Taxel (2013:176) suggested that Mazliah, also known as Ramla (South), pre-existed the foundation of Ramla around 716 CE and suffered damage during one of the mid-8th century CE Sabbatical Year Earthquakes. This interpretation is based on clear archaeoseismic evidence documented by Gorzalczany (2009b) in Areas J2 and K1 at Ramla (South), which he attributed to a major earthquake in the eighth century CE. The damage included cracks running along installation walls, large collapse deposits composed of unrobbed ashlar masonry, floors that had subsided, and walls that curved in anomalous directions. In several cases, collapsed walls were intentionally buried beneath soil and hamra, indicating an immediate post-event response focused on restoring settlement activity rather than abandonment.

Particularly diagnostic evidence was recovered from a storage room in Area J, where dozens of jars were found smashed in situ, some inverted, and all broken simultaneously. These vessels are dated to the first half of the eighth century CE and were sealed beneath collapse debris, indicating destruction in a single event rather than gradual structural failure. The room was subsequently leveled and rebuilt, after which jars dating to the second half of the eighth century CE were found intact, creating a narrow chronological window that tightly brackets the earthquake event ( Gorzalczany, 2009b).

Additional, unequivocal evidence for seismic activity was documented in the balks of Area K1, where a fissure cut vertically through superimposed sand and hamra layers. One side of the stratigraphic sequence had dropped relative to the other, and the rupture extended across several excavation squares. A plaster floor and a column base positioned above the fissure subsided by approximately 1.5 m ( Gorzalczany, 2009b).

Further deformation was observed elsewhere on the site, where stratigraphic layers exhibited both vertical and horizontal displacement, producing stepped and overlapping sand and hamra sequences. This deformation affected an antilia-type water-well installation, including its pit, lifting superstructure, associated fill, and adjacent occupation layer, all of which collapsed and sank together. The configuration of alternating permeable and less-permeable layers, a shallow water table, and uncompacted artificial fill indicates liquefaction as a primary failure mechanism during seismic shaking. The orderly in-situ collapse of dressed stone wall courses in Area K1 further supports earthquake-induced failure rather than human demolition or gradual decay ( Gorzalczany, 2009b).

At the White Mosque in Ramla, seismic damage from a mid-eighth-century CE earthquake has been proposed as a trigger for renovations undertaken during the second construction phase. While Rosen-Ayalon (2006) emphasized that the stratigraphic evidence recovered during excavations was disturbed and therefore inconclusive, it was nevertheless noted that even limited earthquake damage could have justified substantial rebuilding. Comparative analysis of architectural features—particularly pointed arches in subterranean cisterns beneath the mosque and in “the pools of Saint Helena” to its north—suggests that Phase 2 construction occurred around 788/789 CE. The northern cistern is securely dated by a dedicatory inscription to 788/789 CE, and the shared use of pointed arches together with close architectural similarity suggests that both cistern systems were constructed at the same time, providing a plausible date for major repairs to the mosque.