Figures

Discussion

Walmsley (2018:248-250) dates initial construction of the Umayyad Congregational Mosque to between ca. 725 and ca. 735 CE indicating that it was built during the reign of Hisham b. ‘Abd al-Malik who ruled from 724-743 CE. The presence of 3 Mihrabs indicates that the mosque had a long life with at least three major stages ( Walmsley and Damgaard, 2005). The larger Mihrab in the center of the Qiblat Wall was used first followed by a smaller one ~1-2 meters to the east (see Fig. 16.5). The smaller second Mihrabs (Fig. 16.6) appears to post date seismic destruction in 749 CE. Blanke et al (2010) noted that the third Mihrab is located well to the west where it was segregated by a perdition wall. The Mosque was built on top of an earlier structure - a bathhouse.

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The congregational Mosque of Jerash was uncovered in the 2000s and is located in the south half of Jerash just north of the Oval Plaza. Rattenborg and Blanke (2017) and Walmsley and Daamgaard (2005) both date construction to ~725 CE. Barnes et al (2006:295) identified an apparent single event collapse layer in the Qiblat Hall of the Mosque but did not supply a date. The collapse layer appears to be related to a 9th-10th century collapse layer found in nearby excavations of the Southwest Hill. Thus it appears that there is only rebuilding evidence for a mid 8th century CE earthquake in the Umayyad Congregational Mosque and environs. Blanke et al (2010:320) wrote the following about the termination of Phase 4 in excavation area GO (GO/4-5) which uncovered shops and housing east of the congregational mosque.

GO/4-5: The Late Umayyad House (Phase 4) - It should be noted that we have yet to properly verify the termination of the phase 4 structures as contemporary with the earthquake of 749, even though this seems a tempting link to draw from present evidence.

Blanke and Walmsley (2022:95-97) described the effects of the earthquake at the Umayyad Congregational Mosque and elsewhere in Jerash

In 749, after only a few decades of use, the mosque along with most of Jarash’s urban fabric was devastated by one or more massive seismic events.¹⁰⁸ The damage caused by the earthquake and the following discontinuation of structures is well documented throughout Jarash and has led scholars to assume a total abandonment of the town – a sentiment that still lingers today.¹⁰⁹ The excavations within north-west Jarash have generally identified a discontinuation after the mid-eighth century. This is evident, for example, in and around the North Theatre, the Artemis precinct and the Propylaeum Church, and further west on the plateau behind the Temple of Artemis and along sections of the south transverse street.¹¹⁰

It is worth noting, however, that sporadic evidence of post-earthquake activities has been found throughout the town. Among these are a coin hoard found within the North Theatre which included a Ṭūlūnid dinar dated to 894 as well as ninth-to eleventh-century housing found south-east of the theatre’s exterior wall.¹¹¹ Some traces of Abbāsid-period occupation of the Macellum adds to the evidence as does pottery finds that suggest some continuous activity in the Temple of Zeus.¹¹²

Yet the evidence for continuous occupation after 749 is by far the strongest in Jarash’s commercial and religious centre at the intersection of the two main thoroughfares and in the south-west district. Recent archaeological investigations in Jarash’s south-west district suggests that this area was crucial to maintaining the central functions of urban life and therefore, the financial investment in the restoration of the town and the efforts put towards reconstruction were concentrated here.¹¹³

After the earthquake of 749, the mosque was rebuilt to its former dimensions, but its main entrance was blocked as was its central miḥrāb.¹¹⁴ Instead, a new entrance was constructed on the axial street on the east side of the mosque, while a smaller doorway was set into the mosque’s western wall giving access to the porticoed courtyard with an ablution feature set immediately inside the doorway. The prayer hall was subdivided into two with a smaller section set apart in the western end. A new miḥrāb was constructed centrally in the shortened prayer hall, while another was added to the western enclosure. At some point a minaret was added to the north-east interior corner of the courtyard. Following the rebuilding of the mosque, shops were added to its east façade, just south of the new entrance and also across the axial street on its east side. Here, a large building that may have served an administrative purpose was rebuilt using the walls of an earlier building as foundations.¹¹⁵ The reconfiguation of the mosque marks not only a substantial investment in the built environment after 749, but also allows us to identify a reduction in the importance of the western section of the south transverse street. Instead, the mosque was now accessed from the markets (to the east) and the habitation (to the west).¹¹⁶

Footnotes

108 See summary of textual sources pertinent to this earthquake in Ambraseys, Earthquakes, 230–238.

109 Most recently in 2019, Lichtenberger and Raja have questioned the accuracy of the Islamic Jarash Project's interpretation of an extensive Abbasid-period rebuilding of the mosque. They have also questioned the results of the excavation of the Umayyad House on the north side of the south transverse street, which documented continuous usage into the ninth century Lichtenberger and Raja states that `for now, we need to return to the view that the earthquake of 749 indeed had a catastrophic impact on Jerash, and if anything survived, it was only a shadow of the city's former grandeur: Lichtenberger and Raja, `Defining borders', 282.

110 North theatre: Ball et al., `The North Decumanus', 365; Clark and Bowsher, `The Jerash north theatre'; the Artemis precinct and the Propylaeum Church: Brizzi et al., `Italian excavations at Jarash', 357-358; Plateau behind the Temple of Artemis: see, for example, Lichtenberger and Raja, `Defining borders'; the south transverse street: Barghouti, `Urbanization of Palestine and Jordan', 219-221.

111 Clark and Bowsher, `The Jerash north theatre', 237-238,241-243.

112 Macellum: Uscatescu and Martin Bueno, `The Macellum of Gerasa', 82-84; Uscatescu and Marot, `The Ancient Macellum of Gerasa', 297-299; Temple of Zeus: Bessard, `The urban economy', 411 and fig. 14.

113 Some of this ground is also covered in Blanke, 1Re)constructing Jarash' and in Rattenborg and Blanke, lard in the Islamic Ages'. See also Blanke, Abbasid Jerash Reconsidered'; Blanke et al., `The 2011 season of the Late Antique Jarash Project'; Blanke et al., `Excavation and magnetic prospection'; Blanke et al., A millennium of unbroken habitation'; Pappalardo, `The Late Antique Jerash Project'.

114 This paragraph is summarised from Walmsley, `Urbanism at Islamic Jarash', 248-250.

115 Blanke et al., ‘Changing cityscapes in central Jarash’; Rattenborg and Blanke, ‘Jaraš in the Islamic Ages’.

116 For the markets, see Simpson, ‘Market Buildings at Jarash’. For the habitation, see Rattenborg and Blanke, ‘Jaraš in the Islamic Ages’ and also work by Blanke reporting the usage of the southwest hilltop.

El-Isa (1985) noted that the Umayyad mosque [of Jerash] appears to have been demolished and removed and with a relic of its Mihrab the only indications left of its existence. This does not appear to refer to the Umayyad Mosque but to a a structure in northeastern Jerash that was discovered and identified as a mosque in 1981 (Naghawi, 1982) but whose identification is now considered somewhat doubtful ( Walmsley and Daamgaard, 2005:364) - i.e. the '1981' mosque is now thought not to have been a mosque.

Rattenborg and Blanke (2017:11) report the following:

The later phase of occupation in the domestic complexes, bracketed between 800-900, saw the addition of steps in several outer doorways to prevent refuse and accumulated soil on exterior surfaces from slipping into living quarters. This corroborates the long period of usage inferable from architectural alterations. Occupation was punctuated by another round of structural collapse, which is associated with the abandonment of two rooms in the northern wing of Building B and with the collapse and subsequent infilling of the subsurface compartment around the cistern shaft in the courtyard of the same structure. Finds of discarded fragments of reduction-fired roof tiles in subsurface packing of the latest phase of domestic occupation in Area GO can be associated with identical material retrieved from underneath a substantial wall collapse in the laneway between the mosque west wall and Building A, and suggest that the dwellings in Area GO may have had tiled roofs. These strata likely relate to the same event that marked the termination of the penultimate phase of the congregational mosque.

Given the prolonged usage of the Area GO housing units and the nature of the subsequent collapse, this event should be dated to the latter half of the 9th century at the earliest, perhaps corresponding with the collapse of the residential units on the [Southwest] hilltop (Blanke forthcoming). Associated structural collapse, outside the mosque qiblat wall and within and around the domestic complexes to the east, is less imposing than the mid-8th century collapse layers, but a number of potentially significant earthquakes in the area are known from the late 9th and 10th centuries (see Ghawanmeh 1992: p. 56 Table I; Sbeinati et al. 2005: pp. 365-367 and Table II; also el-Isa 1985: pp. 232-233 and Table 1 JW: I suggest cross-checking catalogues of Ambraseys, 2009, Guidoboni et. al., 1994, and this one instead). Pottery finds from paved floors of GO Phase 3/II in Building A provides a good range of material characteristic of a late 8th — 9th century date with painted red terracotta and cream and pale orange wares well represented, accentuating the changing horizons of Early Islamic material culture (Walmsley 1995: 668; 2001b: 310). A nearly complete decorated Cream Ware jug was retrieved from below wall collapse overlying a paved floor in the eastern part of Building A. Comparable material is available from the Abbasid housings further north (Gawlikowski 1986: Plates XII-XIII; also Gawlikowski 1995), and finds further parallels e.g. in the assemblage from Area Z at Umm Qais (Gadara) (el-Khouri and Omoush 2015: 17-20).

Rattenborg and Blanke (2017:13) add:

Following another round of structural collapse in the late 9th or early 10th century, the mosque was rebuilt to house a much more modest congregation, utilising only the westernmost third of the prayer hall, and leaving the spacious courtyard in a dilapidated state. Wall collapse clogged the laneway along the northwest perimeter wall of the mosque courtyard, blocking access from the main westward street, and was, apparently, never removed. Curiously enough, this collapse layer was not found in the passageway between the mosque's western entrance and its southwest corner, suggesting that access to the prayer hall from the residential units was maintained for a longer span of time.

Based on the above, it appears that the collapse layer described (below) but not dated by Barnes et al (2006:295) fell during the 9th or 10th centuries CE.

The Qiblat Hall (IRS)

... So far over five tonnes of roof tile pieces have been found within the Qiblat hall. The oblong plan of the hall, with its qiblat wall, the double colonnade and the row of entrance piers, suggests a long triple-gabled roof covered the qiblat hall. The tile fragments have mostly been recovered from a thick dark layer that is largely uniform throughout the qiblat hall. No complete roofing tiles have been found, probably because any roof tiles that had not smashed were taken for reuse elsewhere after the initial collapse of the roof. Other salvageable building materials were also taken and only a few small areas of the paved floor remain. Post-collapse salvaging activity would explain the disturbance of the collapse layer.

There is a great deal of stone tumble lying outside the mosque walls from the collapse of the qiblat hall. Much less stone is found inside the hall, which shows that the walls fell outwards, pushed by the force of the heavy roof. The pattern of the fallen outer walls, the uniformity of the collapse layer and abundance of roof tile fragments indicate that the roof and some of the mosque walls collapsed in one event.

Rattenborg and Blanke (2017:15) noted that the extant archaeological record of the 9th-11th centuries is notoriously meagre and marred by an unstaisfactory degree of chronological control.

It appears that archaeoseismic evidence for the mid 8th century CE earthquake at the Congregational Ummayad Mosque and surroundings is based on rebuilding evidence rather than observed and dated seismic destruction layers. The second Mihrab, supposedly built after this earthquake, suggests that an extensive rebuild was required and that the Mosque was heavily damaged during the earthquake.

Effect	Location	Image(s)	Description
Structual collapse - i.e. collapsed walls Roof collapse Cistern collapse	GO area - two rooms in the northern wing of Building B and subsurface compartment around the cistern shaft in the courtyard of the same structure (note that Building B is to the west of building A) Figure 7 Early Islamic Jerash ca. 750-850 CE Rattenborg and Blanke (2017) Figure 11 Early Islamic Jerash ca. 950-1000 CE Rattenborg and Blanke (2017) Figure 3 Islamic Jerash Project Excavation Areas 2002-2013 Rattenborg and Blanke (2017) Figure 1 Overview of Islamic Jarash Project following excavations in 2009 (by Hugh Barnes). Blanke et al (2010)	Fig. 8 Figure 8 Raised bench with mosaic floor paving and adjoining basin along north wall of GO Building B during excavations in 2013, view facing east (IJP_D_15356) (© Islamic Jarash Project 2017) Rattenborg and Blanke (2017)	Occupation was punctuated by another round of structural collapse, which is associated with the abandonment of two rooms in the northern wing of Building B and with the collapse and subsequent infilling of the subsurface compartment around the cistern shaft in the courtyard of the same structure. Finds of discarded fragments of reduction-fired roof tiles in subsurface packing of the latest phase of domestic occupation in Area GO can be associated with identical material retrieved from underneath a substantial wall collapse in the laneway between the mosque west wall and Building A, and suggest that the dwellings in Area GO may have had tiled roofs. These strata likely relate to the same event that marked the termination of the penultimate phase of the congregational mosque. - Rattenborg and Blanke (2017:11)
collapsed walls         Roof collapse	GO area - laneway between the mosque west wall and Building A, eastern interior of Building A, and possibly square GO/6 (note that Building B is to the west of building A) Figure 7 Early Islamic Jerash ca. 750-850 CE Rattenborg and Blanke (2017) Figure 11 Early Islamic Jerash ca. 950-1000 CE Rattenborg and Blanke (2017) Figure 3 Islamic Jerash Project Excavation Areas 2002-2013 Rattenborg and Blanke (2017) Figure 1 Overview of Islamic Jarash Project following excavations in 2009 (by Hugh Barnes). Blanke et al (2010)	Fig. 15 Figure 15 GO/6 at the end of the 2009 season, seen from the west. Note the cistern drain in the bottom of the picture (by IJP). Blanke et al (2010)	Occupation was punctuated by another round of structural collapse, which is associated with the abandonment of two rooms in the northern wing of Building B and with the collapse and subsequent infilling of the subsurface compartment around the cistern shaft in the courtyard of the same structure. Finds of discarded fragments of reduction-fired roof tiles in subsurface packing of the latest phase of domestic occupation in Area GO can be associated with identical material retrieved from underneath a substantial wall collapse in the laneway between the mosque west wall and Building A, and suggest that the dwellings in Area GO may have had tiled roofs. These strata likely relate to the same event that marked the termination of the penultimate phase of the congregational mosque. - Rattenborg and Blanke (2017:11) A nearly complete decorated Cream Ware jug (Fig. 10) was retrieved from below wall collapse overlying a paved floor in the eastern part of Building A - Rattenborg and Blanke (2017:11) Fig. 15 from Blanke et. al. (2010) may show collapse in square GO/6 from around this time.
collapsed walls (collapsing outward) Roof collapse	Congregational Mosque - qiblat Hall Figure 4 Plan of the mosque, showing excavated areas to 2004 Barnes et al (2006) Figure 3 Preliminary outline plan of the Umayyad mosque of Jarash (as after 2004 season). Walmsley and Daamgaard (2005) Figure 3 Islamic Jerash Project Excavation Areas 2002-2013 Rattenborg and Blanke (2017) Figure 1 Overview of Islamic Jarash Project following excavations in 2009 (by Hugh Barnes). Blanke et al (2010) Figure 1 General plan of the excavations in central Jarash, to end of 2007 season (Barnes mod. Walmsley) Walmsley et al (2008)		So far over five tonnes of roof tile pieces have been found within the Qiblat hall. The oblong plan of the hall, with its qiblat wall, the double colonnade and the row of entrance piers, suggests a long triple-gabled roof covered the qiblat hall. The tile fragments have mostly been recovered from a thick dark layer that is largely uniform throughout the qiblat hall. No complete roofing tiles have been found, probably because any roof tiles that had not smashed were taken for reuse elsewhere after the initial collapse of the roof. Other salvageable building materials were also taken and only a few small areas of the paved floor remain. Post-collapse salvaging activity would explain the disturbance of the collapse layer. There is a great deal of stone tumble lying outside the mosque walls from the collapse of the qiblat hall. Much less stone is found inside the hall, which shows that the walls fell outwards, pushed by the force of the heavy roof. The pattern of the fallen outer walls, the uniformity of the collapse layer and abundance of roof tile fragments indicate that the roof and some of the mosque walls collapsed in one event. - Barnes et al (2006:295) This evidence is undated by Barnes et al (2006:295) but appears to be related to the 9th -10th century CE earthquake event

• Modified by JW from Fig. 12 of Rattenborg and Blanke (2017)

• Earthquake Archeological Effects chart
  Earthquake Archeological Effects (EAE)
  
  Rodríguez-Pascua et al (2013: 221-224)
  of Rodríguez-Pascua et al (2013: 221-224)

Effect	Location	Image(s)	Description	Intensity
Structural collapse - i.e. collapsed walls Roof collapse Cistern collapse	GO area - two rooms in the northern wing of Building B and subsurface compartment around the cistern shaft in the courtyard of the same structure (note that Building B is to the west of building A) Figure 7 Early Islamic Jerash ca. 750-850 CE Rattenborg and Blanke (2017) Figure 11 Early Islamic Jerash ca. 950-1000 CE Rattenborg and Blanke (2017) Figure 3 Islamic Jerash Project Excavation Areas 2002-2013 Rattenborg and Blanke (2017) Figure 1 Overview of Islamic Jarash Project following excavations in 2009 (by Hugh Barnes). Blanke et al (2010)	Fig. 8 Figure 8 Raised bench with mosaic floor paving and adjoining basin along north wall of GO Building B during excavations in 2013, view facing east (IJP_D_15356) (© Islamic Jarash Project 2017) Rattenborg and Blanke (2017)	Occupation was punctuated by another round of structural collapse, which is associated with the abandonment of two rooms in the northern wing of Building B and with the collapse and subsequent infilling of the subsurface compartment around the cistern shaft in the courtyard of the same structure. Finds of discarded fragments of reduction-fired roof tiles in subsurface packing of the latest phase of domestic occupation in Area GO can be associated with identical material retrieved from underneath a substantial wall collapse in the laneway between the mosque west wall and Building A, and suggest that the dwellings in Area GO may have had tiled roofs. These strata likely relate to the same event that marked the termination of the penultimate phase of the congregational mosque. - Rattenborg and Blanke (2017:11)	VIII+ (collapsed walls)
collapsed walls         Roof collapse	GO area - laneway between the mosque west wall and Building A, eastern interior of Building A, and possibly square GO/6 (note that Building B is to the west of building A) Figure 7 Early Islamic Jerash ca. 750-850 CE Rattenborg and Blanke (2017) Figure 11 Early Islamic Jerash ca. 950-1000 CE Rattenborg and Blanke (2017) Figure 3 Islamic Jerash Project Excavation Areas 2002-2013 Rattenborg and Blanke (2017) Figure 1 Overview of Islamic Jarash Project following excavations in 2009 (by Hugh Barnes). Blanke et al (2010)	Fig. 15 Figure 15 GO/6 at the end of the 2009 season, seen from the west. Note the cistern drain in the bottom of the picture (by IJP). Blanke et al (2010)	Occupation was punctuated by another round of structural collapse, which is associated with the abandonment of two rooms in the northern wing of Building B and with the collapse and subsequent infilling of the subsurface compartment around the cistern shaft in the courtyard of the same structure. Finds of discarded fragments of reduction-fired roof tiles in subsurface packing of the latest phase of domestic occupation in Area GO can be associated with identical material retrieved from underneath a substantial wall collapse in the laneway between the mosque west wall and Building A, and suggest that the dwellings in Area GO may have had tiled roofs. These strata likely relate to the same event that marked the termination of the penultimate phase of the congregational mosque. - Rattenborg and Blanke (2017:11) A nearly complete decorated Cream Ware jug (Fig. 10) was retrieved from below wall collapse overlying a paved floor in the eastern part of Building A - Rattenborg and Blanke (2017:11) Fig. 15 from Blanke et. al. (2010) may show collapse in square GO/6 from around this time.	VIII+ (collapsed walls)
collapsed walls (collapsing outward) Roof collapse	Congregational Mosque - qiblat Hall Figure 4 Plan of the mosque, showing excavated areas to 2004 Barnes et al (2006) Figure 3 Preliminary outline plan of the Umayyad mosque of Jarash (as after 2004 season). Walmsley and Daamgaard (2005) Figure 3 Islamic Jerash Project Excavation Areas 2002-2013 Rattenborg and Blanke (2017) Figure 1 Overview of Islamic Jarash Project following excavations in 2009 (by Hugh Barnes). Blanke et al (2010) Figure 1 General plan of the excavations in central Jarash, to end of 2007 season (Barnes mod. Walmsley) Walmsley et al (2008)		So far over five tonnes of roof tile pieces have been found within the Qiblat hall. The oblong plan of the hall, with its qiblat wall, the double colonnade and the row of entrance piers, suggests a long triple-gabled roof covered the qiblat hall. The tile fragments have mostly been recovered from a thick dark layer that is largely uniform throughout the qiblat hall. No complete roofing tiles have been found, probably because any roof tiles that had not smashed were taken for reuse elsewhere after the initial collapse of the roof. Other salvageable building materials were also taken and only a few small areas of the paved floor remain. Post-collapse salvaging activity would explain the disturbance of the collapse layer. There is a great deal of stone tumble lying outside the mosque walls from the collapse of the qiblat hall. Much less stone is found inside the hall, which shows that the walls fell outwards, pushed by the force of the heavy roof. The pattern of the fallen outer walls, the uniformity of the collapse layer and abundance of roof tile fragments indicate that the roof and some of the mosque walls collapsed in one event. - Barnes et al (2006:295) This evidence is undated by Barnes et al (2006:295) but appears to be related to the 9th -10th century CE earthquake event	VIII+ (collapsed walls)

The archeoseismic evidence requires a minimum Intensity of VIII (8) when using the Earthquake Archeological Effects chart of Rodríguez-Pascua et al (2013: 221-224).