The Department for the Study of Antiquities of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz will receive 30,000 euros through the conservation program cultural heritage Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany to restore the palace of Caliph Khurbat al-Minya on the shores of the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret). The palace complex covers an area of five thousand square meters and was excavated in 1932-1939. German archaeologists from the Görres Society and the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin. The land on which the palace is located is still owned by the German Holy Land Association and administered by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.
The palace of white limestone on a base of black basalt was built by Caliph Walid I (705-715) of the Umayyad dynasty, who founded the first caliphate in the Holy Land (661-750). The palace houses one of the oldest mosques in Israel. A few years after the start of construction, strong earthquake, as a result of which a crack formed that cut through the mosque and the entire eastern wing of the palace. Apparently, because of this, the construction was never completed. In the Middle Ages, the crusaders set up a sugar cane kiln on this site. The production probably enriched the owners, but caused great damage to the building, since it required a large number water and fuel. From the time of archaeological sites the exposed ruins are exposed to precipitation and vegetation.
The restoration project, sponsored by the German Foreign Ministry, aims to highlight the importance of this year's anniversary - 50 years of diplomatic relations between Israel and Germany. The project is led by archaeologist Dr. Hans-Peter Kuhnen, head of the Department of Antiquities at the University of Mainz, who has been researching the Khurbat al-Minya monument together with university students since 2009. "Year after year, we have witnessed the gradual destruction of the palace. By providing financial support for this project, Germany is taking responsibility for an important archaeological site that was excavated thanks to a German initiative in the thirties. At the same time, we are collaborating with the Israeli Parks Authority, our students gain experience in the restoration of an archaeological site, and besides this, we create an example of a dialogue between archaeologists and Islam," Kunen emphasized. He is also one of the authors of the 2014 guide to the Khurbat al-Minya complex, together with Franziska Bloch of the German Archaeological Institute.
Germany has supported the preservation of cultural heritage around the world through a program organized by the German Foreign Office since 1981.
Photo: David Eran, Tel Aviv.
Jericho, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, is mentioned many times in the Bible. Jericho is a city in the Palestinian Authority, located in the north of the Judean Desert, about 7 km west of the Jordan River, 12 km northwest of the Dead Sea and 30 km northeast of Jerusalem.
Late bronze age Jericho was a prosperous city surrounded by a mudbrick wall. According to one version, the city was destroyed by the ancient Jews who invaded Canaan, around 1550 BC. e. According to the Bible (Josh. 6:1-26), having captured the city, the Jews destroyed all its inhabitants and their livestock, leaving only the harlot Rahab alive, who allowed the Jewish spies to spend the night. The city itself was burned to the ground. Since that time, almost nothing has been heard about him for a long time, and only in the reign of Ahab did a certain Ahiel break the spell and restore it, while losing all his sons. After that, Jericho again rose to prominence and played a significant role in history. Joseph Flavius, Strabo, Ptolemy, Pliny and others mention it. Under Constantine the Great, there was a Christian church here, with a bishop at the head. Over time, Jericho began to decline.
Due to the ideally mild climate and the absence of a harsh winter, Jericho has been building its own winter palaces many kings and rulers. Hisham Palace or Khirbet el-Mafjar is an excavated chic Umayyad palace of an Arab ruler from the 8th century AD. from the Umai dynasty. In his palace, Hisham surpassed even Herod in luxury and excess. And although already in early Islam, by analogy with Judaism, there was a ban on images of living beings, Hisham decorated his palace with rich mosaics with images of animals. Gorgeous mosaic panels (only fragments of them remain) are probably the main pearl of the modern archaeological park. The room where the mosaic is located is called a sofa, in Arabic - a hall for important meetings and discussions. It is not known exactly what important questions were discussed in the Divan, but the chronicles brought to us curious evidence that the invited guests swore never to tell anyone about what they saw in the palace. And it's not surprising. After all, in the palace all sorts of prohibitions of the religious dogmas of Islam were violated. Not only did the paintings depict animals and people, but also the wine literally flowed like a river. In a chic, huge bathhouse, entire pools were filled with wine, and, of course, girls were sitting in them.
Caliph Hisham ibn Abd el-Malik ruled between 724-43. n. e. and - so they say - was righteous and led an ascetic life. But his nephew and heir Caliph Walid ibn Yazid (743-44) was a libertine and drunkard, and most likely it was he who built this palace. The Arab poet and scholar Abu el-Faraj al-Isfahani relates that Walid, after listening to a poem he liked, in ecstasy tore his clothes, and dived naked into a wine-filled bath, drank so much that the level of wine in the bath dropped significantly, and was pulled out of her in an unconscious state ("Book of Songs" 3:303). You can see the sculptures of naked women that decorated the interior of the palace in the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem. High columns are not an ancient oil refinery, as you might think, but the remains of the same bathhouse in Hisham's palace, where girls entertained men. What is left of the once beautiful palace is on your screens. Most of the mosaics are now covered with a thick layer of sand. The palace was restored with the money of the European Union (the signs inform about this :)). Opened in a festive atmosphere and almost immediately closed for restoration. The mosaics there, judging by the description, are amazing, the one in the picture is one of the few not covered.
Built in the 8th century, the palace was destroyed by an earthquake 4 years later. It consisted of two colonnades above the palace courtyard, two mosques and two baths with a magnificent mosaic floor. Probably only in Hisham's palace can one see the best preserved magnificent mosaic. The remains of stone carvings found at this site give an idea of how impressive the palace itself was.
Plan of the Khirbet al-Mafjar castle (2nd quarter of the 8th century): 1 - palace; 2 - yard; 3 - mosque; 4 - bath; 5 - large yard; 6 - pavilion with a pool. The palace, with a composition typical of Umayyad castles (a square courtyard surrounded by a gallery and stone 2-storey rooms with brick vaults), to which a courtyard with a mosque and a bathhouse adjoined from the north.
The palace was opened in 1935-36 of the last century. The sculpture, a fantastically beautiful ceiling and fragments of carving, as well as many of the finds, are exhibited in Jerusalem, in the Rockefeller Museum, in a special room. ( http://www.ilmuseums.com/museum_rus.asp?i d=13) (http://www.imj.org.il/rockefeller/eng/index.html). Naturally, they were extracted from the ruins of the palace in separate fragments, and restored according to the technology that was then adopted.
Actually naked girls from the palace.
Cable car The same monastery on the Mount of Temptation, where the monk constantly sleeps.
June 16th, 2015 , 07:45 pm
In the final part of our walk around Jericho, we will visit the main attraction of this beautiful city - the unique ruins of the era of the Umayyad Caliphate, known as Khirbet al-Mafjar or Hisham's Palace.
The ruins are located about five kilometers north of present-day Jericho, a palace, a bath complex and agricultural land. At first, the palace was attributed to the era of the Umayyad caliph Hisham ibn Abdul-Malik (724-743), but now there is reason to believe that the palace was built by his nephew and heir Al-Walid II ibn Yazid (743-744).
Al-Walid appointed as his heirs two sons, whom he adopted from a slave. This led to tension in the family and he was killed. Therefore, the caliph ruled for only two years, during which he seemed to have managed to build this monumental complex - which is even more impressive.
Alas, the palace of Hisham - Al Walid II "lived" for only five years - in 749 a strong earthquake occurred in the region, which almost completely destroyed the imposing building.
Excavations of Khirbet al-Mafjar began in 1934 under the leadership of archaeologists Dimitry Baramka and Robert Hamilton, and continued until 1948 (most of the finds are in the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem -). The latter published the results of his work in 1959 in the book Khirbat al-Mafjar: An Arabian Mansion in the Jordanian Valley, however, Baramka's studies are missing from it and have not been published. Also, the results of excavations that were carried out in the northern part of the complex in the 60s of the last century were not published.
In 2006, excavations resumed under the leadership of Dr. Hamdan Tahi and are allegedly being carried out to this day with the help of the University of Chicago. I didn't quite understand what was going on there, but the place looks completely deserted, apart from a small museum on the territory of the complex. Khirbet al-Mafjar is not fenced in any way, and anyone can easily get to the ruins and commit an act of vandalism over them. I'm surprised no one has done this yet.
This is what it looks like at the entrance to the complex. The palace and other structures are surrounded by a "wall" of about half a meter, which any eight-year-old child can jump over. No security, especially at night, I guess, there is none.
Well, now let's enter the territory of the complex
Let's take a walk, touch the stones with our nasty dirty hands, look at everything with our own eyes, and try to absorb the atmosphere of this unique place. It seems to me that it is impossible to convey it with any photographs, but nevertheless I will try.
There was a mixed crowd in our group, as is always the case on this kind of trip. Someone is more interested in history and archeology, someone is less, but in this case the reaction was almost the same - upon entering the territory of the complex, everyone was speechless for a second, and then admitted that Hisham's palace is "masheu meyuhad", that something special.
From myself, I note that the palace of Hisham or Khirbet al-Mafjar left an indelible impression on me. I think this is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life.
I dreamed of seeing this "window" no less than the Karantal Monastery already mentioned many times -. And it didn't disappoint.)
A little more about the Umayyad dynasty - I want to mention a few curious complexes associated with the Caliphate. Some of them are in Israel, such as the breathtaking and completely abandoned Hurvat Minim - which no one seems to know about at all. Al-Sinnabra or Sinn en-Nabra is also in Israel, and in our Khirbet al-Karak or Beit Yareah - ancient city, the ruins of which are located between the moshava Kinneret and kibbutz Dganiya -.
Three more interesting places are already outside of our historical: Qasr al-Khair al-Sharqi, the "Eastern Castle" in the center of the Syrian Desert and the Byzantine-style twin Qasr al-Khair al-Gharbi built nearby. "Twins" are located 80 kilometers from Palmyra - for the fate of which the entire enlightened part of humanity is now worried. And finally, Qasr al-Hallabat and the baths of the Qasr Hammam al-Sara complex located two kilometers east of it are all part of the "Castle in the Desert", located near Amman, the capital of Jordan. Architecturally and Hisham's palace belongs to the "Desert Castle" category.
In addition, the Umayyads founded the notorious city of Ramla in Israel, and Caliph Suleiman ibn Abdul-Malik erected fortress walls, a market and a large White Mosque in it, from which only a 27-meter minaret has survived, today bearing the name "White Tower". The Umayyads also built the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, beloved by all of us, and the no less famous Umayyad Mosque or the Great Mosque in Damascus - one of the largest and oldest mosques in the world. My chances of getting there are about the same as in Palmyra, so it’s good that at least I managed to get into Jericho)
Now let's go to the palace
Hisham's Palace is a two-storey square building with round towers at the corners. The central hall was framed by four arched galleries, which served as rooms for guests and servants, as well as storage. In the northern part there was a small mosque, and stairs along the edges of the central hall led to the second floor, where there were living quarters.
Here in the foreground we see the ruins of a mosque, which for some reason are very similar in style to the churches in the Nabataean city of Shivta - another amazing place that I recommend everyone to visit. Well, let's go back to the palace.
Let's admire its columns, unfortunately, as I understand it, mostly restored, but you can imagine how it looked.
Stucco ornaments (there is a story associated with this particular artifact, but by that time I was already too fucked up from all this beauty, and I didn’t remember it).
This is not even taking into account the fact that the main attraction of the palace, the magnificent mosaic on the floor, is inaccessible to our eyes - it was covered with sand, obviously from a barbarian. You can see only a few fragments.
This is how it looks in all its glory
There are also mosaics in the main baths on the territory of the complex, but visitors are not allowed there. However, the main mosaic is located in the "Divan" - a small room for special guests in the northwest corner of the frigidarium, and we can see it, at least from above.
They are also not allowed inside the Divan, but you can go upstairs and see this, without exaggeration, a wonder of the world. For your convenience, I turned the mosaic over and give it as a separate frame.
The mosaic is called the "Tree of Life" and symbolizes the two main states of the soul - war and peace. Moreover, one should look at the mosaic exactly the opposite, from above, so that the war is on the left, and the world is on the right. Arabs never reach out for a handshake left hand- this is considered disrespectful, since the right hand is cleaner.
The main fragment of the mosaic, a lion tearing apart a deer. You will not find a mosaic of this level even in the unique Museum of the Good Samaritan -. There is a simpler pattern on the floor, and on the sides there are "benches" on which the guests of honor sat. It is believed that the caliph himself liked to sit in the center, on the very Tree of Life.
General shot - Sofa and Hisham's palace
And now let's take a little walk along the "agricultural" part of the complex, which indicates that the caliph, whether it was Hisham or his heir, built the palace not only for entertainment and recreation - they worked here, grew agricultural products and made wine.
Curious fragments of ornamentation were found here.
And in the house of the era of the Abassid Caliphate, someone created a road paved with blue bricks
Model of the central hall of Hisham's palace. St. Peter's is smoking nervously in the corner.
Now let's move on to the pavilion.
The pavilion was located in the center of the garden in front of the palace. In the middle of the pavilion there was a fountain, and around the fountain there was a pool surrounded by octagonal walls with high arches. It is assumed that the garden and the palace were once connected by a bridge, from which the caliph could admire the surrounding landscapes and watch horse races.
A surviving fragment of an ornament, no less famous than the "star window" in the palace.
The bridge must have been around here somewhere.
Let's get a little more both general and fragmentary view
And, in order to take a break from all this splendor, let's go to the Hisham Museum.
Animal (tired, do not blame me)
Grapes and sousade
There is also about the history of Khirbet al-Mafjar and the Umayyadoff Caliphate
Vase Amphorae
Unfortunately, the swastika was also found. Apparently the Umayyads were Nazis in disguise.
Actually "E", I took from Racine, which again indicates harm higher education, and in particular the reading of "Phaedra" in French.
Leaving Hisham's Palace
And finally - one more shot of the Hisham Karantal - a window with a star. This concludes my journey through Jericho, and there is no better final note to end it.
I am already missing you. And I dream of returning.
The Arabs declared all the conquered lands the property of the Muslim community. The local population living on these lands had to pay a land tax to the caliph.
At first, the Arabs did not force people of other faiths to convert to Islam. Non-Muslims had to pay only a special poll tax, which brought significant income to the Caliph's treasury. Muslims turned out to be merciful: Christians and Jews in the territories conquered by the Arabs were allowed to live according to the laws of their faith. There were many Christians educated people, whom the Arab rulers attracted to their service. But after a few decades, the attitude of Muslims towards people of other religions changed and their oppression began. Those who converted to Islam were exempt from taxes. They only gave alms to the poor. It was believed that Muslims pay taxes with their blood, fighting against the "infidels."
The first caliphs tried to maintain equality among Muslims by ordering that the wealth of the conquered countries be divided equally. When the Arabs seized the treasury of the Iranian kings, a golden-woven carpet of extraordinary beauty, decorated with precious stones. In order for all the soldiers to get an equal share of the booty, Caliph Omar ordered the carpet to be cut into many pieces. The conquests changed the life and way of life of the Arabs. The Bedouin nomads who took part in them abandoned their former occupations, populating the captured cities and fertile valleys. Noble Arabs - commanders and rulers of the provinces, began to imitate the nobles of the occupied countries. They built magnificent palaces, accumulated enormous wealth, and owned fertile lands. Caliphs, like other rulers of the countries of the East, surrounded themselves with wealth and luxury. Here is how a 10th-century courtier describes the caliph's court: material from the site
 |
| Arab potter's workshop |
“Usually the caliph sat on the throne - on a pillow upholstered with Armenian silk fabric ... The caliph was wearing a black caftan made of silk ... His head was crowned with a high black headdress, he was girded with the sword of the prophet. ...Before him lay the Koran of Osman, previously kept in the treasury. On the shoulders of the caliph is the cloak of the prophet, in his hands is the staff of the prophet. Slaves and bodyguards stood behind the throne and around it with swords, battle axes and clubs in their hands. Slave servants stood on either side of the throne, chasing away flies with gold and silver fans. When the time of the reception approached, the servants stood with slingshots in their hands, with which they shot at crows and other birds so that they would not croak and scream.
In the middle of the 8th century, the caliphs built on the Tigris River not far from ancient Babylon new capital — Baghdad. The ruins of Babylon were dismantled by the Arabs and became building material for the construction of buildings. Hundreds of thousands of kilograms of silver and tens of thousands of kilograms of gold flocked to Baghdad from all over the Arab state. It has become the richest city in the East. The population of Baghdad was over a quarter of a million inhabitants. Contemporaries called it "the capital of Islam, the throne of the empire, the center of beauty, culture and art."
As a result of a large-scale battle in 637, the Sasanian Empire falls under the invasion of Muslim Arabs. As a result of this event, Iraq completely passes under the control of the Arab Caliphate. For a long time, Damascus was the capital of the Caliphate, until Abu-Jafar Al-Mansur moved it to Baghdad, which at that time was still a small village. Then one could still guess that the city would acquire legendary world fame.
Ruins now lie near Baghdad old fortress Ukhaidir. The road there passes through the desert, and it seems that the outlines of huge walls emerge like a mirage.
History of the fortress
For a long time, researchers did not even have versions of the history of this palace-fortress. Nothing was found that could dispel this mystery. Approximate time of construction of the palace - VII-VIII century. The Englishman Kresswell suggested that the owner and builder of Ukhaidir could be Isa ibn Musa, who is the nephew of al-Saffah. The latter gave the right to be caliph to his brother al-Mansur, on the condition that Isa ibn Musa would be his successor. The first years for Isa were successful, he was appointed governor of Kufa and a palace was built. But soon al-Mansur wanted to pass the throne to his son, and he began to look for ways to eliminate Isa.
Isa was sent to the hottest military troubles, but came out of there alive. They tried to poison him, but even here he got off with a loss of mustache and beard. The last test for Isa was an attempt to strangle his own son before his eyes, after which he voluntarily renounced his claims to the throne. But he still had the right to seize power if he managed to outlive the caliph's son.
A new wave of repression of Isa begins after the death of the caliph in 775. The new caliph wants to appoint his son al-Hadi as his heir, so it is necessary to eliminate the claimant. Isa is deprived of his governorship, and in 778 he goes into isolation, probably just to the palace of Ukhaidir. By this time, Ukhaidir, most likely, already acted as a country residence of the governor of Kufa.
Description of the palace
In this palace, Isa spent all his days almost without a break. The palace measures 175 by 169 meters. Outwardly, it is surrounded by a wall 17 meters high. The wall is perfectly fortified for a possible assault - there are corner round towers and semi-towers with loopholes, and in the past there was a covered gallery. Also interesting is the presence of hinged loopholes for shelling the enemy, who came right up to the wall. Europe began to build such a structure only in the XIV century.
The only way to get inside is through a single gate. On the right you can see the ruins of an old mosque. In the northern corner is the palace itself.
The palace has three floors. Many rooms and corridors are combined into a complex intertwined network. There are also rooms for storing supplies and weapons. Apparently, the owner of the palace seriously cared about his own safety. Moreover, all the rooms are not connected to each other, a corridor has been allocated for these purposes. But to our time, all the interior decoration of the premises has not been preserved, and only in some places one comes across brickwork.
Ukhaidir Palace belongs to the early era of Abbasid rule. It was here that many future architectural solutions of the Arab world were born.
