Volume I - Abu Ghosh to Dothan..
I
Volume II - Eboda to Jerusalem..
II
Volume III - Jisr Banat Ya'aqub to Nassana..
III Volume IV - Or Ha-Ner to Tel Zeror -
can be borrowed with a free account at archive.org..
IV
Monasteries in the Desert of Jerusalem Early Arab Period
Map
Map of monasteries in the Desert of Jerusalem (from Y. Hirschfeld, The Judean Desert Monasteries, Map. 1).
The underlined sites are the monasteries that survived the Early Arab period.
The segment of the Incense road between Petra and Gaza.
This segment was compiled using Tsafrir et al.(1994); McCormick (2008) and the locations of Roman milestones (Meshel and Tsafrir 1974, Ben-David 2018 – Person. comm.).
Note also the Darb es-Sultan route north of the Incense Road compiled using the maps by Newcombe (1914) and Armstrong (1890)(Figure 2),
rectified to the UTM zone 36 N (datum WGS84) Coordinate Reference System (CRS).
The region between Sha’ar Ramon and Oboda, where milestones exist.
Path Distance LCP model using the slope and distance to water resources as factors are portrayed in blue while the
model using only the slope is portrayed in red. Note the similarity of the blue line to the path marked by the
milestones except at the Grafon Fort.
Based on Dan Bahat's map "Jerusalem During the Early Muslim Period-Sites Within
the Old City". in The History of Jerusalem.. The Early Islamic Period (638-1099), Jerusalem, Yad Izlhak Ben-Zvi Publications, 1987
The main problem when preparing a map of the Haram in the Umayyad period is that the majority of the Arabic sources are from later periods and mostly relate to those periods.
Another significant problem is that the names of constructions and their locations have changed in the course of time. The double danger arises, therefore, of mistakenly attributing
anachronistic names and dates to buildings found in the Haram to-day but were built at the latest in the later Middle Ages.
On luckier occasions, an early tradition may have been traced relating some details on one monument or another in Jerusalem, of the Umayyad period, but even then it is usually impossible to determine the exact location.
Using the guide lines drawn up here, I was able to assert that the Gate of Repentance (Bab al-Tawba), during the Umayyad period, was in close proximity to Mihrab Maryam.
However, the location of the latter place in the south-east corner of the Haram can only be attributed (with reservation) to the end of the 9th century and clearly so to the 10th and 11th centuries.
Although the eastern Mihrab Dawud is mentioned by the early (7th-8th century) sources, I was unable to locate it.
The same considerations were important in locating the Dome of the Chain (Bab al-Silsila), the Gate of The Divine Presence (Bab al-Sakina), the Dome of Ascension (Qubbat al-Mi `raj)
and other monuments on the Haram from the Umayyad period.
I only used the procedure just described when places or monuments were mentioned in a source that I estimated to date back to the Umayyad period.
Not included in this map are monuments mentioned by late sources which allude to their existence during the Umayyad period, such as the mention by
al-Muhallabi (mid-10th century) of the Dome of the Scale (Qubbat al-Mizan) and the Dome of the Gathering (Qubbat al-Mahshar).
Still, al-Muhallabi does refer to the Dome of Ascension (Qubbat al-Mi `riij) and the Dome of the Prophet (Qubbat al-Nabi),
which were both mentioned by much earlier sources in their account of the Umayyad period. Al-Muhallabi's description of the
latter monuments may, therefore, serve as additional proof to earlier sources, that these indeed existed in the Umayyad period.
Terms and Definitions
terminus post quem - the earliest possible date for something. terminus ante quem - the latest possible date for something.. terminus a quo - the earliest possible date for something. terminus ad quem - the point at which something ends or finishes.