Qaṣr Iblīsū; Qaṣr Iblīs; Ḳaṣr Iblīsu Complete

Description

A village in Jabal Bārīšā registered in TIB 15 on pp. 1604–1605 as Qaṣr Iblīsū. Also spelt Qaṣr Iblīs, and Ḳaṣr Iblīsu. Our map gives an approximate location. The site is rich mainly in ruins of religious buildings, which may be connected to its monastic background. The checklist of buildings drafted by Klaus Peter Todt and Bernard Andreas Vest in TIB 15 list ruins of a fifth-century three-aisled church, a baptistery, and a tomb. The supposition of a monastic establishment is based on the presence of a courtyard within an enclosure. Other sixth-century structures can be seen outside the village. Among them a small church/chapel, and a tower. The site yielded one Syriac inscription dating the baptistery's construction to 441/442 CE. Quite interestingly, no Greek inscriptions are known from this site. Literature (after TIB 15, pp. 1604–1605): TIB 15 – Todt, K.P., Vest, B.A., Tabula Imperii Byzantini, vol. 15 (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2014), pp. 1604–1605 (with further bibliography). Butler, H.C., Architecture and other Arts (Publications of an American Archaeological Expedition to Syria in 1899–1900 2, New York: Century, 1903), 234–235; H. C. Butler (ed.) Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1905–5 and 1909. Division II: Architecture, Section B: Northern Syria (Leiden: Brill, 1920), 206–208, no. 59 (with a wrong date, 431 instead of 441/442 CE for the Syriac inscription and the baptistery); Tchalenko, G. (ed.), Villages antiques de la Syrie du Nord: Le Massif du Bélus a l'époque romaine (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1953), vol. 1, 152; Tchalenko, G. (ed.), Villages antiques de la Syrie du Nord: Le Massif du Bélus a l'époque romaine (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1953), vol. 2, Pl. XIII.4, XIV.1; Tchalenko, G. (ed.), Villages antiques de la Syrie du Nord: Le Massif du Bélus a l'époque romaine (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1958), vol. 3, 102; Peña, I., Castellana, P., Fernandez, R., Les reclus syriens (Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1980), 56; Peña, I., Castellana, P., Fernandez, R., Les cénobites syriens (Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1983), 46, 197, 231-232; Dufaÿ, B., Les baptistères paléochrétiens ruraux de Syrie du Nord, in: H. Ahrweiler (ed), Géographie historique de monde méditerranéen (Paris, 1988), 72, 75, 90, Pl. XII; Strube, Ch., Baudekoration im Nordsyrischen Kalksteingebiet, vol. 1: Kapitell-. Tür- und Gesimsformen des 4. und 5. Jhs. n. Chr. (Mainz: Zabern, 1993), 83–85; Strube, Ch., Baudekoration im Nordsyrischen Kalksteingebiet, vol. 2: Das 6. und frühe 7. Jahrhundert (Mainz: Zabern, 2002), 149; Griesheimer, M., "Cimetières et tombeaux des villages de la Syrie du Nord", Syria 74 (1997), 207. Inscriptions: E. Littmann (ed.), Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1905–5 and 1909. Division IV: Semitic Inscriptions. Section B: Syriac Inscriptions (Leiden: Brill, 1934), p. 10, no. 11 (Syriac inscription from the baptistery, 441/442 CE).