424. Wādī Selma, west | وادي سلمى ( الغربي)

al-Mafraq governorate

Masjid, open air desert mosque (“mosque 1”)

JADIS no. 362 0011

MEGA no. 2819

Coordinates: 32°28'07.7"N 37°20'10.7"E

32.468803, 37.336295

(approximately.)

Plan: almost square with straight qibla wall running in E-W direction. Miḥrāb centered and protruding to the

exterior of S wall, but reinforced along its E sector. The orientation of the niche is slightly directed to the SW.

The E and W walls are linked to the qibla wall by 90o corners. The N wall curves to the outside forming rounded

corners on both the NE and NW sides; two narrow entrances from the NE and NW.

Measurements: 95 m²

Exterior: unknown.

Interior: ca. 9.50 x 10.00 m.

Building Materials: undressed flat basalt boulders naturally available upon the slope ascending immediately to the S of the exterior qibla wall.

Construction details: The walls have been heaped of flat unhewn basalt slabs without the use of mud. The S wall has received more attention by the masons than the other ones. It consists on about seven layers of approximately horizontal rows. The niche of the miḥrāb is incorporated into the masonry.

Preservation: Preserved as an open-air mosque, the cleared interior space might indicate that it is still in use by the bedouin of the area.

Inscription(s): Two Arabic inscriptions are reported from the mosque: (1) on a rectangular basalt boulder with rounded corners and edges, engraved in three horizontal lines:

Translation: “Oh Allāh forgive Mufadhdhal ibn Ziyād. Amen. Lord of the Worlds. Lord of Moses and Abraham.” (Translation by RS).

(2) Inscription in ‘Abbasid Kufi on an upright rectangular basalt boulder with pointed upper end, very carefully engraved in 14 horizontal lines (0.37 x 0.25 m), today conserved at al-Mafraq, DoA, al-Fedayn Archaeological Museum:

Translation: “ Oh Allāh, forgiver of sin ǀ who accepts receptance, who punishes severely ǀ with power, no God! Forgive his sin ǀ to Thuwābah, son of ‘Uthmān aṣ-Ṣarmī ǀ what was in the past and in the present ǀ and make paradise his home with the believers ǀ his companions ǀ you are the most hearer and knowledgeable, may Allāh forgive ǀ who reads this inscription the ǀ say Amen! Lord of the Universe ǀ and he (scil: Thuwābah, son of ‘Uthmān) wrote on Friday in Jumāda al-Akhar year five ǀ and one hundred” (Jbour 2001).

Date(s): Inscription no. 2 is dated to H 105 = AD 723, in the later Umayyad period. This is the hitherto oldest known open air mosque in the Jordanian desert zone. The comparable structure in Wādī Shīreh (no. 428) was built only five years later.

Traveler Reports: none known.

Bibliography: Jbour 1999, 10-66; Bqāʿīn 2004, 29 fig. 12 above right; Inscription no. 2: Jbour 2001, 674 no. 2; Jbour 2006, 105-106 no. 58; (=TEI no. 42166). 137-138 no. 83 (= TEI no. 42213).