The mosque Complete

ID: 157

Building type: unknown

Context:

urban/rural

Site:

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Description:

The mosque at Hayyan al-Mushrif has a rectangular plan measuring 6.60 m in length and 3.80 m in width. Its doorway opens in the east wall, positioned close to the northeast corner. Within the interior, several architectural elements were recorded, among them a column base and, by the entrance, a fragment of a lintel. The mihrab (Arabic: محراب, miḥrāb)—a wall recess indicating the qibla, that is, the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca toward which Muslims face during prayer—is oriented toward the southeast and measures 1.45 m in height, 1.20 m in width, and 1.25 m in depth. As reported by Zeidoun al-Muheisen, the decision to excavate the structure was guided largely by local testimony: the village elders had long referred to the ruin as “the mosque” (al-masjed) and remembered it from a time when its vaults were still in place. Bibliography: - al-Muheisen, Z., “Les fouilles de Hayyan al-Mushrif,” in M. Piccirillo, Ricerca Storico-Archaelogica in Giordania XV (1995), Liber Annuus, pp. 519–22. - idem, “Hayyan al-Mushref Project,” in Particia M. Bikai and Virginia Egan, Archaeology in Jordan, American Journal of Archaeology (1997), pp. 532–33.