FINLAND & PALESTINE Proceedings of a Joint Workshop

The ldentiliaation of/he So-Called Hisham's Palace ---.-------.... ---..--------tI
and pilgrims on their way to and from Jerusalem, which the
Umayyad Caliph Abd ai-Malik, had recently 'crowned' with a
beautiful mosque or shrine. This elegant shrine is in keeping
with the Umayyad policy of encouraging pilgrimage to Jerusalem
as Islam's new Holy City. The building's function as primarily a
caravanserai, in addition to the many small sleeping and store
rooms, is notable in one necessary installation, a place to water
camels and donkeys. Indeed, outside the wide eastern porch
there are remains of a large, 16.0 m 2 waterproof pool beneath a
dome (Fig. 1:9) with beautifully decorated balustrades.
Caliph Hisham constructed a similar enclosure in Syria at Qasr
al-Hayr esh-Sharqi with the entrance from the south, and semicircular
towers around the building. Hamilton discusses Khirbet
al-Mafjar in relation to this second Qasr al-Hayr built by Hisham,
but he rejects this caliph out of hand as the builder in
Jericho because of "the extravagance of the architecture and
ornament of the bath". 17
17 Hamilton, Khirbat al Mafjar, 7: "We know by inscriptions that the groups
of ruins, each called Qasr al Hayr, between Damascus and the Euphrates,
were two of his creations."
18