428. Wādī Shīreh | وادي شيره؟

al-‘Aqaba governorate

Jāmi‘, open air desert mosque.

JADIS no. none

MEGA no. none

Coordinates: 29°46'46.0"N 35°36'35.0"E

29.779444, 35.609722

Plan: The mosque is located in a large Bedouin encampment with traces of tents and a cemetery which extends to the S of the mosque beyond a small sayl. The plan of the mosque is approximately square, without miḥrāb, in the center of qibla wall two inscriptional stones. An entrance must have existed in the N wall of the mosque via a courtyard with segmentally curved N wall.

Measurements: unknown.

Exterior: unknown.

Interior: unknown.

Building Materials: sandstone, chert and flint.

Construction details: open air mosque piled of undressed stones.

Preservation: The mosque is difficult to be identified in the field and parts of it have recently been destroyed. At the location of the miḥrāb treasure hunters dug a large hole recently (fig. 428.4), and the inscriptions are not anymore in their place.

Inscription(s): Three Arabic incised inscriptions, two of them in the center of the qibla wall, one of them near the SE exterior corner. Inscription (1) in nine lines, Cufic, accompanied with some figural petroglyphs:

Transcription (Hoyland 1997):

Translation: “In the name of Allāh, the Merciful, the Compassionate; O God accept from ʿAbd Allāh bin Sayd his prayer and his fasting, keep him among his family, and act as his deputy for his [ ...] and make him virtuous. You have power over all things. May Allāh grant him peace. And peace be upon him and mercy of Allāh and His blessings. And it was written in Ramadhān of the year one hundred and nine.” (www. islamic awareness)

Date: 109 H = December 727 / January 728 AD.

Traveler Reports: none known.

Bibliography: Jobling 1989, 253-255 (gives Hijri date 107); Hoyland 1997, 97; TEI no. 22163; Johns 1999, 81 fig. 17; Bqāʿīn 2004, 12-33 fig. 4; 37-60 (for the inscriptions); O’Kane 2005, 194 with note 21; Bqāʿīn – Corbett - Khamis 2015. www. Islamic Awarenes, An Umayyad Graffito from Southern Jordan dated 109 AH, 2000; Schick 2020, no. 138.