41. Arjān | عرجان

‘Ajlūn Governorate

Jāmi‘ ‘Umar ibn Khaṭṭāb, masjid  Arjān al-kabīr 

JADIS no. none

MEGA no. none

Coordinates: 32°23'45.0"N 35°43'59.0"E

32.395833, 35.733056

Plan: broad rectangular; divided by one row of two pillars (square in section) into two aisles running parallel to the qibla-wall. Each aisle has three bays covered with cross vaults. There are no separating arches between the cross vaults; two entrances in the N elevation; one main  central entrance in the middle that faces the miḥrāb and the second one at the right side which originally was a window and then converted to a door in a later renovation phase.

Measurements: 105 m2, capacity for 145 individuals. 

Exterior: 15.67-15.54m (N- S) x 10.58-10.75 m (E-W) 

Interior: 13.37-14.5 m (N-S) x 8.02-8.53 m (E-W), all measures by Khateb 2020.

Building Materials: Roughly cut limestone bond with lime mortar; in recent restoration use of concrete. Interior walls plastered and whitewashed, exterior walls plastered with concrete mortar mixed with small flakes. Construction details: The cross vaults rest on buttresses  in the corners of the E and W wall; the interior corners of cross vaults are supported by four pilaster imposts, each two beside the door and the miḥrāb. In SW corner  drainage hole for collecting rain water. At the S elevation, the miḥrāb is not  protruding at the outside wall and at bottom of the wall there is a sloped reinforcement in the width of 70 cm and the height of 70 cm to prevent penetration of rain water into the foundations; these reinforcements were built on a stone layer at first, afterward the constructors laid stones obliquely to the wall. The windows and doors are topped by segmental arches except for the windows in the right of the E elevation which is rectangular with a horizontal lintel.

Preservation: The mosque is reported by Steuernagel in1927 as ruined. It has undergone several later renovations attested by the inscriptions written on the front N elevation, and the right N wall window that is converted to a door. The conversion of the door is clear because there is a frame that indicates the same dimensions for the other similar windows. There is a hypothesis that the left window of the W façade has been opened at a later date because it reached to the lower border of the cross vault and it is different from the other windows. What corroborates this assumption is the existence of a crack above it which weakened the cross vault when the window was widened .According to oral information by locals, the old mosque, which has been replaced by a larger one beside it, is presently used as a Quran-school or an assemblage place for women.

Inscription(s): 1. There is a modern Arabic inscription painted in black at the N elevation above the lateral door.

2. There is another modern Arabic inscription on the N elevation which dates to the same time with the first inscription because the same font and the same material have been used. It is a quotation of Q. 9 at-awba,18:

Translation:“The mosques of Allāh shall be maintained  by who believes in Allāh and the Last Day.”

Date(s): Alledgedly Rashidun but obviously later, al-Qawqanah proposes Umayyad origin. The plan is Ayyubid- Mamluk of the Rēmūn-Type, certainly with numerous renovations in Ottoman and recent time.

Traveler Reports: “Oberhalb seiner Mündung in das wad el-jâbis liegt das gut gebaute Dorf *ardshân (Taf. 37A). Es besteht aus zwei Teilen, dem östlichen, muslimischen mit 72 Hütten und einer namenlosen dschâmi‘, deren Kuppel gut erhalten, die im übrigen aber eingestürzt ist…“. (Steuernagel 1927).

Bibliography: Steuernagel 1927, A 133. 326; Mittmann 1970, 69-70 no. 165; MMU IV267-268 no. 8 (H. & O. M. al-Qawqanah); Khateb 2020, 133-134 no. 9 figs. 113-115.