FINLAND & PALESTINE Proceedings of a Joint Workshop

over a thousand years, while, elsewhere, in most parts of the
Islamic Near East, only little remains of a once magnificent assemblage
of Umayyad decorative, sculpted and painted art.
The palace had spacious living quarters, a mosque, a great
"music hall" with swimming pool, and hot baths, as well as a
magnificent private room for the use of the caliph. The palace
received fresh waters from elaborate aqueducts, reaching
nearby springs and wadis. The spacious entrance porticos,
"music hall," and the private room had beautiful mosaic floors
and were decorated with elaborate art works including
sculpted stucco and painted plaster. The artists used delicate
geometric ornaments, but they also sculpted living things,
plants, and different kinds of animals, and even human beings,
that are rarely seen in later Islamic buildings in the region. 6
R.W. Hamilton was fascinated by the realistic figurative art
Since the name of Caliph Hisham was found on a small, broken
slab of marble, with a letter written to Hisham also found at
the site,8 Baramki naturally assumed he was the builder. 9 But,
according to Hamilton, this was unlikely, as Caliph Hisham was,
personally, a religious Moslem. Therefore, Hamilton suggested
the building must actually have belonged to his successor, the
widely rebuked womanizer and drinker, lover of the chase,
poetry and art, Caliph al-Walid ibn Yazid. lO Thus, they inter­
6 E.P. de loos-Dietz, "les mosaiques a Khirbat al-Mafjar prez de Jericho."
Babesch 65 (1990) 123-138.
7 Hamilton, R.W. "The sculpture of living forms at Khirbat al Mafjar." QDAP
XIV (1950) 100-119. Pis. 35-45.
S Hamilton, Khirbat 01 Mafjar: PI. lVII, 1.
9 D.C. Baramki, Guide to the Umayyad Palace atKhirbet 01 Mafjar (Jerusalem 1947).
10 The interpretation first appears in Hamilton, Khirbat 01 Mafjar, 7-8 as a possibility.
The theme was developed further much more forcibly by him in R.W.
Hamilton, "Who Built Khirbat al Mafjar" Levant 1 (1969) 61-67. Pis. xvii-xix.
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