444. Zūbya | زوبيا

Irbid governorate

Maqām / Weli Abū-l-‘Aūf / Shajarat al-Māis

JADIS no. none

MEGA no. 5872; 71088

Coordinates: 32°26'06.5"N 35°45'59.0"E

32.435139, 35.766389

Plan: unknown.

Measurements: unknown.

Building Materials: unknown.

Construction details: unknown.

Preservation: The information given by local inhabitants during the GJU survey had been contradictory: All of them told us that the building had been entirely destroyed in the 1970s. Several of them said that it has been located within the old cemetery, others insisted that it was standing near an old tree, today in a courtyard at the NE outskirts of the village. The species of this tree is called shajarat al-māis in Arabic, a nettle or hackberry tree (celtis Australis) in English. It is peculiar that this tree does not occur in natural forests, but only near architecture in settlements. The determined age of the Zūbyā specimen is up to 400 years. The people of the village believe that cut branches from this tree, attached on clothes of new born babies, would protect them from the evil eye (Nueimat – Alkilani 2002).

Inscription(s): none known.

Date(s): unknown

Traveler Reports: “Sonst gibt es in zûbjâ noch ein Weli des abû-l-’ôf. ” (Steuernagel 1927, A 412).

Bibliography: Steuernagel 1927, A. 135. 412; Nueimat - Alkilani 2002, 96