Qasr Burquʿ

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Qasr Burqu 'with a water-bearing lake from the north

Qasr Burquʿ ( Arabic قصر برقع) is an archaeological site in the Syrian desert in eastern Jordan . The most visible part is an originally Roman building, which was expanded by the Umayyads and today counts among the so-called desert castles with a number of other early Islamic buildings from the Near East . The word Qasr ( Arabic القصر, DMG al-qaṣr ), which these buildings often have in their names, means “castle, fortress”.

location

The ruins merge with the basalt landscape

Qasr Burquʿ is located in the extreme northeast of Jordan, about 200 km east of Amman and 70 km southeast of al-Namara, which is already in Syria . It is a semi-arid region, the landscape of which is characterized by occurrences of black basalt . Two kilometers away is the Wadi Minqat, which carries water during the winter rainy season. There is a shallow depression directly on site, which seasonally fills into a small lake. The volume of water in this lake was increased in Roman times by the construction of a dam. Due to its isolated location, Qasr Burquʿ has largely been spared vandalism. The area is also not used for tourism and can only be reached by four-wheel drive vehicles.

history

Traces of human activity around Qasr Burqu 'have been around since the Epipalaeolithic . The location on a body of water made the area a suitable resting place or short-term settlement area for (semi) nomadic population at all times. Archaeological studies have shown that the complex goes back to a Roman watchtower, which was probably part of the border fortifications known as Limes Arabicus . A monastery was established in Byzantine times . Around the year 700, after the Islamic expansion , the existing structures were renovated and expanded. An inscription (see below) proves al-Walid I as the builder, who at that time was not yet a caliph , but “only” an emir , i.e. a military leader during the rule of his father Abd al-Malik . This makes Qasr Burquʿ one of the earliest so-called desert castles in Jordan, although most of its components were not actually built by the Umayyads. It was also more likely to have been a military base than a palace.

description

The remains of the tower (with recent graffiti)

The dominant structure of Qast Burqu is an approximately five meter high, presumably Roman tower. Its original height is estimated to be 13 meters. It is thought to have been built in the third century to monitor the artificially enlarged lake, which was an important resting place for caravans . The Byzantine monastery and the early Islamic complex were constructed around a courtyard and around this tower. They are made from the area's black basalt rock. When the complex lost its importance in the Middle Ages, its yard was used by migrating nomads to house their herds. Various structures have been built over the centuries to collect water. These could also supply larger groups of the population who lived at least seasonally around Qasr Burquʿ.

The building inscription of al-Walid, which is located above a lintel of the complex, is of great importance. This leads into a room with an apse , which is sometimes referred to as the throne room . The text consists of three lines in Kufic script . The characters are irregular and increasingly crowded on the third line due to lack of space. The mentioned year 81 of the Islamic calendar corresponds to the year 700 of the Christian calendar. In English translation the text reads as follows:

O my God! Bismillah. This is what
the Amīr al-Walīd, son of the Commander of the Faithful, built
these houses, in the year 81.

Other rock inscriptions in the area attest to the at least temporary use of the complex during the Middle Ages. The most recent datable comes from the year 1409 of the Christian calendar.

literature

  • G. Barker, D. Gilbertson: The Archeology of Drylands: Living at the Margin. (= One World Archeology 39) Routledge, Abingdon-on-Thames 2003, ISBN 978-0415230018 .
  • AVG Betts (Ed.): The Harra and the Hamad: Excavations and Explorations in Eastern Jordan Volume 1 (= Sheffield Archaeological Monographs No. 9). Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield 1999, ISBN 978-1850756149 .
  • A. Cameron, GRD King (Ed.): The Byzantine and early Islamic Near East, II: land use and settlement patterns (papers of the Second Workshop on Late Antiquity and Early Islam) Darwin Press, Princeton 1994, ISBN 978-0878501069 .
  • G. Fowden: Quṣayr ʿAmra: Art and the Umayyad Elite in Late Antique Syria. University of California Press, Berkeley, 2004, ISBN 978-0520236653 .
  • S. Helms: A New Architectural Survey of Qasr Burquʿ, Eastern Jordan. In: The Antiquaries Journal 71, 1991, ISSN  1758-5309 , pp. 191-215.
  • D. Kennedy, D. Riley: Rome's desert frontier from the air. Batsford, London 1990, ISBN 0-7134-6262-0 .
  • FV Winnett, GL Harding: Inscriptions from Fifty Safaitic Cairns. (= Near and Middle East series 9). University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1978, ISBN 0802022820

Web links

Commons : Qasr Burqu  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ HI MacAdam: Settlements and Settlement Patterns in Northern and Central Transjordania, approx. 550 - approx. 750. In: A. Cameron, GRD King (Ed.): The Byzantine and early Islamic Near East, II: land use and settlement patterns (papers of the Second Workshop on Late Antiquity and Early Islam) Darwin Press, Princeton 1994, p. 54
  2. ^ A b c D. Kennedy, D. Riley: Rome's desert frontier from the air. Batsford, London 1990, pp. 71 f.
  3. ↑ a b c http://cultech.net/qasr-burqu Retrieved September 14, 2018
  4. ^ AVG Betts, AN Garrard: The epipalaeolithic periods . In: AVG Betts (Ed.): The Harra and the Hamad: Excavations and Explorations in Eastern Jordan Volume 1 (= Sheffield Archaeological Monographs No. 9). Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield 1999, p. 34 f.
  5. ^ A b c G. Barker, D. Gilbertson: The Archeology of Drylands: Living at the Margin. (= One World Archeology 39) Routledge, Abingdon-on-Thames 2003, pp. 94-96
  6. ↑ G. Fowden: Qusayr'Amra: Art and the Umayyad elite in Late Antique Syria. University of California Press, Berkeley, 2004, p. 289
  7. ↑ S. Helms: A New Architectural Survey of Qasr Burquʿ, Eastern Jordan. In: The Antiquaries Journal 71, 1991, pp. 191-193
  8. ↑ https://www.islamic-awareness.org/history/islam/inscriptions/burku.html , with pictures of the inscription
  9. ^ FV Winnett, GL Harding: Inscriptions from Fifty Safaitic Cairns. (= Near and Middle East series 9). University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1978, p. 25.

Coordinates: 32 ° 36 ′ 30 ″  N , 37 ° 57 ′ 45 ″  E