al-Qastal
Al-Qastal ( Arabic القسطل, DMG al-Qasṭal ) is an Umayyad settlement or residence in today's Jordan . It is the oldest such facility in the Middle East. On site there is a palatial building (called Qasr al-Qastal ), which is counted among the so-called desert castles, as well as several simpler residential buildings, a bathhouse, a large and many small cisterns and a large reservoir for agricultural purposes, a mosque and a cemetery . The mosque has the only minaret from the Umayyad period. Due to these special features, al-Qastal has been on the tentative list for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage since 2001 .
location
The ruins of al-Qastal are located about 25 kilometers south of Amman , only about 100 meters west of the R15 expressway , which connects the Jordanian capital with its airport. A Roman or Byzantine road ran past about a kilometer to the southwest. It led in the direction of the Zabayir el-Qastal tell , which was inhabited from the Iron Age to the Byzantine period. Al-Qastal is partially overbuilt by a modern settlement of the same name. About five kilometers away is Qasr Mshatta , another of the desert castles. Despite its very easy accessibility, al-Qastal is today rarely used for tourism and is threatened with decay.
history
Due to its floor plan and the similarity of the sound between “Qastal” and the Latin word Castellum , the structures were long thought to be a complex from the Roman Empire . Only research by Heinz Gaube as well as Patricia Carlier and Frédéric Morin in the 70s and 80s showed that these are early Islamic buildings.
Today it is believed that al-Qastal was built around the year 700 by the Ummayad caliph Abd al-Malik , who among other things also initiated the construction of the Dome of the Rock . The facility remained in use throughout the Umayyad period, presumably al-Walid II also resided here while he waited for the nearby Qasr Mshatta to be completed. The poet Kuthayyir (died after 723) mentions the complex with the name Qastal el-Balqa . Grave inscriptions show that al-Qastal was still inhabited under the subsequent Abbasid dynasty . After it had been abandoned in the meantime, the complex was used again during the rule of the Ayyubids and Mameluks , but then in a much more modest setting.
Important buildings
The bath house mentioned at the beginning is located to the west of the palace and is only preserved in sparse remains; this also applies to the simpler residential buildings. The palace, the water supply and the mosque are well preserved.
The al-Qastal palace
The basic shape of the palace complex Qasr al-Qastal ( Arabic القصر, DMG al-qaṣr means “castle, fortress”) is formed by a square with a side length of approx. 68 meters. There are round towers at all four corners, another 12 smaller, semicircular towers subdivide the sides. The main entrance was in a tower on the east side. This entrance hall led to a vestibule which opened inward to a large courtyard. In this there was a large cistern. Six rooms interpreted as living areas surrounded the courtyard on the ground floor. The stairs to the upper floor are located in the thick side walls of the entrance hall. Directly above the entrance hall was a richly decorated audience room with three apses . In addition, the upper floor also had six living rooms.
The entire palace, even its latrines, was richly decorated with mosaics and stucco . In the course of robbery excavations in 2000, two well-preserved, high-quality mosaics came to light in the palace rooms. Both mosaics measure around 3.30 by 3.30 meters and show a scene in the center, which is surrounded by a complex looped band with geometric motifs. There are depictions of birds in the corner spandrels. The scene in the first mosaic shows a lion attacking a bull, that in the second mosaic shows a leopard killing a gazelle. Scenes like this are more often found in Umayyad palaces and are often interpreted as a warning and a show of power by the ruler.
Reservoirs and cisterns
A little more than a kilometer east of the palace is a 400 meter long and 4.3 meter thick dam in a wadi , through which up to two million cubic meters of rainwater could be stored for agricultural use. Another reservoir is located about one and a half kilometers northwest of the palace. It measures 30 by 22 meters, is 6.5 meters deep and holds 4,000 cubic meters and was built in the pit that was left after the stones were broken there for the construction of the palace. At the bottom of the reservoir there is still part of the original water level meter. In addition, there are more than 70 smaller cisterns on two square kilometers around the palace.
Mosque and cemetery
The mosque is located immediately north of the palace. It has a rectangular floor plan that deviates from the orientation towards Mecca. Her mihrāb was originally rectangular and was later converted into the typical semicircular shape. Its round minaret is one of the oldest preserved anywhere. The building is attached to the north or west side of the courtyard of the mosque and could be entered from there through a narrow door. It consists of carefully hewn limestone blocks. Its round shaft is still 3.27 meters high, it stands on a rectangular base 1.35 meters high. The shaft is divided into two floors, the lower one is made of solid masonry, the upper one is formed by a gallery of originally ten pilasters in the Corinthian style .
To the southwest of the palace is the al-Qastal cemetery. It is the only one from early Islamic times in Jordan. Some of the oldest graves are - contrary to what is usual today - not oriented towards Mecca, but towards Jerusalem. At least 17 stones with grave inscriptions from Umayyad and Abbasid times have been preserved, they are now in the archaeological museum of Madaba .
literature
- E. Addison: The Mosque at Qastal: Report from al-Qastal Conservation and Development Project, 1999-2000. In: Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan No. 44, 2000, pp. 477-491.
- G. Bisheh: Two Umayyad Mosaic floors from Qastal. In: Liber Annuus No. 50, 2000, pp. 431-437.
- P. Carlier, Recherche Archéologique au château de al-Qastal. In: Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan No. 28, 1984, pp. 343-382.
- H. Gaube: Amman, Harane and Qastal. Four early Islamic buildings in central Jordan. In: Journal of the German Palestine Association . No. 93, 1977, pp. 52-86.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b http://www.discoverislamicart.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;jo;Mon01;30;en
- ↑ a b c d e f g h http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/1550/
- ↑ https://iiste.org/Journals/index.php/ISDE/article/viewFile/5179/5260
- ↑ http://www.discoverislamicart.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;jo;Mus01_H;17;en
Coordinates: 31 ° 44 ′ 49 ″ N , 35 ° 56 ′ 8 ″ E