FINLAND & PALESTINE Proceedings of a Joint Workshop

The Identification ofthe So-Called Hisham's Palace __________________________________•
Identification as a palace
Where an gh-century Caliph hoped to spend congenial winters.
The excavation ofHisham's elaborately equipped and
gorgeously decorated Palace in the Jordan Valley.
-- Illustrated london News 1938
This is how D.C. Baramki understood the archaeological remains
he studied at Khirbet al-Mafjar. 3 The quote from the
newspaper nicely defines the general mode of thought that
has dominated the interpretation of these impressive, Early
Islamic buildings ever since; the monument is a private palace,
cOflstructed by a caliph for his personal use. 4
An exceptionally rich collection of mosaics and art works there
have survived, despite the ravages of time and destruction by
humans seeking treasure after a massive earthquake destroyed
the site in 746/75 and buried it under rubble and sand. Thus,
hidden and forgotten, the buildings and art have survived for
3 D.C. Baramki, "Excavations at Khirbet el-Mefjar," QDAP 6 (1938) 157-168.
Pis. 43-66. The short articles published by Baramki in QDAP in 1938, 1942 and
1947 contain the only published information about the pottery found at the
site and are, therefore, of great importance.
4 The excavation report on this monument was originally published in R.W.
Hamilton, Khirbat al Mafjar: An Arabian Mansion in the Jordan Valley (With a
contribution of O. Grabar; Oxford: Clarendon Press 1959). It is of fundamental
importance to Early Islamic architecture and widely discussed in literature on
the Umayyad period. See, for example, K.A.C. Creswell, Early Muslim architecture:
I. Umayyads, A.D. 622-750 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969); idem, A Short
Account oj Early Muslim Architecture (Revised edition by James W. Allan; AIdershot:
Scholar Press 1989). O. Grabar, "Islamic Secular Art: Palace and City,"
In: O. Gabar, The Formation oj Islamic Art (New Haven and london: Yale University
Press 1973) 1-44, 139-78. See also the article Khirbet el-Mafjar in A.D.
Petersen (ed.), Dictionary ojIslamic Architecture (london, Routledge 1996).
S D. Amiran, "A Revised Earthquake-Catalogue of Palestine 1950-1952," IEJ 1
(1950-51) 223-246; IEJ 2 (1952) 48-65.
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