marwanid umayyad building activities: speculations on patronage

Marwanid Umayyad Building Activities: Speculations on PatronageAuthor(s): Jere L. BacharachSource: Muqarnas, Vol. 13 (1996), pp. 27-44Published by: BRILLStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1523250Accessed: 05/03/2009 04:31

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JERE L. BACHARACH

MARWANID UMAYYAD BUILDING ACTIVITIES: SPECULATIONS ON PATRONAGE

Umayyad buildings have been the subject of more articles, book chapters, and monographs than structures from any comparable chronological period in Islamic

history.1 Here we will concentrate on archaeological and architectural sites associated with the Marwanid branch of the Umayyad dynasty (661-750), that is, on the de- scendants of the Umayyad Caliph Marwan (684-85) (see fig. 1), and specifically the fifty years following the tri-

umphs of Caliph CAbd al-Malik (r. 685-705) in Iraq in 692 during the Second Civil War. In geographic terms, this investigation of Marwanid architecture will be limited to modern Syria, Lebanon, historic Palestine

(including Israel, Palestine National Authority lands, and Occupied Territories), and Jordan, all of which are covered by the term Bilad al-Sham.

Earlier scholarship tended to identify two basic catego- ries of buildings - religious edifices and the secular structures known as "desert palaces" or qasr (pl. qusur), a term that can signify a residential compound, an agricultural outbuilding, a permanent building, a palace, for- tress, or castle, reflecting the many roles such structures

played in the society.2 It is now clear that the term is a misnomer - many of these desert palaces were not in the desert and were larger than a palace complex - but it is still commonly found in modern studies, though also

subject to much scholarly debate. Members of the Marwanid family, including caliphs,

undertook building programs for a variety of reasons3 there is no single explanation for all the Umayyad qusur and religious buildings that they constructed. The debate at the beginning of this century between Musil and Lammens over the use the Umayyads made of their desert palaces foreshadows some of the differences of

opinion that would arise in the post-World War II era, although most of these later scholarly exchanges were neither as intense nor as personal.4 The most important new scholarly addition to the explanation for the location of Marwanid sites was the growing emphasis on trade and pilgrimage routes in that period, and this, along with comments on topography and climate, will be critical to the arguments made below.5

Recent scholarship has also tended to list these build-

ings in the order in which their patron served as caliph. While there are advantages to such an organization, it has also had two negative effects. One is to create the

impression of a linear progression of building activities, as if these edifices were built one after another. While no scholar ever claimed that Sulayman (715-17) and Hisham (724-43) did not begin their building programs until they were caliph, listing their patronage in order of their caliphates leaves the impression that this was so. (In order to break that mold, here we will follow comments on the reign of CAbd al-Malik with a study of Hisham's

patronage and then move in an almost counterclockwise direction around the Bilad al-Sham.) Listing building activities under caliphs also creates the impression that their activities were empire-wide or, in the context of this

study, spread throughout the Bilad al-Sham. One conclusion of this investigation is precisely the opposite - that Marwanid patronage was confined to very specific locations.

The word "patron" will here be applied to the individ- ual who had primary responsibility for initiating a build-

ing project on a particular site. For example, Caliph Sulayman began to work on a major mosque in al-Ramla, Palestine, during the caliphate of his brother al-Walid I (705-15). Therefore, although his successor, Caliph CUmar II (717-20) completed work on the mosque, Sulayman will here be identified as its patron. Since the

goal of the investigation is to specify which member of the Marwanid family built what and where, the pre- Islamic history of a given site and the use made of the desert palaces after the Marwanid period will generally be ignored, even though some of the most important recent scholarship has involved the study of ceramics to determine the post-Umayyad use of these sites.

Almost every Umayyad site lacks the type of data -

archaeological and textual - needed to assign patronage to a specific member of the family. There are only a few in-situ inscriptions, and the textual references generally date to a post-Umayyad period. By necessity, then, we will rely on the consensus scholars have reached in attri-

JERE L. BACHARACH

Marwan I [684-85]

Muhammad CAbd al-Malik [685-705]

al-Walid I [705-15]

al-CAbbas

Abdallah

CUmar

Maslama

Yazid III

Sulayman [715-17]

Yazid II [720-24]

Hisham [724-43]

'Abd al-Aziz

CUmar II [717-20]

Ibrahim

al-Walid II [743-44]

Marwan II

Fig. 1. Genealogy of the Marwanids

buting particular sites to specific patrons (Qusayr CAmra to al-Walid I, for example, and Khirbat al-Mafjar to al- Walid II) and then go on from there. That means, of course, that if these consensus attributions prove to be

wrong, it is very likely that some of the conclusions reached here will also prove false.

My first hypothesis is that Caliph CAbd al-Malik

assigned to family members, particularly sons, the specific lands in Bilad al-Sham that eventually became the center of their architectural patronage.6 Building activities under CAbd al-Malik's own direct patronage were limited

primarily to Jerusalem. Al-Walid I (705-15), his son and successor, may have encouraged building activities in

many parts of Bilad al-Sham, but his patronage while ca-

liph was also concentrated in Jerusalem, plus Damascus and sites along one of the pilgrimage/trade routes. Other members of the Marwanid family patronized building activities in Aleppo, Amman, CAnjar, Khirbat al-

Minya, and al-Ramla, among other sites. CUmar II (717-20), who succeeded Sulayman (715-

17), represented a break not only in the line of direct de- scendants of CAbd al-Malik, but also in the attitude of the Marwanid family toward patronage, since no buildings

seem to have been initiated by him. But with the return to the main family line, Yazid II (720-24) was very active as a patron in Jordan, while his brother Hisham (724- 43) concentrated almost all of his efforts in parts of Syria. Finally, al-Walid II (r. 743-44), Yazid II's son, was an active builder in an area that ran from Jericho through Amman southward.

Marwanid patronage was tied to geography (fig. 2), for each of these caliphs and other members of the Mar- wanid family built in clearly definable zones. These zones do not coincide with the administrative unit known as the jund (pl. ajndd), however. Almost all Mar- wanid building activities also fall into one of two catego- ries - either they were mosque/dar al-'imara combina- tions or they were quSurin which at least a palace, a bath, and a mosque can be found. With the possible exception of al-Walid I's expansion and decorative program in the

congregational mosque of Damascus and al-Walid II's unfinished buildings south of Amman, no project in Bilad al-Sham was composed of only a single building. Finally, the tendency of Marwanid caliphs to spend their time in locations other than Damascus requires rethink-

ing the idea that there was an Umayyad capital.

I I I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I I I I I I I

I I

28

MARWANID BUILDING ACTIVITIES

Mi prepwad by Ason WHkns

Fig. 2. Marwanid sites in Greater Syria. (Map: Alison Wilkins)

THE CALIPHATE OF CABD AL-MALIK

The end of Sufyanid rule and the eventual triumph of the Marwanids is associated with the Second Civil War, or Fitna, of Ibn al-Zubayr.7 In 684 at al-Jabiya, a Ghassanid site on the Golan Heights, Marwan (r. 684-85) was rec- ognized as caliph by the Kalb Arabs. One of his first acts

was to have the bayCa, the oath of allegiance for succession, taken in the name of his two sons, CAbd al-Malik and CAbd al-CAziz. Marwan's death left the family for- tunes in the hands of CAbd al-Malik who, aided by al-Haj- jaj, was able to reassert Umayyad rule over Muslim lands

by 692. He then tried to replace CAbd al-CAziz as the ca-

liph-designate, but the latter refused to step down, and

29

JERE L. BACHARACH

these struggles over the succession remained a constant source of unrest throughout the period.

cAbd al-Malik initiated a policy, apparently confirmed

by his son and successor al-Walid, of assigning subunits of Bilad al-Sham to his sons. The idea was a direct result of the civil war, since the best way for cAbd al-Malik to ensure control over the heart of his empire, the Bilad al- Sham, and the tribal forces he needed for it was to

appoint family members to govern specific zones. A certain portion of local revenues, particularly from agriculture, must have been retained by these family members for their own purposes, including patronage.

There are data for some of CAbd al-Malik's sons.8

Sulayman was assigned the governorship of the jund of Filastin and presumably took up residence in Ludd, its

regional capital. Jerusalem is in the same jund, but CAbd al-Malik and then al-Walid I seem to have been the prin- ciple patrons there. Another son, Abdullah, was made

governor of Hims and Maslama in the Balis region, which is in the northeastern frontier of the jund of Qin- nasrin.9 Other sons given territory included the future

caliph Yazid II who was assigned the area around Amman, and the future caliph Hisham, who held the northeastern zone of the Damascus jund near al-Raqqa, but south of the Euphrates. When al-Walid became ca-

liph, he appears never to have challenged the right of

any of his family members, especially his brothers, to control and develop these zones.

One building in particular associated with CAbd al- Malik is the Dome of the Rock on the Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem.'1 Scholars continue to debate the political and religious significance intended when it was built." But what is clear from recent work is that it should not be

analyzed in isolation. The basic location and layout of al-

Aqsa, the main mosque on the Haram al-Sharif, and the area between the two can be assigned to cAbd al-Malik, and should be treated as a single unit.'2 While a very strong case can be made for assigning the building of al-

Aqsa to CAbd al-Malik, other accounts credit the mosque to al-Walid.'3 Both are probably right: cAbd al-Malik did order the building of al-Aqsa but, as will be proposed below, al-Walid undertook to make some additions to areas next to al-Aqsa as part of his patronage program in

Jerusalem.

THE ACTIVITIES OF HISHAM IN CENTRAL AND NORTHEASTERN SYRIA

Scholars agree that Hisham was the patron of a number of sites in central and northeastern Syria. One such site is

Rusafa (Resafa/Sergiopolis), to which, according to the chronicles, Hisham had withdrawn to avoid the plague in some city, possibly Wasit al-Raqqa.'4 The story is cred- ible as it echoes the case of cAbd al-CAziz who left Fustat to found Halwan also to avoid disease.'5

Archaeological evidence suggests that most of Hi- sham's structures in Rusafa were built south of the pre- Islamic walled city,16 where he constructed both residences and gardens; his congregational mosque, however, was in Rusafa proper.'7

Rusafa after the Muslim conquest housed a sizable Christian community, whose church of St. Sergius was a

major pilgrimage site (another large church there, the Basilica of the Holy Cross, had, like the other churches, an east-west orientation). Archaeological evidence estab- lishes a congregational mosque with a fahn next to this basilica, and its north wall served as the qibla wall for the

Umayyad mosque. This mosque continued in use after the fall of the Umayyads, as the stone minbar to the west of the mihrab dates to the Abbasid period.'8 The church was then probably taken over by the Muslims and func- tioned as a dar al-cimdra. The physical relationship between the two buildings - the dar al-cimara was on the

qibla side of the congregational mosque - is paralleled by other examples from the Umayyad period. Rusafa served the community; the complexes to its south served elite groups in a private setting.

Another example of Hisham's patronage in this

region is Wasit al-Raqqa, which connects his building activities with agriculture. This city was on the southern bank of the Euphrates and therefore in territories under his direct control. Two palaces and a major canal were constructed there.'9 Unfortunately archaeological evidence and adequate textual data on the nature of the

setting are both lacking, but in light of its location on a

major waterway and at a significant north-south crossing point, Wasit al-Raqqa was probably a madzna rather than a qagr. This means that excavators should find there a

congregational mosque and a dar al-cimara.20 (The city of

al-Raqqa [and al-Rafiqa] on the northern bank of the Eu-

phrates is associated with Abbasid patronage.) Two other sites for which Hisham was patron are Qasr

al-Hayr al-Gharbi and Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi, the latter dated to 727.21 Extensive archaeological work has been undertaken at both.22 When a pilgrim, merchant, or gov- ernmental official traveled from al-Raqqa or Rusafa to Damascus, Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi was a natural stopping point. The building had public and private rooms, a bath, and a small mosque outside the walls- all the components of a qa$r complex.

30


For the traveler or merchant heading for Damascus from the Euphrates the next stops after Qasr al-Hayr al-

Sharqi would be al-Sukhna and Arak. The first is now

being turned into a minor industrial center for natural

gas, and whatever the archaeological remains that were there have probably been lost. Arak remains an oasis, and sherd evidence of Umayyad and early Abbasid occu-

pation will no doubt be found there. If Umayyad build-

ings are found, the logical conclusion is that Hisham was their patron.

The most important oasis in the region is Palmyra/ Tadmur. Syrian and German archaeologists have found evidence of Umayyad activity throughout the settlement.23 The discovery of an Umayyad suq with shops confirms the importance of Palmyra/Tadmur as a major stopping point along the east-west trade route;24 the suq need not date from the caliphate of Hisham, however, as the trade route must have been active before he became

caliph. Archaeologists have shown that the famous tem-

ple of Bel which is laid out north/south was used as an

Umayyad mosque after having served as a church. Con-

sidering the size of the temple of Bel complex, the

importance of Palmyra/Tadmur to trade, and the prob- able size of the permanent population involved in pro- ducing agricultural products and serving the needs of traders and travelers, the mosque must have been a con-

gregational rather than private or court mosque. There-

fore, if my model is valid, a ddr al-'imdra should be in the immediate vicinity. The traditional interpretation is that the mosque was built in the raised area at the south end of the former temple. However, if the mihrab on the outer north wall can be dated to the Umayyad era, then the temple itself could have served as a dar al-Cimara,

though this is speculation. Continuing westward the final major qaSr associated

with Hisham is located at Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi. As with

Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi, it served many functions. It is also

possible that it represented the western limits of Hi- sham's holdings. As with Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi it has all the characteristics of a qasr complex rather than an urban setting serving a large Muslim population.

Hisham did not entirely neglect the Muslim connection with the Hijaz; archaeological evidence indicates that he built cisterns (birkat) along the pilgrimage route. He may also have been involved in improving the facilities in the Azraq oasis area, particularly at al-Azraq al- Shishan, as this was a major staging point where pilgrims and merchants began their journey through the Wadi Sirham,25 but these acts of patronage appear very modest

compared to his building program in Syria.

The location of Hisham's Syrian complexes demonstrates an awareness of what the major communication and trade routes in the region were. Hisham's "palaces" served as caravan stops for traffic between the central Eu-

phrates and al-Jazira regions and western Bilad al- Sham.26 In addition to its amenities there were possible pleasures in residing in the various locations - Wasit al-

Raqqa, Rusafa, Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi, Palmyra/Tadmur, and Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi - and benefiting from the local agricultural and grazing activities surrounding them. There is no evidence that Hisham made any of them his permanent capital.

Hisham, like many of his predecessors, tried to have the order of succession changed so he could be followed as caliph by his own children. He failed, just as his prede- cessor Yazid II had done. Yazid II had been able to have the bayca taken to his son, the future al-Walid II (743- 44), as Hisham's successor. Not surprisingly Hisham did not get along with his nephew, but there is no evidence he either seized the territories held by al-Walid or built on them.27

THE PATRONAGE OF AL-WALID

The caliphate of al-Walid is associated with some of the most important Umayyad monuments. The expansion of the Damascus mosque as well as its mosaic decorative

program, the expansion of the al-Aqsa mosque inJerusa- lem, additions to the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, and the rebuilding of the Kacba are all credited to him.

Qasr Burquc andJabal Sais. One building associated with

him, however, Qasr Burquc in modern Jordan, dates to CAbd al-Malik's caliphate.28 It is located on the western

edge of a vast basalt zone, the harra, which acts as a bar- rier to east-west travel.29 As King, among others, has

noted, it was a way-station on a north-south route linking al-Azraq, the Wadi Sirhan, and eventually the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina.30 Qasr Burquc had a system of pre-Islamic dams which permitted a small community to survive there. The site is pre-Islamic, as it includes the remains of a monastery.

Al-Walid was responsible for the Umayyad building activities at Qasr Burquc and Jabal Sais, both of which are in the same region; political considerations lay behind their development. The attribution of Qasr Burquc to CAbd al-Malik's reign is based on the archaeological evidence of a reused lintel which included an inscription giving the year 81 (700) and a reference to al-Walid as the son of Amir al-Mu'minin, Caliph CAbd al-Malik.31 In that year, CAbd al-Malik's brother, CAbd al-CAziz, who was

31

JERE L. BACHARACH

serving as governor of Egypt, was made heir apparent, not al-Walid. CAbd al-Malik tried to persuade him to step aside in favor of al-Walid, but he refused. The crisis did not end until 704, when CAbd al-CAziz died, and CAbd al- Malik was able to have the bayCa taken in the name of two of his sons, al-Walid and Sulayman, as his successors.32 Al- Walid was therefore a Marwanid prince at the time and was the patron of Qasr Burquc.

Northwest of Qasr Burquc and east of the harra isJabal Sais. It also was a pre-Islamic settlement; but it was rebuilt and expanded during the Marwanid period.33 There are a number of graffiti at Jabal Sais, the earliest of which bear the year 92 (712). Like Qasr Burquc, Jabal Sais is located on the eastern side of the basalt zone. Most scholars attribute the Umayyad development of Jabal Sais to the caliphate of al-Walid I, or after 705.34 Looking at the map, the only way in which al-Walid, whose base

operations during his father's caliphate included al-

Qaryatayn in Syria, could have approached Qasr Burquc, of which he was patron, was from the north.35 Jabal Sais was a logical and necessary resting point south of al-

Qaryatayn with an adequate supply of water. Al-Walid

probably first built a qasr and related facilities at Jabal Sais and then moved south to Qasr BurquC; this places the construction of Qasr Burquc to 700 or earlier.

A second argument for dating the Islamic ruins at

Jabal Sais to the reign of cAbd al-Malik rests on my inter-

pretation of the reason the Marwanids decided to build at this site and at Qasr Burquc. Neither location lends itself to extensive agriculture, but both could have served as the classical bedouin badiya or summer

encampment.36 Here al-Walid, acting for cAbd al-Malik, could have reconfirmed the loyalties of Arab political factions or tribal coalitions in the region, particularly the

Kalb, which were so essential for the success of the Mar- wanid struggle against Ibn al-Zubayr and others.37 Docu- mentation for this interpretation - or any other - is

lacking, but once political stability was fully restored in the region by cAbd al-Malik's forces, the need for large- scale bedouin support declined and the easier, alternate routes to the Hijaz from Syria described by King would have become dominant. Thus, the original role of these two Marwanid sites -Jabal Sais and Qasr Burquc - rapidly declined, permitting the appearance of graffiti in the first and the reuse of an inscribed stone in the second.38 Both sites are just beyond the western-most

boundary of the lands assigned to Hisham.

Qasr al-Hallabat and Qusayr CAmra. Another building cam-

paign associated with al-Walid involves some quSur in

what is now Jordan. Since al-Walid was involved in a

major building program in Mecca and Medina and traveled to the Hijaz, it is reasonable to expect some evidence that he was concerned with constructions along the pilgrimage route from Bilad al-Sham. A strong case has been made to associate the complex at Qusayr CAmra with al-Walid, and what follows is based upon that attribution.39

If pilgrims wished to reach Qusayr CAmra from Syria or Palestine, there are a number of routes they could have taken. One could have passed through Amman, in which there are Umayyad ruins, and then al-Muwaqqar and Kharana. Portions of this route were under the control of al-Walid's brother Yazid. Another route from Pal- estine and definitely from Syria involved stopping at

Qasr al-Hallabat and its associated bath, Hammam al- Sarah.40 The modern road and many of the maps in modern studies indicate that a traveler would go directly from Qasr al-Hallabat to al-Azraq and then along the Wadi al-Sirham to the Hijaz. An examination of a topographical map and the distances between sites would indicate that Qusayr CAmra is a reasonable stopping point before reaching al-Azraq because it is closer to

Qasr al-Hallabat. Current scholarship lists Qasr al-Hallabat and Ham-

mam al-Sarah as being built during the reign of Hisham, but there is no textual evidence to document that conclusion.41 Bisheh states that the plan of Hammam al- Sarah is "strikingly similar to Qusayr Amra, though its

masonry is better finished off ... and it consists - like

Qusayr Amra - of three principal elements: the audi- ence-hall, the bath complex, and the hydraulic structures."42 Both Qasr Hallabat and Qusayr CAmra include residences for the patron and others. At Qasr Hallabat the restoration work directed by Bisheh permits the vis- itor to imagine the main building with its external towers, its inner courtyard, and even its extramural mosque. Although not on display, the elegant mosaics of Qasr Hallabat reflect the wealth, and possibly the taste, of the

patron.43 At Qusayr CAmra virtually all scholarly atten- tion has been focused on the decorative program in the bath, ignoring the accompanying buildings which, unfortunately, are in a terrible state. It is possible that the residential buildings at Qusayr CAmra were never com-

pleted, because their patron died and his successors were not interested in continuing the work. This also means that the baths at both Hammam al-Sarah and

Qusayr CAmra with their elaborate storage system were built before the qasr and then, as a regular water supply was secured, the desert palaces and associated mosques

32


were built. Members of a court did not need to live in

permanent structures - large, elaborate tents or tent

complexes could easily have been erected until the permanent qasrcould be constructed - but baths could not be temporary.

The fact that both complexes had similar residences,

mosques, baths, hydraulic systems, etc., points to a common patron. Bisheh carefully avoids attributing Qasr al- Hallabat to a particular patron, but since I attribute

Qusayr CAmra to al-Walid I and his commitment to the

pilgrimage route, I conclude that Qusayr CAmra and the

Qasr al-Hallabat/Hammam al-Sarah complex are con-

temporary with one another, that both date from the

reign of al-Walid I, and that he was their patron.44 In

addition, Qasr al-Hallabat must predate Qusayr CAmra because of the direction of the pilgrimage/trade route to the Hijaz. Both of these building complexes lack a

congregational mosque and can be classified as qasr. This route was the site of al-Walid I's patronage because the other obvious route, which would have gone through Amman and al-Muwaqqar, was under the control of his brother Yazid.

The next logical Umayyad site for a qasr on the pilgrimage route after Qusayr CAmra would be the oasis of

al-Azraq, particularly al-Azraq al-Shishan. With its abundant, spring-fed perennial pools and abundant vegeta- tion, it was a natural stopping point on the trade and pilgrimage routes between the Hijaz and the Bilad al-Sham.45 The absence of an Umayyad qasr, as opposed to other types of ruins, has been explained by the lack of

systematic archaeological surveys and/or destruction of all Umayyad remains by later Ayyubid activities.46 An additional possibility is that there never was a major qasr built with Umayyad patronage because al-Walid I, the one patron committed to building in this area, died before he could have appropriate structures built.

Jerusalem and Damascus. Another site in which al-Walid was directly involved was Jerusalem, particularly to the south and west of the Haram al-Sharif.47 Unfortunately, systematic archaeological reports of this site have never been published, and attribution to a particular caliph is a matter of speculation. If CAbd al-Malik had begun to work in these sites, however, there would have been

enough time for al-Walid to complete them. If, on the other hand, al-Walid began them and Sulayman, his successor, was not an active patron, their unfinished state makes sense.

The largest structure was south of al-Aqsa and separated from the Haram al-Sharif by a narrow street; it

served as a dar al-'imara. It was an almost completed two- storied building with a large central courtyard which included a bridge connecting this residence/administrative center with that part of the al-Aqsa mosque built under al-Walid's patronage.48 A second two-story building almost identical to the first was built to the west of the dar

al-'imara, but also remained unfinished. Evidence of additional smaller buildings including a bath complex was partially uncovered on the west side of the Haram al- Sharif.

The building's northwestern wing contained a bathhouse with its furnaces in situ. Although the bathhouse has only been partially cleared, it is evident that the caladrium alone had an area of more than 1,000 sq.m. Square flues ran up its walls from the furnaces, and the remains of benches, sheathed in marble tiles, were found in it. North of this room was a waiting room with a magnificent ceiling, from which bathers could enter the surrounding rooms. The latter have not yet been excavated; they may have been guest rooms, perhaps for the caliphs or their cour- tiers. They may also have been the scene of banquets, as at Khirbet al-Mafjar near Jericho. A hypocast was found be- neath the floor on the east; entrances were supported by pointed arches, the first discovered to date in an Umayyad bathhouse.49

From my perspective all these buildings, as well as the

expansion of al-Aqsa with its bridge connection to the dar al-'imara, were part of al-Walid's program to trans- form Jerusalem. The allocation of so many resources to the Jerusalem projects reflects the importance the city held for him. Finally, al-Walid did not live long enough to complete the projects, nor did any of his successors do it for him.50

The purpose of al-Walid's building program in Damas- cus is not so clear. While art historians have focused on the expansion of the mosque and particularly on its decorative program, data on the fate of MuCawiya's dar al- Cimara and any accompanying expansion of the caliph's residence in the area immediately to the south of the

congregational mosque are lacking. Such a building program may have been undertaken, but neither archaeo-

logical nor textual data exist to prove it. Al-Walid's dou-

bling of the size of the mosque would be consistent with the building of congregational mosques in many cities in Bilad al-Sham at this time and might reflect a policy designed to meet the needs of a growing Muslim population. The extensive use of mosaics is paralleled by decorative programs in Medina, al-Ramla (slightly later), and

possibly other cities, and should not be considered

unique. But the absence of data on accompanying build-

33

JERE L. BACHARACH

ings limits our understanding of al-Walid's perception of the role of Damascus in his empire.

The sites where al-Walid was directly involved are few in number and limited in location to Jerusalem and

Damascus, with the exception of his support for changes to the Prophet's Mosque in Medina. The other buildings attributed to al-Walid both before and during his caliphate are along trade/pilgrimage routes and not in lands associated with other members of the family. Other

buildings often attributed to al-Walid I in Bilad al-Sham should be ascribed to other members of the Marwanid

family.

THE PROJECTS OF MASLAMA B. CABD AL-MALIK IN ALEPPO AND QINNASRIN

Aleppo was an important base for military operations against Byzantine territories. One of its major monuments is the Umayyad Mosque of Aleppo, most of whose

present architectural and stylistic features date to the

Zangid and Ayyubid periods. Creswell attributes the

mosque to the Umayyad ruler Sulayman, as caliph and successor to his brother al-Walid, quoting the Arab chronicler Ibn al-Shihna who in turn quotes Ibn al-

CAdim, stating that "The Great Mosque of Aleppo rivalled that of Damascus in its decoration, marble pan- elling and mosaic. I have heard that Sulayman ibn CAbd al-Malik built it, wishing to make it equal to the work of his brother al-Walid in the Great Mosque at Damascus."51 Creswell's citation from Sauvaget's translation of Ibn al- Shihna does not include the next sentence in which a second tradition says that the mosque was built by al- Walid who had the material for it transported from the Church of Cyrrhus (Cumont).52 Elsewhere, Sauvaget writes that the patron of the mosque could have been either al-Walid or Sulayman.53

In light of the wide range of building activities undertaken during the reign of al-Walid and the failure of the

Caliph Sulayman to complete even the mosque in the

city he founded, it is even less likely that he was patron of the Great Mosque in Aleppo. The most likely candidate for that project is not a caliph at all, but Maslama b. CAbd al-Malik, al-Walid's half-brother and a famous Muslim

general. As governor of Qinnasrin before 710 and as commander of a number of campaigns against Byzan- tium, Maslama could have used Aleppo as a major base for which a large congregational mosque would have been appropriate, if not necessary. Since Maslama was still in favor under the Caliph Sulayman, construction of the mosque could have continued during that caliphate

as well. This would explain why later tradition assigns the

mosque to both al-Walid's and Sulayman's reigns. Masla- ma's own career was more noted for his campaigns against the Byzantines, the Armenians, the Kharajites, and the anti-Umayyad rebellion led by Yazid b. al-Muhal- lab. Even his governorships of Armenia, theJazira, Azer-

baijan, and especially Iraq are better known than his role as governor of the jund of Qinnasrin and overseer of the

city of Aleppo, which may explain why Maslama's associ- ation with the mosque in Aleppo was forgotten by Arab historians.

Maslama could also have ordered building activities to be undertaken in Qinnasrin, the administrative capital for the jund of the same name. The site is a tel above the modern village of al-CIss and the surface finds consist primarily of scattered remains of walls. Only a systematic archaeological study yet to be undertaken will reveal

what, if anything, remains of the Umayyad, Abbasid, and Hamdanid periods of occupation. There is sherd evidence for late Roman and possibly eleventh-to-thir-

teenth-century Muslim occupation.54 If substantial

Umayyad architectural remains are found, they will

probably include a mosque and a dar al-cimara on its

qibla side, probably separated from the mosque by a narrow street. Qinnasrin as the capital of a jund and a pre- Islamic site should have been a madzna rather than a qayr.

AL-ABBAS B. AL-WALID BUILDS CANJAR

CAnjar (CAyn al-Jarr) is south of BaCalbakk and could have served as an excellent alternative to that ancient

city as the administrative center for the BiqCa valley. In

pre-modern times, the valley was both economically and

strategically important; the main route from Damascus to Homs passed through the Biqca, as did the armies of Abu Ubaydallah when he conquered the region for Islam.55 Research by Hafez Chehab permits an identification of the builder and its date.56 An anonymous Syrian chronicle states that al-Walid founded a madzna and called it CAyn al-Jarr. This claim is further supported by data from the Greek chronicler Theophanes the Confes- sor, who refers to al-Walid's son al-CAbbas as the builder of the city.

Additional details about the construction of CAnjar include the use of "Rum" laborers, probably captured by al-CAbbas when he was campaigning with his uncle Mas- lama b. CAbd al-Malik in Byzantine territories. There are also graffiti by Nestorian workers in a quarry near CAnjar and references to Coptic workers at the site in the

Aphrodito papyri. Thus the work on CAnjar probably

34


began in the fall of 714, stopped during the normally harsh winter, and was renewed in the spring only to be

stopped permanently with the death of al-Walid and the fall from favor of al-CAbbas during the following caliphates.57 Assigning CAnjar to al-CAbbas would be consistent with the way territorial zones were assigned to family members by both CAbd al-Malik and al-Walid. In light of the appearance of a congregational mosque and a dar al- Cimara, the use of the term madzna in the early account would have been appropriate. The absence of a powerful patron who could move the regional administrative and economic center to CAnjar, as was done for al-Ramla, meant that it would not become a realistic alternative to BaCalbakk.

UMAR B. AL-WALID AND KHIRBAT AL-MINYA

Khirbat al-Minya appears to be an isolated Umayyad palace on the shores of Lake Tiberias built during the reign of al-Walid for no apparent reason.58 It was an almost

square building with round corner towers and semicircu- lar towers in the middle of each wall except the east one where a monumental entrance was located. A mosque, numerous rooms with mosaics, and a possible throne room were uncovered by excavators.59 An inscription found on a reused stone mentions the name of the Ca-

liph al-Walid I. Grabar writes that "Horvat Minnim was built in the Umayyad period in a rich agricultural area. It was probably the palace of a princely landowner. It must certainly be connected with a no-longer-extant bathhouse (from the Byzantine period, according to B. Ravani), about 200m. to the northwest."60 Unfortu-

nately excavation reports from the bathhouse site have never been published, and it has not been securely established that the bath was Roman or Byzantine as opposed to Umayyad. Khirbat al-Minya was a qasr complex with

palace, mosque, and bath built by a single patron. Khirbat al-Minya could have served as a local adminis-

trative center in a subregion of the al-Urdunn jund as well as a caravanserai for merchants traveling along Lake Tiberias or northeast from the lake shore to the coast.61 Khirbat al-Minya could also have served as a contact

point for its patron with local Arab tribes,62 or as a retreat for the governor of Tiberias, although its attractions over Tiberias in terms of summer climate are not clear. Per-

haps it was a winter retreat or a seasonal alternative to Bayt Shecan, which might have been an Umayyad summer residence.

The proposed patron is al-Walid's son CUmar who served as governor of the region during his caliphate but

fell out of favor when his uncle became caliph.63 It is the-

oretically possible that the patron of Khirbat al-Minya could have been Caliph al-Walid himself, but conclusive evidence for this is lacking.

SULAYMAN AND CUMAR II AT AL-RAMLA

Succession again became an important political issue

during the reign of al-Walid, as it had been during the rule of his father. Al-Walid tried to persuade Sulayman to

step aside in favor of his own son, but Sulayman refused and, upon the death of al-Walid, became caliph. During al-Walid's caliphate, Sulayman had been governor of the Filastin jund and had moved its administrative center from Ludd to al-Ramla.64 There is a tradition that to ensure the success of this operation, Sulayman ordered the destruction of Ludd, but other sources refer only to the destruction of a church there.65 In either case, al- Walid did not protest Sulayman's actions.

Sulayman took the bayCa as caliph inJerusalem, but he

kept al-Ramla as his major residence. Excavation evidence indicates an Umayyad presence in many parts of the modern city of Ramle (al-Ramla). At some unknown date, Sulayman began building a mosque, the Jamic al-

Abyad or White Mosque. Since al-Ramla was to be Sulay- man's administrative center, it is most likely that he built a dar al-cimara as well. Based upon studies of other sites, it would have been built on the qibla side of the White

Mosque, possibly separated by a narrow street, but two factors prevent the testing of this hypothesis: first, there is a Muslim cemetery on the qibla side of the White

Mosque, eliminating the possibility of archaeological work and, second, over fifty percent of the original qibla wall has been reoriented, so if there was once a door between the original mosque and a dar al-Cimara, it is probably lost.66 As noted above, Sulayman did not complete the construction of the mosque; CUmar II did, but reduced its size.67

Sulayman's mosque was not the first congregational mosque whose reconstruction and ornamentation CUmar II oversaw. Al-Walid was greatly interested in Medina and in 705 appointed CUmar II, his first cousin and the future caliph, governor of that city. CUmar, who had a reputation for piety, oversaw the expansion of the

Mosque of the Prophet in Medina at the expense of the

living quarters of the Prophet's wives.68 This involved receiving from al-Walid large quantities of money, mosaics, and Byzantine workmen to do the work. Al- Walid finally made a trip to Medina in 709 as part of the

pilgrimage and probably stayed in the dar al-cimara that

35

JERE L. BACHARACH

had served as the residence of a former governor, Mar- wan b. al-Hakim, rather than building a new or larger one.69 Thus, when later sources speak of the beauty of the al-Ramla mosque, it is just as likely to be a reference to CUmar II's decorative program, since he had already supervised such activities in Medina, as it is to Sulay- man's.

Projects related to the storage and distribution of water may have had a higher priority for Sulayman and

subsequent rulers since the porous sand of al-Ramla

required reservoirs to preserve water. In the White

Mosque there are three cisterns which may be Sulay- man's, and he may have ordered the construction of others.70 Sulayman also built an aqueduct in the city.71

Schick found in an anonymous Syriac chronicle of the thirteenth century a reference to Sulayman building arches, gardens, and mills in Jericho, but then the source states that the stream changed its course, and the constructions that were built were destroyed.7 The absence of specific archaeological evidence from the reign of

Sulayman makes it impossible to assess the Arabic sources which write in glowing terms of his religious building program in al-Ramla and Aleppo or to give him credit for sponsoring building activities elsewhere.73 A more cautious view, in light of Sulayman's failure to com-

plete his own White Mosque in al-Ramla or the building complex to the south and west of the Haram al-Sharif in

Jerusalem, is to assume that his patronage of buildings was limited.

CUmar II, Sulayman's successor as caliph, turned away from earlier Marwanid practices. Other than completing the mosque in al-Ramla, CUmar does not seem to have

sponsored any major building activities of his own.74 As

caliph, he reluctantly moved to Damascus, making it his administrative center, but he quickly found that he did not like it, and he fled to the monastic-like setting of

Dayr Simacan near Khunasira. Of the eleven governors appointed by him in Bilad al-Sham, none was from his

family;75 all the other Marwanids appointed family members as governors.

YAZID II IN TRANSJORDAN

Two qusur, al-Muwaqqar and Qastal, both of which are east of the Jordan River and in the general area of

Amman, are associated with Yazid II. Deemer makes an excellent case for dating the development of both Qastal and al-Muwaqqar to before 720, although both are tradi-

tionally assigned to the years of Yazid II's caliphate.76 The

archaeologists Carlier and Morin have postulated that

work on Qastal began during the reign of CAbd al-

Malik,77 and though they did not prove such an early date, it is possible that work began then and continued

during the reigns of succeeding caliphs.78 It would also reinforce the earlier hypothesis that these lands were

assigned to Yazid by his father CAbd al-Malik during his father's caliphate.

The patron of al-Muwaqqar was Yazid II; it dates to before the time he became caliph.79 Unfortunately the site in its present condition leaves more to the imagination than to the archaeologist or art historian.80 Its location is an appropriate stopping point on the caravan route from Amman (or Qastal) to al-Azraq and the Hijaz, as well as a convenient place for north-south travel. It strad- dles the desert and farmland and, as with so many other

qusur, could have served many purposes. The other major site assigned by scholars to Yazid is

Qastal. An examination of both Qastal and al-Muwaqqar indicates significant differences between them. Qastal's palace area is larger; the internal arrangement of rooms

appears more complex than in other local quSur.81 For the purposes of my argument, the mosque is the key architectural unit. King noted that it was larger than a number of the other quour mosques and included a

Sahn.82 With few exceptions, extramural Marwanid qasr mosques were located to the east or west of the main qagr and often built at an angle with the outer walls of the qagr since the mosque had to be oriented toward Mecca. At

Qastal the mosque is on the north side of the qagr and

appears to be aligned with its center. In this type of arrangement, the qagr served the addi-

tional function of a dar al-'imara, while the mosque met the needs of a relatively large number of believers.83

Finally, in the northwest corner of the mosque there is an attached, filled circular tower similar to those found

along the outer walls of many of the qusur.84 Its function is unknown, but it could have served as a marker for the site of the mosque. Yazid II could have undertaken a

building program at Qastal for many reasons, including establishing an administrative center, exploiting the agricultural potential of the region, establishing a meeting place for local tribal leaders, and making available an additional station for caravans on the routes to western Arabia and the Holy Cities. But Qastal was neither the

largest madzna east of the Jordan nor the traditional administrative center of the sub-jund region.

The largest city in the east of the region was Amman; it has two areas of building activity which date from the

Umayyad era. One is an architectural complex situated on the citadel. The second is located in the heart of the

36


old city near the Roman theater and consisted of a Friday mosque and possibly other buildings which have disap- peared over the centuries. Sadly, the mosque was de-

stroyed at the beginning of this century, but there is

enough documentation to establish its Umayyad origins. The mosque was significantly larger than the recently

excavated one on the citadel which dates from a later period. According to Northedge, the mosque in the city center can be dated to the reigns of al-Walid and Yazid

(705-24).85 Amman is pleasant in summer, but can be cold in the winter. On the other hand Qastal, located in a more open area, was probably significantly hotter in the summer but more comfortable in the winter, so the two sites could have served as summer and winter administrative centers for Yazid before and during his caliphate. The existence of congregational mosques in both sites indicates that they were used by a Muslim population greater than just that of a palace complex. Although physical and textual evidence is lacking, a dar al-'imara was probably built on the qibla side of the mosque.

Deemer's careful study of the historical background to Yazid's private residence at Bayt Ras, which is north of Amman in modern Irbid, gives Yazid's love of his favorite consort Habiba as the reason for constructing this particular building, which can be dated to the time of his ca-

liphate (720-24). Bayt Ras itself had a long pre-Islamic and pre-Yazid II history as a Christian and then Muslim settlement.86 Whatever Yazid II built in Bayt Ras, it would fall into the category of a qasr and may be one of the cases where associated building activities, such as a bath, were undertaken.

One important point for this study is that the sites associated with Yazid II fall within a limited, specific geographic zone, but one that does not coincide with the al- Urdunn jund or that of any of his other relatives. There is no indication that he built in any other area of Bilad al- Sham.87

WALID II IN TRANSJORDAN

Al-Walid II, Yazid's son and successor by one, seems to have spent part of Hisham's reign at Khirbat al-Mafjar, outside Jericho.88 If we accept the data on Sulayman's patronage in Jericho, this is the only case where the

building activities of one member of the Marwanid fam-

ily overlap with those of someone other than a father. However, the texts only refer to Sulayman's developing the agricultural resources of the region, and it is possible that these agricultural lands came into the hands of Yazid II or his son before he was caliph through pur-

chase or other means. There is no qa$r or madina in Jer- icho associated with Sulayman or any other Marwanid.

Whatever the pleasures and benefits that may have been derived from Khirbat al-Mafjar's palace and its famous bath, the Jericho region is very hot in summer and al-Walid would have wished to spend that season elsewhere.89 One major Umayyad site which would have made an excellent summer residence and for whom no

patron has yet been identified is the Umayyad complex of buildings on the Amman citadel. Northedge dates it to ca. 735, more or less contemporary with a possible date for Khirbat al-Mafjar.90

Although the Amman citadel's monumental entrance, its palace complex, bath, and recently uncovered

mosque are located above the city of Amman, neither

they nor the outer walls were constructed as a defensive

system. While the walls may appear formidable, they have none of the defensive characteristics of pre-Islamic or later Muslim citadels. The citadel may have been cho- sen as a site for a qagr since it was away from the pop- ulace - Muslim and non-Muslim - and cooler than the

city in the summer. The patron of these citadel buildings would have had

to have extensive financial and human resources. The size of the mosque indicates that it was not intended to hold a large congregation, but only to serve the needs of those resident in the qasr. My hypothesis is that al-Walid inherited these resources from his father, and his patronage of buildings on Amman's citadel is even more likely than his patronage of Khirbat al-Mafjar.

Al-Walid II not only disliked his family but rapidly alienated others among the leadership; the result was his assassination within a year. His remaining projects were terminated by his early death. The most famous of them was Qasr al-Mshatta (Mshatta),91 but he is also credited with undertaking the construction of a palace at Qasr al- Tuba;92 neither of these complexes was completed. Because they were built along a route which would have led to the cities of Medina and Mecca, it seems likely that al-Walid undertook them as part of a series of caravan

stops/pleasure houses along the pilgrimage route where he could indulge himself as well as aid pilgrims and facil- itate north-south trade.

ADDITIONAL MARWANID SITES

The last members of the Umayyad family need not concern us as they pledged not to undertake any building programs. Nor were all the sites which can be dated to the Marwanid period constructed under Marwanid

37

JERE L. BACHARACH

sponsorship. Humeima, for example, was the home of the Abbasids.93 The qusur at Bosra, Kharana, and Aqaba are among the sites for which there is evidence of pre- Marwanid building and thus do not fall within the par- ameters of this study. In the first case, there is a tradition that CUmar I established a mosque in the city, but reno- vations and reconstructions of Bosra's CUmari Mosque make it impossible to identify any of the earliest work or that done by later Umayyads or in other parts of Bosra.94

Kharana, located on the pilgrimage route from Amman to al-Azraq, has been dated to the pre-Marwanid Umay- yad era.95 Ayla, which is part of modern Aqaba and was the new town founded by Muslims, is being excavated, but most of the evidence found there dates to the Abba- sid era.96

THEJUD)

According to Muslim tradition the early caliphs created a series of administrative units called jund (pl. ajnad) for

administering Bilad al-Sham.97 Specifically the Rashidun

Caliph CUmar I (634-44) had divided the Muslim territories in the region into four major jund: Filastin, al-

Urdunn, Damascus, and Hims. By the time of the first

Umayyads, each had its own administrative center: Ludd, Tiberias (Tabariya), Damascus (Dimashq), and Homs

(Hims/Emessa). The Umayyad Caliph Yazid I (r. 680-

83) added a fifth jund on the northern frontier called Qinnasrin with its center at the site with the same name. There are references to the ajnad in the historical sources well into the tenth century, but their usefulness for the study of Marwanid patronage in Bilad al-Sham is

questionable. Even when family members were listed as

governors of a jund and the specific lands in which they built were subdivisions of that jund, the exact configura- tion or relationship of their zone of patronage to the total jund is unclear.

A MARWANID CAPITAL

Finally, there is the question of the Umayyad capital under the Marwanids; it is given in almost every modern

study as Damascus. CAbd al-Malik spent some, but not all, of his time there. The rest of the time he moved regu- larly in a relatively small zone.98 According to the Arabic sources and modern scholarship, during the rainy seasons he would be at al-Sinnabra in the Jordan, then al-

Jabiya in the Golan. From there he would go to Damas- cus in early March and with the summer heat, leave for Bacalbakk, returning to Damascus with the first fall rains.

The winter months would see him back in al-Sinnabra (it was there that he eventually died). Damascus was therefore only one of four centers in which this Marwanid ca-

liph could be found. It is even harder to document where the other Marwa-

nid caliphs spent their reigns, but it does not appear to have been in Damascus.99 CUmar II fled the city, and al-

though al-Walid spent time in it, as well as many of the other major cities in Bilad al-Sham and in the Hijaz, he

probably intended Jerusalem to be his main residence,

judging by the building program next to the Haram al- Sharif.1'0 Arguing from the absence of evidence, which is

always dangerous, first, al-Walid did not change or

enlarge Mucawiya's dar al-'imara in Damascus, although he converted the whole former temenos in that city into a mosque and added mosaics to its courtyard walls. Sec-

ond, he seems not to have demolished areas near the Damascus mosque to construct new buildings, at least not on the scale found by archaeologists on the southern and western sides of the Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem.10'

Finally, when al-Walid's successor Sulayman became ca-

liph he went to Jerusalem - not Damascus - to accept the insignia of office.'02 But if al-Walid envisionedJerusa- lem as the dynastic capital, he apparently failed to con- vince the rest of his family, since virtually none of them resided for any length of time there.

Why, then, does Damascus retain its reputation as the Marwanid capital? First, Mucawiya, the head of the Sufya- nid branch of the Umayyad family and founder of the

dynasty, was stationed there from the reign of CUmar I, when he was appointed governor of that jund. Second, certain administrative activities remained in Damascus

throughout the whole Umayyad period - for example, the mint continued to produce dated silver coins (the case for gold coins is less clear; these mintless dinars could have been minted at a mobile courtjust as easily as in Damascus'03). Third, since the Marwanid caliphs tended to move around, Damascus was always a location where some representative of the caliph could be found, and from where messages could be transmitted to him.

Finally, no city - other than Jerusalem for one brief period- offered an alternative site. By default it would seem that Damascus was the Marwanid capital, but it was not an imperial center.104

CAbd al-Malik established a pattern of assigning regions to members of his family and encouraging the development of territorial units which did not coincide with the boundaries of any jund. Al-Walid's vision was a grander one in terms of his leaving a permanent architectural re-

38


cord. His accomplishments involved changes in Damas-

cus, Jerusalem, Medina, and Mecca. Directly or indi-

rectly, Qasr al-Hallabat, Qusayr CAmra, al-Ramla, CAnjar, Amman, Khirbat al-Minya, Aleppo, Qastal, and al-

Muwaqqar were developed during his caliphate. Marwa- nid patronage of congregational mosques in Aleppo, Amman, CAnjar, Damascus, Jerusalem, and al-Ramla as well as in Medina and Sanca fell almost entirely into his

reign. The traditional practice of listing these buildings by the dates when the patrons served as caliph creates an

impression of a chronological development which is not accurate; many of these qusur and madznas were contem-

porary with one another. The sites involved were all complexes of identifiable

units which can be organized under two general head-

ings: the qayr which would include a palace, a mosque, and bath, and the madfna which would include a congregational mosque and dar al-'imara. Whatever interpretations have been offered by scholars over the last century for Marwanid patronage of the qusur- whether badiya, pleasure palace, agricultural unit, trade center, way station, or pilgrimage stop - are valid so long as particular interpretations are applied to specific sites.

This study raises some problems for future investigation. It is easy to predict that systematic surveys of Syria undertaken by archaeologists trained to recognize Umayyad pottery will turn up numerous sites where

Umayyads were active, but this study also suggests which sites should include a congregational mosque and a dar al-'imara and who the patron might be.105 Thus, based

upon trade patterns, pilgrimage routes, and political ac-

tivity, it is possible to postulate that additional Umayyad archaeological evidence for buildings could be found in Hims, Khunasira, al-Qayratayn, and Qinnasrin.

Baths associated with a qasr often appear to be more elaborate in terms of their decoration than the qasritself. A number of them are fairly far from the qasr, and some

pre-date the building of the qasrpalace. While historians of Islamic art have focused on the decorative program of these baths, the general question of their role in Umay- yad society remains to be systematically investigated.

Marwanid patronage was overwhelmingly confined to

specific geographic zones which did not include the whole jund even when a Marwanid was governor of one. Some sites were used by successive caliphs or were located in strategic places such as Jeras and Pella that make it impossible to determine at this point who should be given the credit for their building. It is also clear that individuals other than Marwanid family members were

patrons in Bilad al-Sham. Finally, there was no Umayyad

capital under the Marwanids in the sense of an imperial center. By default Damascus has been given as the Umay- yad capital, but the court was wherever the caliph resided, and each caliph had his own residences.

University of Washington Seattle, Washington

NOTES

Author's note: This essay is dedicated to the memory of Jack Dull, a member of the University of Washington's History Research Group, whose insightful comments will be missed, and to Michael Mei- necke, who did so much for Islamic archaeology. Research for this project was undertaken with support from the American Research Center in Egypt, the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars Regional Fulbright Grant, and the Committee on Amer- ican Overseas Research Centers. I also wish to thank the following persons for their valuable comments: Irene A. Bierman, Ghazi Bisheh, Bernard O'Kane, Nasser Rabbat, Robert Schick, Eleanor Sims, Sara Wolper, and Abier Ziyadeh; members of Oxford Univer- sity's Islamic Art and Archaeology group, including James Allan, JeremyJohns, Derek Kennet,Julian Raby, and Luke Treadwell; and members of the University of Washington History Research Group, who suffered through a very early draft of this paper.

1. KA.C. Creswell, A Bibliography of the Architecture, Arts and Crafts of Islam to IstJan. 1960 (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1961), and its supplements. The best summary of the current state of scholarship is found in idem, A Short Ac- count of Early Muslim Architecture, rev. ed., James W. Allan (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1989) (hereafter cited as Creswell/Allan); and J.W. Allan, "New Additions to the New Edition," Muqarnas 8 (1991): 12-22.

2. Lawrence I. Conrad, "Historical Evidence and the Archaeol- ogy of Early Islam," Quest for Understanding: Arabic and Islamic Studies in Memory of Malcolm H. Kerr, ed. S. Seikaly, R. Baal- baki, and P. Dodd (Beirut: American University in Beirut Press, 1991), p. 275. A discussion of a number of the qusur as amsar can be found in Donald Whitcomb, "The Misr of Ayla: Settlement at al-CAqaba in the Early Islamic Period," The Byz- antine and Early Islamic NearEast, vol. 2: Land Use and Settlement Patterns, ed. G.R.D. King and Averil Cameron (Princeton, N.J.: Darwin Press, 1994), pp. 155-70.

3. A summary of the various interpretations can be found in Conrad, "Historical Evidence," pp. 263-82.

4. Alois Musil, Palmyrena. A Topographical Itinerary (New York: Geographic Society of New York, 1928), pp. 277-87.

5. A leading figure of this new approach is G.R.D. King, who graciously shared many of his ideas with me during discus- sions in London in May 1993. Among his numerous valuable works is "Settlement Patterns in Islamic Jordan: The Umay- yads and Their Use of the Land," Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan 4 (1993): 369-75. Earlier scholarship which stressed the importance of Roman and Byzantine trade and communication routes includes A. Poidebard, La Trace de Rome dans le desert de Syrie (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1934); Conrad, "Historical Evidence," p. 270.

39

JERE L. BACHARACH

6. The problem of sources for this period was best expressed by Michael Bates of the American Numismatic Society, New York, when he wrote ". . .the reader who is not a specialist in the history of this period should understand that we know next to nothing about the internal history of Syria from medieval Arabic histories" (Michael Bates, "Umayyad Cop- per Coinage," unpublished paper).

7. The building activities of the Sufyanids, who were the first Umayyads, need not concern us other than to note that MuCawiya converted part of the pre-Islamic temenos in Damascus into a mosque to which he added a small dar al-'imara on the qibla side. Since Qasr Kharana in Jordan has been identified as Sufyanid, it is omitted from this study; Stephen K. Urice, Qasr Kharana in the Transjordan (Durham, N.C.: American Schools of Oriental Research, 1987).

8. Patricia Crone, Slaves on Horseback: The Evolution of the Islamic Polity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), pp. 124-29.

9. Crone writes that Abdullah may have been made governor by his brother al-Walid (Crone, Slaves on Horseback, p. 124). Mas- lama founded the residential estate of Hisn Maslama north of al-Raqqa which would have served as an advanced outpost for the Byzantine frontier (Michael Meinecke, "al-Rakk. a," El, 2nd ed., 8: 410).

10. Not all scholars agree that 'Abd al-Malik should be given as much credit as I have given him; there is a medieval and modern scholarly tradition that gives MuCawiya credit for building a sanctuary on the Haram al-Sharif: S.D. Goitein, "al-Kuds," El, 2nd ed., 30: 325, citing Mutahhar b. Tahir; Francis E. Peters, "Who Built the Dome of the Rock," Graeco Arabica 2 (1983): 119-38.

11. A wide range of interpretations is offered by the following: Amikan Elad, Medieval Jerusalem and Islamic Worship: Holy Places, Ceremonies, Pilgrimages (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995); idem, "Why Did CAbd al-Malik Build the Dome of the Rock? A Re- examination of the Muslim Sources," Bayt al-Maqdis: cAbd al- Malik's Jerusalem, pt. 1, ed. Julian Raby and Jeremy Johns, Ox- ford Studies in Islamic Art, 9, pt. 1 (Oxford: Oxford Univer- sity Press, 1993), pp. 33-58; Sheila S. Blair, "What Is the Date of the Dome of the Rock?," ibid., pp. 59-88; Oleg Grabar, The Formation ofIslamic Art, rev. ed. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Uni- versity Press, 1987); idem, "The Meaning of the Dome of the Rock," Studies in Arab History: The Antonius Lectures 1978-87, ed. Derek Hopwood (London: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 151-63; Nuha N.N. Khoury, "The Dome of the Rock, the Ka'ba, and Ghumdan: Umayyad-Arab Power Architecture," Muqarnas 10 (1993): 57-66; Nasser Rabbat, "The Meaning of the Umayyad Dome of the Rock," Muqarnas 6 (1989): 12-21; idem, "The Dome of the Rock Revisited: Some Remarks on al-Wasiti's Ac- count," Muqarnas 10 (1993): 67-75; and Myrian Rosen-Aya- lon, "The Early Islamic Monuments of al-Haram al-Sharif: An Iconographic Study," Qedem 28 (1989). Additional interpretations can be found in the second volume of Bayt al-Maqdis: cAbd al-Malik's Jerusalem, ed. Jeremy Johns and Julian Raby, Oxford Studies in Islamic Art 9, pt. 2 (Oxford: Oxford Uni- versity Press, forthcoming).

12. Henri Stern. "Recherches sur la mosquee al-Aqsa et ses mosaiques," Ars Orientalis 5 (1963): 28-48; Myrian Rosen-Aya- lon, "Early Islamic Monuments", pp. 70-73.

13. Rosen-Ayalon, "Early Islamic Monuments," p.4, for a summary of both traditions.

14. Carole Hillenbrand, The Waning of the Umayyad Caliphate: The History of al-Tabari (Albany, N.Y: SUNY Press, 1985), 26: 81; Conrad, "Historical Evidence," p. 270.

15. Ibn Taghri Birdi, al-Nujum al-Zdhira fi Muluk Misr wal-Qahira, 12 vols. (Cairo: Dar al-Kutub, 1963): 1:207; Wladyslav B. Kubiak, Al-Fustat: Its Foundation and Early Urban Development (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1988), p. 11.

16. Dorothee Sack, "The Friday Mosque at Rusafat Hisham in the Abbasid Period," Vth International Conference on Bilad al- Sham (Amman: Jordan University, 1991), p.195.

17. Oleg Grabar, "Al-Mushatta, Baghdad and Wasit," The World of Islam: Studies in Honor of PK Hitti, ed. James Kritzeck and B. Winder (London: MacMillan, 1959), pp. 105-7; Charles Wen- dell, "Baghdad: Imago Mundi, and Other Foundation-Lore," International Journal of Middle East Studies 2 (1971): 99-128; Jere L. Bacharach, "Administrative Complexes, Palaces, and Citadels: Changes in the Loci of Medieval Muslim Rule," The Ottoman City and Its Parts, ed. I.A. Bierman, R.A. Abou-El-Haj, and D. Preziosi (New Rochelle, N.Y: A.D. Caratzas, 1991), pp. 115-17. Based on literary sources, one of the few legacies of the building activities of the Umayyads was the adoption of a green dome by al-Mansur for his residence in the imperial city of Madinat al-Salam (Sack, "The Friday Mosque," pp.195-97). Thilo Ulbert, "Ein umayadsicher Pavillon in Resafa-Rusafat Hisham," Damaszener Mitteilungen 7 (1993): 214, 228.

18. The Umayyad minbar was wooden, slenderer and taller (Sack, "The Friday Mosque," pp. 196-97). D. Sack, Resafa IV Die Grosse Moschee in Resafa-Rusafat Hisham (forthcoming), should include a detailed discussion of all these elements.

19. E. Hongimann, "al-Ralka," El, 1st ed., 3: 1108-10; Michael Meinecke, "al-Rakka," El, 2nd ed., 8: 410.

20. The map accompanying the article "al-Rakka" in the new edition of the Encyclopedia of Islam shows an Umayyad mosque to the east of the enclosed city, but additional information is lacking (Meinecke, "al-Rakka," p. 412).

21. Alastair Northedge, "Archaeology and New Urban Settle- ment in Early Islamic Syria and Iraq," The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East, vol. 2: Land Use and Settlement Patterns, ed. G.R.D. King and Averil Cameron (Princeton, N.J.: Darwin Press, 1994), pp. 235-37.

22. Daniel Schlumberger, Qasr el-Heir el-Gharbi (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1986); Oleg Grabar, City in the Desert: Qasr al-Hayr East (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978).

23. K. Michalowski, Palmyre 1 (1959): 69-78, plan II; Palmyre 2 (1960): 71-78, plan II; Palmyre 3 (1961): 41-60, plan 1; Palmyre 4 (1962): 51; Palmyre 5 (1963/64): 27-29.

24. Khalid al-AsCad, "Iktishaf suq min al-'ahd al-Umawi fi Tad- mur," Les Annales archeologiques arabes syriennes, 37-38 (1987- 88): 121-40; Khaled al-AsCad and Franciszek M. Stepniowski, "The Umayyad Suq in Palmyra," Damaszener Mitteilungen 4 (1989): 205-23.

25. Saad al-Rashid, Darb Zubaydah: The Pilgrim Road from Kufa to Mecca (Riyadh: Riyadh University Library, 1980), p. 9.

26. Creating a modern road from Rusafa along the Umayyad- early-Abbasid route to al-Sukhna where it would meet the major east-west route between Palmyra/Tadmur and Dayr al- Zawr would save truckers and travelers hours.

27. There is a possible exception to this generalization. In 734, in his capacity as caliph, Hisham appointed al-Walid leader of the annual pilgrimage. If we accept the negative account in

40


al-Tabari, al-Walid planned to drink his way to Mecca and then cover the sacred shrine with a large tent with himself on

top of the KaCba while indulging himself. Al-Walid was per- suaded not to undertake this plan (Hillenbrand, Waning of the Umayyad Caliphate, p. 194).

28. When its location in a modern text is given as 25km. (15.5 miles) northwest of pumping station H4, there is no sense of its relationship to a medieval world (Creswell/Allan, ShortAc- count, p.91).

29. Henry Innes MacAdam, "Settlement and Settlement Patterns in Northern and Central Transjordan, ca. 550-ca. 750," The Byzantine and Early Islamic NearEast, vol. 2: Land Use and Settle- ment Patterns, ed. G.R.D. King and Averil Cameron (Prince- ton, NJ.: Darwin Press, 1994), p. 66, for a summary on Qasr Burquc.

30. G.R.D. King, "The Distribution of Sites and Routes in theJor- danian and Syrian Deserts in the Early Islamic Period," Semi-

narforArabian Studies 17 (1987): 92. 31. For a fuller and more critical discussion of the use of this lin-

tel and other evidence for dating Qasr Burquc, see Svend Helms et al., Early Islamic Architecture of the Desert: A Bedouin Station in Eastern Jordan (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1990), pp. 57-66.

32. Martin Hinds, The Zenith of the Marwanid House: The History of al-Tabari (Albany, N.Y: SUNYPress, 1985), 23:110-14.

33. Klaus Brisch, "Das omayyadische Schloss in Sais," Mitteilun- gen des Deutschen Archdologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 19 (1963), pp.141-87; Heinz Gaube, "Djabal Says," El, 2nd ed. Supplement, pp. 228-29.

34. Creswell/Allan, Short Account, p. 122. 35. Musil, Palmyra, p. 282. 36. P. Jackson, "Badiya," El, 2nd ed. Supplement, p.117; Helms,

Early Islamic Architecture, pp. 57-66. 37. Arguments that the alliances were political factions which

bore tribal names have entered the literature; Ella Landau- Tasseron, "The Waning of the Umayyads: Notes on Tabari's History Translated, vol. 26," DerIslam 69 (1992): 82.

38. "There seem to have been three major routes between Damascus and western Arabia in the Umayyad period and thereafter. The first ran from the east of Jordan and central Syria along the well-watered depression of the Wadi'l Sirhan .... The second route lay further west and is less well known. It ran from Amman and northernJordan to the wells at Ba'ir, to Kiway and Taymac .... This route also seems to have been related to the distribution of some of the more distant Umay- yad sites of eastern Jordan. The third route, the Darb al- Sham, is by far the best known and its course more or less co- incided with that of the Hijaz railway" (King, "Distribution of Sites," p. 91).

39. Creswell/Allan, Short Account, p. 118. Not all scholars agree. For example, Garth Fowden argues that the work was done for a late Umayyad prince since a caliph would have found better artists to do the frescoes, particularly the scene of the "six kings"; he also argues that the scene is part of an Arab Muslim reinterpretation of the relationship of Sarah and Hagar (Garth Fowden, Empire to Commonwealth: Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993), pp. 143-49.

40. The most important archaeological research on both sites has been undertaken by Ghazi Bisheh. The names and spell- ing of both sites in this text use his identifications, e.g., Qasr

al-Hallabat rather than Creswell's Qusayr al-Hallabat; Ghazi Bisheh, "Qasr al-Hallabat: An Umayyad Desert Retreat or Farm Land," Studies in the History and Archaeology ofJordan 2 (1985): 263-65; idem, "Hammam al-Sarah in the Light of Recent Excavations," Damaszener Mitteilungen 4 (1989): 225-30; idem, "From Castellum to Palatium: Umayyad Mosaic Pavements from Qasr al-Hallabat in Jordan," Muqar- nas 10 (1993): 49-56.

41. For a dating to the reign of Hisham, see Creswell/Allan, Short Account, pp. 112-13.

42. Bisheh, "Hammam al-Sarah," p. 225. 43. Michele Piccirillo, The Mosaics ofJordan (Amman: American

Center of Oriental Research, 1993), p.350. Mosaics from Qastal and Qusayr CAmra are also illustrated in the book; Ghazi Bisheh, "From Castellum to Palatium," pp. 49-56.

44. Bisheh, "From Castellum to Palatium," pp. 49-56; Creswell/ Allan, Short Account, pp. 165, 167.

45. MacAdam, "Settlement and Settlement Patterns, " p. 67. 46. Ibid. Evidence from this area for an extensive walled area,

dams, and artifacts from the Umayyad era was shared byJer- emyJohns, personal communication (November 15, 1995).

47. The evidence for my position is limited, but includes references in the Arab chronicles to al-Walid's having decorated the mosque in Jerusalem and the Aphrodito Papyri which mentions workmen being sent to al-Walid to work on a palace in Jerusalem. I also believe that CAbd al-Malik's patronage of architecture was limited, including his building activities in Damascus where the dar al-'imara appears to have been very modest (Creswell/Allan, Short Account, pp.95-96; M. Ben- Dov, "The Area South of the Temple Mount in the Early Islamic Period," Jerusalem Revealed: Archaeology in the Holy City 1968-1974, ed. Yigael Yadin (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univer- sity Press, 1976), pp.97-101. Another interpretation is pre- sented by Myriam Rosen-Ayalon who argues that the extensive building program to the south and west of the Haram al-Sharif was begun by CAbd al-Malik "acting according to a basic concept of what such an overall scheme should include, in keeping with the conventions of his day. Consequently, the building inherently expected to complement back-to-back a major mosque was the dar al-'imara, and in Jerusalem it would have been CAbd al-Malik who initiated such a building scheme, though the final touches may well have been left to the days of al-Walid I" (Rosen-Ayalon, "Early Islamic Monu- ments," p. 10).

48. The fullest account of the excavations appears to be Meir Ben-Dov, In the Shadow of the Temple: The Discovery of Ancient Jerusalem, trans. Ina Friedman (New York: Harper & Row, 1985).

49. Meir Ben-Dov, "Umayyad Seat of Government," New Encyclo- pedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land (hereafter NEAEHL), ed. Ephraim Stern (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society and Carta, 1993), 2: 793-94.

50. Meir Ben-Dov describes how carefully the Umayyad builders worked, including laying a temporary red-dirt floor covered with stones in the main building which was to be removed when the mosaics were installed. They never were (Ben-Dov, In the Shadow of the Temple, p. 311).

51. Creswell/Allan, Short Account, p.127; K.A.C. Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture: The Umayyads (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), 1: 483.

52. Cumont is described as one of the marvels of the world. Ibn

41

JERE L. BACHARACH

al-Shihna, Les Perles choises d 'bn ach-Chihna, trans. J. Sauvaget (Beirut: Institut francaise de Memoires, 1933), p. 57.

53. Jean Sauvaget, Alep: Essai sur le developpement d'une grande ville syrienne, des origines au milieu du XIXe siecle (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1941), p. 75, n. 205.J. Sauvaget, "Halab," EI, 2nd ed., 3: 85.

54. Dr. JeremyJohns, personal communication, August, 1994. 55. Al-Baladhuri, The Origins of the Islamic State, trans. Philip Hitti

(New York: Columbia University Press, 1916), p. 198. 56. Hafez K. Chehab, "On the Identification of CAnjar (CAyn al-

Jarr) as an Umayyad Foundation," Muqarnas 10 (1993): 42-48.

57. Ibid.; Alastair Northedge, "Archaeology and New Urban Set- tlement in Early Islamic Syria and Iraq," The Byzantine and

Early Islamic Near East, vol. 2: Land Use and Settlement Patterns, ed. G.R.D. King and Averil Cameron (Princeton, N.J.: Dar- win Press, 1994), p. 234.

58. Creswell/Allan, Short Account, pp. 179-201; Oleg Grabar, "Minnim, Horvat [Khirbat al-Minya]," NEAEHL 3:1050-51.

59. Oleg Grabar, J. Perrot, B. Ravin and Myriam Rosen, "Son-

dages a Khirbet el-Minyeh," Israel Exploration Journal 10 (1960): 226-43.

60. Grabar, "Minnim, Horvat," p.1051. 61. The northeast route would have begun at modern Migdal. A

caravanserai at al-Minya was important in the late sixteenth

century. Wolf-Dieter Hutteroth and Kamal Abdulfattah, His- torical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century, Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten 5

(Erlangen: Frankische Geografische Geschichte, 1977), p. 93. 62. Geoffrey R.D. King, "Settlement Patterns in IslamicJordan,"

Proceedings of the IVth Conference on the History and Archaeology of Jordan 3 (1992): 373-74.

63. Crone, Slaves on Horseback, p.126. A different interpretation about the early history of Islamic Tiberias in which the possibility it was originally a misr or "camp city" which then became a vital urban center fully equipped with its own social institutions; see Timothy P. Harrison, "The Early Umayyad Settlement at Tabariyah: A Case of Yet Another Misr?" Journal of Near Eastern Studies 51 (1992): 51-59. I wish to express my appreciation to Dr. Donald Whitcomb for this and other references, as well as for sharing his ideas about the transforma- tion of many of the amsar into urban centers.

64. Reinhard Eisener, Zwischen Faktum und Fiktion: Eine Studie zum

Umayyadenkalifen Sulaiman b. Abdalmalik und seinem Bild in den Quellen (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1987), pp. 117-19.

65. Robert Schick, The Christian Communities of Palestine from Byz- antine to Islamic Rule: An Historical and Archaeological Study (Princeton, NJ.: Darwin Press, 1995), pp.390, 433.

66. Don Glick, archaeologist, Israel Antiquities Department, was

particularly helpful in sharing material from excavations car- ried out in December, 1994.

67. See diagram in Jacob Kaplan, "Excavations at the White

Mosque in Ramla," Atiqot 2 (1959): 105-15. Sulayman probably built the Dar al-Sabbaghin (House of the Dyers), which Deemer identifies as the dar al-'imara, but it is not clear where the building was located in relation to the White

Mosque. Khalid J.D. Deemer, "The History of the Bayt Ras Region during the Islamic Period," Beit Ras - Capitolias: A Late Antique City, ed. Cherie Lenzen (forthcoming). Rosen- Ayalon who originally accepted a similar interpretation, no longer believes that the House of the Dyers was the dar al-'imara. Rosen-Ayalon, "Ramla," Encyclopaedia of Archaeological

Excavations in the Holy Land, ed. Michael Avi-Yonah (Jerusa- lem: Israel Exploration Society & Carta, 1978), p. 1010. Perso- nal communication, December 1994.

68. Guy Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems (rpt. Beirut:

Khayat Press, 1965), p. 303. 69. Ghazi Bisheh, "The Mosque of the Prophet at al-Madinah

throughout the First Century A.H. with Special Emphasis on the Umayyad Mosque," Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1979, p.202.

70. When Sulayman as caliph made the pilgrimage he stayed in the house; he complained that the minaret cast a shadow over it and had the minaret removed. If al-Walid had built a new or larger dar al-Cimara, Sulayman would have resided in it; Bisheh, "Mosque of the Prophet," p. 212.

71. Kaplan, "Excavations," pp.110-11. Excavations throughout al-Ramla have uncovered small cisterns within domestic com-

plexes (Glick, personal communication, December 1994). In fact, the most impressive Abbasid monument in modern Israel is a large underground cistern built in al-Ramla. Rosen-

Ayalon, "Ramla," NEAEHL 4:1270. 72. Kaplan, "Excavations," pp.110-11. 73. Robert Schick, "The Fate of the Christians in Palestine dur-

ing the Byzantine-Umayyad Transition, A.D. 600-750," Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1987, p. 569.

74. Creswell/Allan, Short Account, p. 127. 75. There are references to CUmar building a stronghold at Khu-

nasira, but nothing further is known about it; "Khunasira," EI, 2nd ed., 5: 53; David S. Powers, The Empire in Transition: The History of al-Tabari (Albany, N.Y: SUNY Press, 1985), 24: 75. Rebecca Foote has identified other sites where CUmar was an active patron which will serve as a corrective to my views

(personal communication, February 2,1995). 76. Crone, Slaves on Horseback, pp.126-28. 77. Deemer, "History of the Bayt Rais Region." 78. Patricia Carlier and Frederic Morin, "Qastal," Archivfiir Ori-

entforschung33 (1986): 205. 79. A more skeptical view of an early date is expressed by Fre-

deric Imbert, "La necropole islamique de Qastal al-Balqa' en Jordanie," Archeologie islamique 3 (1993): 22.

80. Mohammad Waheeb, "The Second Season of Excavations at

al-Muwaqqar," Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Pal- estine 37 (1993): 7. An article in the newJordanian journal al- Balqac, which dealt with Islamic sites inJordan mentioned in

early Islamic poetry, was not available. Another piece of evidence for associating al-Muwaqqar with Yazid II is the inscription on the capital of the water gauge which is on display in the National Archaeological Museum of the Citadel, Amman, Jordan.

81. Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture, vol. 1, pt. 2, pp. 493-97. 82. Patricia Carlier and Frederic Morin, "Qastal al-Balqa': Un

site omeyyade complet (685/705 ap. J.-C.)," La Syrie de By- zance d I'Islam: VIIe-VIIIe siecles, ed. Pierre Canivet and Jean- Paul Rey-Coquais (Damascus: Institut Francais de Damas, 1992), pp. 132-40.

83. G.R.D. King, "The Umayyad Qusur and Related Settlements in Jordan," IVth International Conference on Bilad al-Sham (Amman: University ofJordan, 1989), pp. 77-78.

84. Unfortunately I have not seen a copy of Patricia Carlier, "Qas- tal, chateau omayyade," Ph.D. diss., University of Aix-en-Pro- vence, 1984, which may have detailed drawings. The published plans are inadequate for the purposes of my arguments.

42


85. Parallel relationships between the mosque and the main administrative building for the Umayyad period can be found in CAnjar, Damascus, Jerusalem, and possibly Aleppo and Amman; Bacharach, "Administrative Complexes," pp. 111-28.

86. The tower may have served as a minaret; MacAdam, "Settle- ment and Settlement Patterns," p. 86.

87. Alastair Northedge, "The Umayyad Mosque of Amman," IVth International Conference on Bilad al-Sham (Amman:Jordan Uni- versity, 1989), pp. 140-63, especially p. 149.

88. Schick, Christian Communities, p. 261. Additional comments in Ali Zeyadeh, "Settlement Patterns, An Archaeological Per- spective. Case Studies from Northern Palestine andJordan," The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East, Vol. 2: Land Use and Settlement Patterns, ed. G.R.D. King and Averil Cameron (Prin- ceton, N.J.: Darwin Press, 1994), pp. 124-25.

89. One other site may be associated with Yazid II and that is Umm al-Walid, which is also in the Balqac region. It is possible that it was built for the mother of Walid II. Unfortu- nately, evidence for this interpretation is entirely lacking.

90. Hillenbrand, Waning of the Umayyad Caliphate, p. 89. 91. King, "Settlement Patterns," pp. 374-75. Appreciation of the

climatic and economic advantages of Jericho can be found centuries earlier. "The Hasmoneans were the first to redis- cover the secret of Jericho - its great agricultural and economic potential. The comfortable winter climate, the abun- dance of water, and the availability of land in the valley made possible not only the cultivation of the date palm, but also the balsam, a plant that grew only in the Dead Sea valley and was favoured throughout the Roman Empire" (Ehud Netzer, "The Winter Palaces of the Judean Kings at Jericho at the End of the Second Temple Period," Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research 228 (Dec., 1977): 1.

92. Alastair Northedge, "The Citadel of CAmman in the Abbasid Period," Vth International Conference on Bilad al-Sham (Amman: University of Jordan, 1991). p. 181. The most detailed work on the citadel is Alastair Northedge, Studies on Roman and Islamic CAmman: History, Site and Architecture, vol. 1 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), especially pp. 237-38.

93. While virtually every scholarly work attributes Mshatta to Walid II, Ghazi Bisheh consistently demonstrates his scholarly caution when he attributes the building to the late Umay- yad period and an unidentified patron. Ghazi Bisheh, "Qasr al-Mshatta in the Light of a Recently Found Inscription," Studies in the History and Archaeology ofJordan 3 (1987): 193-97; MacAdam, "Settlement and Settlement Pattern," p. 87.

94. Archaeological evidence for an Umayyad occupation at Qasr Bayir is not conclusive; Jeremy Johns, communication (August, 1994).

95. Schick, Christian Communities, p.397. John Oleson, Khairieh CAmr, Robert Schick, Rebecca Foote, andJohn Somogyi-Csiz- mazia, "The Humeima Excavation Project: Preliminary Report of the 1991-1992 Seasons." Annual of the Department of Antiquities, Jordan, 37 (1993): 137-69.

96. Flemming Aalun, Michael Meinecke, Riyad Sulaiman al- Muqdad, Islamic Bosra: A Brief Guide (Damascus: German Archaeological Institute, 1990), pp. 24-29.

97. Urice, Qasr Kharana. 98. Donald Whitcomb, "Evidence of the Umayyad Period from

the Aqaba Excavations," IVth International Conference on Bilad

al-Sham (Amman: University of Jordan, 1989): 164-84; Donald Whitcomb, "Reassessing the Archaeology of Jordan of the Abbasid Period," Annual of the Department of Antiquities, Jordan 37 (1993): 385-90, which includes important methodological issues as well as a bibliography on numerous sites in Jordan. Also, Ayla was not in any of the Bilad al-Sham ajnad, but under the administrative control of Egypt.

99. The importance of the jund for fiscal and administrative purposes is a central argument in the thesis of Walmsley. While the fullest and most convincing discussion of the geograph- ical boundaries of the ajnad of Filastin, al-Urdunn, and southern Dimashq can be found in his dissertation, a systematic study for the boundaries of the ajnad of Dimashq, Hims, and Qinnasrin is still needed. Alan G. Walmsley, "The Ad- ministrative Structure and Urban Geography of the Jund of Filastin and the Jund of al-Urdunn: The Cities and Districts of Palestine and EastJordan during the Early Islamic, CAbba- sid and Early Fatimid Periods," Ph.D. diss., University of Sid- ney, 1987. See also Irit Iren Blay-Abramski, "From Damascus to Baghdad: The Abbasid Administrative System as a Product of the Umayyad Heritage (41/661-320/92)," Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1982, pp.13-16.

100. Musil, Palmyrena, p.282; L.A. Mayer, "As-Sinnabra," Israel Exploration Journal 2 (1952): 183-87.

101. It is possible to document in great detail the routes of some later rulers who were also known for their mobility. Charles Melville, "The Itineraries of Sultan Oljeitu, 1304-16," Iran 28 (1990): 55-70. Bernard O'Kanc, "From Tents to Pavilions: Royal Mobility and Persian Palace Design," Ars Orientalis 23 (1994): 249-68.

102. There are other interpretations as to who wanted Jerusalem to be his imperial capital. "Someone, it is clear, had rather grandiose plans for Muslim Jerusalem, and they were not simply religious. If this person intended to rule the entire Abode of Islam from Jerusalem, MuCawiya is a highly likely candidate." Francis E. Peters, Jerusalem: The Holy City in the Eyes of Chroniclers, Visitors, Pilgrims, and Prophets for the Days of Abraham to the Beginnings of Modern Times (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1985), p. 201.

103. Nasser Rabbat, "Muqaddima li-dirasat tatawwur al-suq fi madinat Dimashq min al-qarn al-sabic h.atta al-qarn al-tasic Cashar al-miladi," Les Annales archeologiques arabe syriennes 37-38 (1987-88): 85-104.

104. According to the fifteenth-century Muslim historian Mujir al- Din, "Sulayman had conceived the plan of living in Jerusa- lem, of making it his capital and bringing together there great wealth and a considerable population . ." (translation in Peters, Jerusalem, p.201). Unfortunately data confirming that this was Sulayman's policy are not available. However, since Sulayman did not finish his own mosque in al-Ramla, did not undertake work on the Great Mosque in Aleppo, and is not recorded as having made significant contributions to the Haram al-Sharif area, I am not certain that Mujir al-Din's assertion is valid.

105. Although all catalogues list the mintless Umayyad dinars from 697 to 750 as a product of the Damascus mint, Bates writes that "the dinar mint may not have been an institution of Damascus itself, but rather of the caliph, accompanying him on his travels" (unpublished paper).

106. An important discussion on the nature of an Islamic capital as an imperial center can be found in Marianne Barrucand,

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JERE L. BACHARACH

Urbanisme princier en Islam: Meknes et les villes royales islamiques post-medievales (Paris: Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner S.A., 1985), pp. 11-13.

107. A discussion of some of the methodological problems in

identifying periods of occupation in the Bilad al-Sham can be found inJeremyJohns, "Islamic Settlement in Ard al-Karak," Studies in the History and Archaeology ofJordan 4 (1992): 363-67.

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marwanid umayyad building activities: speculations on patronage

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umayyad qusur

jstor archive

jstor transmission

umayyad dynasty

patronage umayyad buildings

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