FINLAND & PALESTINE Proceedings of a Joint Workshop

preted the grandiose, almost opulently decorated domed hall
at Khirbet al-Mafjar, with its "acoustic vaults" and swimming
pool, as a "frivolity hall," or "music hall,/I built especially to the
personal tastes of al-Walid II.
Stacks of roof tiles and window frames were found in several
rooms, as if placed there ready to be used by the builders, who
then abandoned the palace, and left the unfinished materials
where they were. The suggestion that al-Walid II was the patron
of the "un-Islamic" buildings and decorations is behind the
explanation by these scholars that the monument was never
finished. Such a quick departure of the builders could be explained
by the sudden death of al-Walid II in 743. 11
Baramki's and Hamilton's basic interpretation of raison d'etre
for Qasr Hisham, as an example of the dolce vita of an
Umayyad elite, has been widely accepted. 12 For example, a
recent detailed study of the "desert castle," Qusayr 'Amra, in
Jordan, by Garth Fowden, leaves the reader overwhelmed by
the interpretation that the only person in the Marwanid Dynasty
willing to build a hot bath decorated in this manner can
be the non-religious, pleasure seeking Caliph al-Walid 1J.13
11 Hamilton, Khirbat al Mafjar, 9. The discovery of, not only these frames,
but fragments of Umayyad window glass, are one of the valuable small finds
that were published much later. N. Brosh, "Glass window fragments from
Khirbet al-Mafjar," in: Annales du Congres de I'Association internationale
pour I'Histoire du Verre 11 (Amsterdam, 1988: Association Internationale
pour I'Histoire du Verre) 19-25.
12 The theme is further expounded in R. Hillenbrand, "La Dolce Vita in Early
Islamic Syria: The Evidence of later Umayyad Palaces," Art History 5 (1982) 1­
35. and R. Schick, "Archaeological Sources for the History of Palestine: Palestine
in the Early Islamic Period: luxuriant legacy," NEA 61 (l998) 74-108.
13 G. Fowden, "Late-antique Art in Syria and its Umayyad Evolutions," Journal
of Ramon Archaeology 17 (2004) 283-304. The argumentation in this funda­
14