony for an invocation of Allāh in great need. It is not known whether it was an individual disaster or a general crisis such as war or famine. A date which allows conclusions in this regard is not readable (photo, transcription and translation by NAt, edited by RS):
Translation: “In the name of Allāh, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Allāh, there is no god but He, the Living, the Eternal. No slumber can take Him, nor sleep. His are all things in the heavens and the earth. Who can intercede in His presence except with His permission? He knows what appears in front of them and what is behind them. Nor shall they encompass anything of His knowledge, except with what He wants. His throne extends over the heavens and the earth and He feels no tiredness in guarding them. And He is (the Supreme, the Glorious). Oh Allāh, oh Dispeller of distress and oh Reliever of affliction …Oh One who has in His hands […] dispelling and releasing, for You are able to do all things […] […] and his two parents and all male and female Muslims, altogether […][…] bless our Lord Muḥammad […] […] and went out and took refuge to His noble gate […] […] dispelling and releasing [… […] so upon You oh Lord […] and he […] upon […]”
The third graffito (inscription no. 5) refers to an unjustified accusation of an innocent. Also in this case the actual circumstances are not known (photo, transcription and translation by NAt, edited by RS):
Translation: “Every accused and innocent person is forgiven by Allāh.”
Date(s): late Ottoman. The mosque was built almost two decades after the beginning of the resettlement of the al-mal‘āb (acropolis) hill in the later 1890s by the landowning families. The inauguration date was according to the inscription no. 1 in 1330H/1902 AD. Those people who are named in the graffito no. 3 might have eyewitnessed this process in their childhoods (cf. figs. 407.13-14). The most influential among those five families were the al-Rūsān who owned the largest two storeyed compound. Fāliḥ al-Falāḥ al-Rūsān, personally named in inscription no. 1, held the position of Ottoman provincial governor (kaymakām) and granted permission for the construction of the mosque. Archaeological investigations give raise to the assumption that this mosque is standing upon the E fortification wall constructed during the 2nd century BC by the Seleucids. A porch was added to the present mosque in 1966. For the plan compare the contemporary mosques at Bishra (no. 69), Ṣama (no. 332), Kufr Jāyiz (no. 214), Zaḥār an-Naṣārā (no. 439) and Ibder (no. 145).
Traveler Reports:none known.
Bibliography: Qudat 2005, 34-40 (no. 3), 98 plan 3. The site is shown still without any modernly built structures on the plan published by Schumacher in 1888. figs. 19-29; Rawadiyah 2007, I, 119; Ta‘an 2019, 140-141 figs. 3. 148-153.
Fig. 407.13-14 Assembly of the inhabitants of the village Umm Qēs photographed by the Dutch traveler L. Heldring in 1898. The men have probably participated at the construction of the mosque which was inaugurated four years after the photo was shut. May-be, there are the fathers of those among them who wrote to graffiti (inscription no. 3) into the prayer niche (photos courtesy Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands). 