75. Burqu’ | بُرقُع

al-Mafraq Governorate

Qaṣr

JADIS no. 422 2001

MEGA no. 2797

Coordinates: 32°36'30.0"N 37°57'44.0"E

32.608333, 37.962222

Plan: no Muslim prayer installation identified so far.

Measurements: unknown.

Exterior: unknown.

Interior: unknown.

Building Materials: basalt.

Construction details: all structures in coarse basalt masonry with squared blocks in horizontal courses.

Preservation: intact.

Inscription(s): Above the door leading from the courtyard to room 7 is a basalt lintel an Arabic inscription (1)running on three lines. Its actual place is not the original one. The reading according to H. Gaube (1974, 97 no. 6.3 = RCEA, I, n° 12; TEI no. 17) is as follow

Translation: “Oh God! Bismillāh! This is what ǀ the Amīr al-Wālīd, son of the commander of the faithful, built: ǀ These rooms in the year 81 (H= 700 AD )” (Gaube 1974, 97 no. 6.3).

Two other inscriptions are preserved, one above the inscription of al-Walid. One of them (2 = TEI no. 32670) is carved on a basalt block on four lines:

“It reads this Kūfi-script: ǀ Ḥārūn ibn Jāma‘a ǀ az- Zubaydī ǀ He saw it ǀ [in the year] 782 (H = 1380 AD)” (Gaube 1974, 97 no. 6.4 a).

Inscription (3 = TEI no. 32672 ) is also incised on a basalt block and it runs on two lines:

Translation: “[The] year [this] was written [is the year] ǀ 812 (H = 1409 AD).” (Gaube 1974, 98 no. 6.4 b).

According to the critical review by A. M. H. Shboul (1975, 96), these two inscriptions constitute one single

uniform text. His reading is:

Translation: “This inscription in Kūfīc was read by ǀḤārūn ibn Jāma‘a ǀ al-Zubaydī and he found it goes back to ǀ seven hundred and thirty two ǀ years. Written in the year twelve ǀ and eight hundred” (Shboul 1975, 96).

Two Greek inscriptions predate the Arabic epigrams. The first one of them (4) is an epitaph in Greek of a man probably named Hani. This inscription has been taken to Chicago, IL and is presently kept there in the Museum of Natural History under inv.-no. 219 461. On the basis of the paleographic style of the Greek letters it has been dated to the 3rd century AD.

Another inscription (5) to the right side of an incised cross on another basalt lintel (door leading from the courtyard to room 11) has been erroneously identified as Safaitic. It is in fact in Greek in a somewhat awkward script running over one line and H. Gaube (1974, 97 no. 6.2) reads it as follows:

[Κυρ]ίου αἲδο[υ]

“Respect the Lord!”

Date(s): The dating of the qaṣr is uncertain and the proposals vary from Nabataean to Islamic. Archaeological soundings did not contribute evidence to solve this problem.

Inscription 1, however, gives the date 81 H (= 700 AD) as a terminus ante quem. H. Gaube (1974, 98 no. 7.3) assumes that the lintel of this inscription originally sat above the door leading to room 5 and its place was changed for unknown reason during subsequent restorations. There is, however, no clear evidence for a specific Muslim prayer place in the Qaṣr.

Traveler Reports: none known.

Bibliography: Field 1960, 94-99; Gaube 1974, 93-100; Shboul 1975, 95-98; Kennedy - Riley 1990, 71-73, 216, 218-220; Helms 1991, 191-215; Kennedy 2000, 74-75; Betts 2003, 89-97; Jbour 2006, 60 no. 29; Husayni 2007, 50 no. 12; Rashdan 2009, 5-9. 168 pl. 3; Hasanat -Kabir et alii 2010, fig. 4b.