Palace of Caliph Hisham: the biggest mystery of Jericho. Ukhaidir Palace - the fortress of the exile Establishing the authenticity and ownership of the palace

Based on explorations in Western Palestine in 1894, American archaeologist Frederick Bliss describes three large mounds north of Jericho, one of which was the palace of Caliph Hisham or Khirbet al-Mafjar. At that time, large-scale excavations were not carried out, but in 1934-1948, Palestinian archaeologist Dmitry Baramki, together with other world-class archaeologists, spent 12 seasons excavating the site. Later, in 1959, archaeologist Robert Hamilton would publish the most comprehensive monograph ever written on the excavation of the mound, Khirbat al-Mafjar: An Arabian Mansion in the Jordanian Valley.

Plan of the palace drawn up by Chicago archaeologists

Establishing the authenticity and ownership of the palace, known as the palace of Caliph Hisham, has always been problematic: there is no mention of the palace or its descriptions in medieval historical and literary texts, and during the excavations themselves, only a few ostracons (a pottery shard, shells, slate, limestone) with inscriptions in Arabic. On two of the found ostracons the name of Caliph Hisham is mentioned, which allowed the archaeologist to attribute the construction of the palace to the period of Hisham's reign (from 727 to 743 AD).

Thus, during the excavations of Baramka, the site was named Hisham's palace, but Hamilton later put forward an alternative version, arguing that the palace was upset and rebuilt by Caliph Walid ibn Yazid (Walid II), the heir of Hisham ibn al-Malik, during the brief period of his reign in 743-47 This version is supported by the unprecedented luxury of the palace and elements of obvious excesses and the Arabic Dolce Vita of that time.

One thing is certain - Khirbet al-Mafjar was the crown jewel of the construction of the Umayyad Caliphate, an example of the magnificent artistic work of the early Islamic period and can be considered as an example in evaluating all the “castles in the desert” of that period.

The main building of the palace complex - the Great Hall - the baths and reception hall were a miracle of the architecture and art of that time. Tens of meters of luxurious mosaics, carpets, extraordinary beauty and skill of stucco (a technique of simulating work on marble) and frescoes, all this, of course, distinguished the palace even among such powerful competitors as the palaces of Samarra or Cairo.

The sunset of the beautiful days of the palace is also covered in fog. After the assassination of Caliph Walid II, the palace fell into disrepair, never being completed, and then suffered greatly and was destroyed during a series of earthquakes, and was also apparently looted.

“Tree of Life” is the name of one of the most beautiful mosaics in the Middle East, if not the whole world. The floor of the guest room of the bathhouse complex was covered with it. Imitating beautiful Persian carpets, the mosaic is relatively well preserved, having suffered only slightly from earthquakes.

Many statues, columns, mosaics, etc. today they are kept in the Israel Museum and the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem, but there is nothing more interesting and important to see with your own eyes the place where the inhabitants of Hisham’s palace walked among today’s museum exhibits.

Municipal budgetary educational institution
“Gymnasium No. 2” EMR RT

Abstract on the topic:
Khalifa Palace

Work completed
6th grade student
MBOU "Gymnasium No. 2"
EMR RT
Romanova Polina
Teacher: Ganieva N.N.
Grade ____________

Yelabuga - 2013
Content
Introduction
Founding of the Arab Caliphate
Caliphate of the Mujahirs
Islamic State. Organization of power and management

Judicial system
Jurisprudence of the Caliphate
Army
Abolition of the Arab Caliphate
Organization of power and management.
List of sources used

Introduction
Goal and task:
Characterize the socio-political situation of Arabia in the 6th-7th centuries; determine the main milestones in the development of Islam; consider Islam as one of the world religions; lead to an understanding of the emergence and causes of the collapse of the Arab Caliphate.

Relevance.
The study of this topic can be connected with modern times. Currently, there are more than two dozen Arab states that occupy the territory of Western Asia and North Africa from Mesopotamia to the Strait of Gibraltar. In the 7th-8th centuries, a powerful state existed on this vast territory - the Arab Caliphate. In my work, I tried to talk about the emergence of Islam, how the state of the Arab Caliphate was formed, and trace its fate.

Founding of the Arab Caliphate
Along with Byzantium, the most prosperous state in the Mediterranean throughout the Middle Ages was the Arab Caliphate, created by the Prophet Muhammad (Mohammed, Mohammed) and his successors. In Asia, as in Europe, military-feudal and military-bureaucratic state formations arose sporadically, as a rule, as a result of military conquests and annexations. This is how the Mongol empire arose in India, the empire of the Tang dynasty in China, etc. A strong integrating role fell to the Christian religion in Europe, Buddhism in the states of Southeast Asia, and Islam in the Arabian Peninsula. The coexistence of domestic and state slavery with feudal-dependent and tribal relations continued in some Asian countries and during this historical period. The Caliphate as a medieval state arose as a result of the unification of Arab tribes, the center of settlement of which was the Arabian Peninsula, located between Iran and North-East Africa. A characteristic feature of the emergence of statehood among the Arabs in the 7th century. There was a religious connotation to this process, which was accompanied by the formation of a new world religion - Islam. The political movement for the unification of tribes under the slogan of renouncing paganism and polytheism, which objectively reflected the trends in the emergence of a new system, was called “Hanif”. The Hanif preachers' search for a new truth and a new god, which took place under the strong influence of Judaism and Christianity, is associated primarily with the name of Muhammad. Muhammad (about 570-632), a shepherd who became rich as a result of a successful marriage, an orphan from Mecca, on whom “revelations descended”, later recorded in the Koran, proclaimed the need to establish the cult of a single god - Allah and a new social order that excluded tribal strife. The head of the Arabs was to be a prophet - “the messenger of Allah on earth.” Early Islam's calls for social justice (limiting usury, establishing alms for the poor, freeing slaves, fair trade) caused dissatisfaction among the tribal merchant nobility with the "revelations" of Muhammad, which forced him to flee with a group of close companions in 622 from Mecca to Yathrib (later Medina). , "city of the Prophet"). Here he managed to enlist the support of various social groups, including Bedouin nomads. The first mosque was built here, and the order of Muslim worship was determined. Muhammad argued that Islamic teachings do not contradict the two previously widespread monotheistic religions - Judaism and Christianity, but only confirm and clarify them. However, already at that time it became clear that Islam also contained something new. His rigidity and, at times, fanatical intolerance on certain issues were quite clearly evident, especially in matters of power and the right to rule. According to the doctrine of Islam, religious power is inseparable from secular power and is the basis of the latter, and therefore Islam demanded equally unconditional obedience to God, the prophet and “those who have power.” For ten years, in the 20-30s. VII century The organizational restructuring of the Muslim community in Medina into a state entity was completed. Muhammad himself was its spiritual, military leader and judge. With the help of the new religion and military units of the community, the struggle against opponents of the new socio-political structure began.
Caliphate of the Mujahirs
The Muslim state for some time after Muhammad remained a theocracy in the sense of recognizing it as the true possession of God (state property was called God's) and in the sense of striving to govern the state according to the commandments of God and the example of his Messenger (the prophet was also called rasul, i.e. messenger). The first entourage of the prophet-ruler consisted of mujahirs (exiles who fled with the prophet from Mecca) and ansars (helpers), consolidated into a privileged group that received the exclusive right to power. From its ranks, after the death of the prophet, they began to choose new individual leaders of Muslims - caliphs (“deputies of the prophet”). The first four caliphs, the so-called "Rightly Guided" Caliphs, quelled discontent with Islam among certain sections and completed the political unification of Arabia. The first head of state with the rank of caliph was the mujahir, a wealthy merchant and friend of the prophet Abu Bakr, who initially ruled without a vizier (the highest official from the Ansar). Mujahir Omar took over the court. Another mujahir, Abu Ubaida, became in charge of finances. This model of separate conduct of administrative, judicial and financial affairs was subsequently imitated. Omar, already being caliph, took the title of emir (military leader) of the faithful. Under him, chronology from the Hijri was introduced (migration to Medina, dated 622). Under Oman, the text of the Koran was canonized (an official version was compiled). In the 7th - first half of the 8th century. Vast territories were conquered from former Byzantine and Persian possessions, including the Middle East, Central Asia, Transcaucasia, North Africa and Spain. The Arab army also entered the territory of France, but was defeated by the knights of Charles Martell in the Battle of Poitiers in 732. 30 years after the death of the prophet, Islam was divided into three large sects, or movements, into the Sunnis (based on the Sunna in theological and legal issues - a collection of legends about the words and deeds of the prophet), Shiites (considered themselves more accurate followers and exponents of the views of the prophet, as well as more accurate executors of the orders of the Koran) and Kharijites (who took as a model the policies and practices of the first two caliphs - Abu Bakr and Omar). In the history of the medieval empire, called the Arab Caliphate, two periods are usually distinguished: Damascus, or the period of the reign of the Umayyad dynasty (661-750), and Baghdad, or the period of the reign of the Abbasid dynasty (750-1258), which correspond to the main stages of development of Arab medieval society and state.

Islamic State. Organization of power and management
The development of Arab society was subject to the basic laws of the evolution of eastern medieval societies with a certain specificity of the action of religious and cultural-national factors. The characteristic features of the Muslim social system were the dominant position of state ownership of land with the widespread use of slave labor in the state economy (irrigation, mines, workshops), state exploitation of peasants through rent-tax in favor of the ruling elite, religious-state regulation of all spheres of public life, the absence clearly defined class groups, special status for cities, any freedoms and privileges. Since the legal status of an individual was determined by religion, differences in the legal status of Muslims and non-Muslims (dhimmis) came to the fore. Initially, the attitude towards the conquered non-Muslims was quite tolerant: they retained self-government, their own language and their own courts. However, over time, their inferior position became more and more obvious: their relations with Muslims were regulated by Islamic law, they could not marry Muslims, had to wear clothes that distinguished them, supply the Arab army with food, pay a heavy land tax and poll tax. At the same time, the policies of Islamization (planting a new religion) and Arabization (settling of Arabs in conquered territories, spreading the Arabic language) were carried out at a rapid pace without much coercion from the conquerors. At the first stage of development, the caliphate was a relatively centralized theocratic monarchy. Spiritual (imamate) and secular (emirate) power was concentrated in the hands of the caliph, which was considered indivisible and unlimited. The first caliphs were elected by the Muslim nobility, but quite quickly the power of the caliph began to be transferred by his testamentary order. Subsequently, the vizier became the main adviser and highest official under the caliph. According to Muslim law, viziers could be of two types: with broad powers or with limited powers, i.e. only those carrying out the orders of the Caliph. In the early caliphate, it was common practice to appoint a vizier with limited power. Important officials at the court also included the head of the caliph's personal guard, the head of the police and a special official supervising other officials. The central bodies of government were special government offices - divans. They took shape under the Umayyads, who also introduced compulsory office work in Arabic. The Military Affairs Department was in charge of equipping and arming the army. It kept lists of people who were part of the standing army, indicating the salary they received or the amount of awards for military service. The department of internal affairs controlled the financial bodies involved in accounting for tax and other revenues, for this purpose it collected the necessary statistical information, etc. The department of the postal service performed special functions. He was involved in the delivery of mail and government cargo, supervised the construction and repair of roads, caravanserais and wells. Moreover, this institution actually performed the functions of the secret police. As the functions of the Arab state expanded, the central state apparatus also became more complex, and the total number of central departments grew.
Local government bodies
The system of local government bodies during the 7th-8th centuries. has undergone significant changes. Initially, the local bureaucracy in the conquered countries remained intact, and the old methods of management were preserved. As the power of the rulers of the caliphate consolidated, the local administration was streamlined along the Persian model. The territory of the caliphate was divided into provinces, ruled, as a rule, by military governors - emirs, who were responsible only to the caliph. Emirs were usually appointed by the caliph from among his entourage. However, there were also emirs appointed from representatives of the local nobility, from the former rulers of the conquered territories. The emirs were in charge of the armed forces, the local administrative, financial and police apparatus. The emirs had assistants - naibs. Small administrative units in the caliphate (cities, villages) were governed by officials of various ranks and titles. Often these functions were assigned to the leaders of local Muslim religious communities - elders (sheikhs).
Judicial system
Judicial functions in the caliphate were separated from administrative ones. Local authorities had no right to interfere with judges' decisions. The head of state, the caliph, was considered the supreme judge. In general, the administration of justice was the privilege of the clergy. The highest judicial power in practice was exercised by a collegium of the most authoritative theologians, who were also jurists. On behalf of the caliph, they appointed lower judges (qadis) and special commissioners from among the clergy, who controlled their local activities. The powers of the qadi were extensive. They considered local court cases of all categories, monitored the execution of court decisions, supervised places of detention, certified wills, distributed inheritance, checked the legality of land use, and managed the so-called waqf property (transferred by owners to religious organizations). When making decisions, qadis were guided primarily by the Koran and Sunnah and decided cases based on their independent interpretation. Court decisions and sentences of qadis, as a rule, were final and not subject to appeal. The exception was cases when the caliph himself or his authorized representatives changed the decision of the qadi. The non-Muslim population was usually subject to the jurisdiction of courts composed of representatives of their clergy.
According to the covenant of the prophet, the Koran, in addition to liturgical purposes, had a purpose as a guide in the administration of justice. However, under Oman, the right to impose punishments (huduzh) was taken away from judges and transferred to the Sultan - an autocratic official, the viceroy of the caliph. This step is explained by the fact that punitive (punishment) law in the Koran is represented only by a small number of instructions and demands (about 80 in total), and this was fraught with accusations of the caliph or judge according to the Koranic verse about “those who judge not according to the book of God” (Suras, 48 and 5.51) and even a possible uprising under the slogan of jihad (war for faith).
Jurisprudence of the Caliphate
With the expansion of the borders of the state, Islamic theological and legal structures were influenced by more educated foreigners and people of other faiths. This affected the interpretation of the Sunnah and the closely related fiqh (legislation). According to V.V. Barthold, an example of a prophet extracting from the Sunnah, began to justify such provisions that were actually borrowed from other religions or Roman jurisprudence. “The rules regarding the number (five) and times of obligatory daily prayers were borrowed from pre-Muslim Persia; rules on the division of booty were borrowed from Roman law, according to which the horseman received three times more than the infantryman and the commander had the right to choose the best part for himself; in the same way, Muslim jurisprudence, following the example of Roman law, draws an analogy between the spoils of war, on the one hand, and the products of the sea, treasures found in the earth and minerals extracted from mines, on the other; in all these cases, 1/5 of the income went to the government. To connect these laws with Islam, stories were invented from the life of the prophet, who supposedly performed prayer at the appointed time, applied the specified rules when dividing the spoils, etc.” Bartold V.V. Islam: Collection of articles. M., 1992. P. 29. In the Umayyad Caliphate, which had contact with the Roman cultural heritage and the works of Greek authors, a layer of people was formed who became interested in issues of theology and jurisprudence independently and without connection with the ruling class and its apparatus. Lawyers of such a wide profile could be judges in the service of individual rulers, but they could also be very critical servants, believing and proving that rulers were deviating from the requirements of “divinely revealed law.” The Abbasids also tried to take into account the opinions of jurists. The decisions of lawyers were not put into practice immediately and directly, but only insofar as the rulers themselves chose them as the doctrinal basis for their political or judicial punitive actions. In practice, lawyers discussed and generalized much more than practical legal issues in the modern sense: they were interested in and recognized as authoritative advisers in the field of rituals and rites, etiquette and moral precepts. The revealed law thus extended to the entire way of life and therefore became a “divinely revealed way of life.”
Under the Abbasids and their governors, mosques were transformed from the center of state life, including judicial activities, into places of worship. At such institutions, primary schools for teaching the alphabet and the Koran arose. Anyone who knew the verses of the Koran by heart was considered to have completed his studies.
Army
The large role of the army in the caliphate was determined by the very doctrine of Islam. The main strategic task of the caliphs was considered to be the conquest of territory inhabited by non-Muslims through a “holy war.” All adult and free Muslims were required to take part in it, but as a last resort, it was allowed to hire detachments of “infidels” (non-Muslims) to participate in the “holy war.” In the first stage of conquest, the Arab army was a tribal militia. However, the need to strengthen and centralize the army caused a number of military reforms at the end of the 7th - mid-88th centuries. The Arab army began to consist of two main parts (standing troops and volunteers), and each was under the command of a special commander. Privileged Muslim warriors occupied a special place in the standing army. The main branch of the army was light cavalry. Arab army in the 7th-8th centuries. mainly replenished by militias. Mercenaries were almost never practiced at this time.
Abolition of the Arab Caliphate
The huge medieval empire, consisting of heterogeneous parts, despite the unifying factor of Islam and the authoritarian-theocratic forms of exercising power, could not exist for a long time as a single centralized state. Since the 9th century. Significant changes are taking place in the state structure of the caliphate. Firstly, there was an actual limitation of the caliph's temporal power. His deputy, the grand vizier, relying on the support of the nobility, pushes the supreme ruler away from the real levers of power and control. By the beginning of the 9th century. Viziers actually began to rule the country. Without reporting to the caliph, the vizier could independently appoint senior government officials. The caliphs began to share spiritual power with the chief qadi, who led the courts and education. Secondly, in the state mechanism of the caliphate, the role of the army and its influence on political life increased even more. The militia was replaced by a professional mercenary army. The caliph's palace guard is created from slaves of Turkic, Caucasian and even Slavic origin (Mamluks), which in the 9th century. becomes one of the main pillars of central government. However, at the end of the 9th century. its influence intensifies so much that the guards’ military leaders deal with undesirable caliphs and elevate their proteges to the throne. Thirdly, separatist tendencies in the provinces are intensifying. The power of the emirs, as well as local tribal leaders, is becoming increasingly independent from the center. From the 9th century the political power of the governors over the controlled territories becomes virtually hereditary. Entire dynasties of emirs appeared, who at best recognized (if they were not Shiites) the spiritual authority of the caliph. Emirs create their own army, retain tax revenues in their favor and thus become independent rulers. The strengthening of their power was also facilitated by the fact that the caliphs themselves granted them enormous rights to suppress the growing liberation uprisings. The collapse of the caliphate into emirates and sultanates - independent states in Spain, Morocco, Egypt, Central Asia, Transcaucasia - led to the fact that the Baghdad caliph, while remaining the spiritual head of the Sunnis, by the 10th century. actually controlled only part of Persia and the capital territory. In the X and XI centuries. As a result of the capture of Baghdad by various nomadic tribes, the caliph was twice deprived of temporal power. The eastern caliphate was finally conquered and abolished by the Mongols in the 13th century. The residence of the caliphs was moved to Cairo, in the western part of the caliphate, where the caliph retained spiritual leadership among the Sunnis until the beginning of the 16th century. when it passed to the Turkish sultans. Along with Byzantium, the most prosperous state in the Mediterranean throughout the Middle Ages was the Arab Caliphate, created by the Prophet Muhammad (Mohammed, Mohammed) and his successors. In Asia, as in Europe, military-feudal and military-bureaucratic state formations arose sporadically, as a rule, as a result of military conquests and annexations. This is how the Mongol empire arose in India, the empire of the Tang dynasty in China, etc. A strong integrating role fell to the Christian religion in Europe, the Buddhist religion in the states of Southeast Asia, and the Islamic religion in the Arabian Peninsula. The coexistence of domestic and state slavery with feudal-dependent and tribal relations continued in some Asian countries during this historical period. The Arabian Peninsula, where the first Islamic state arose, is located between Iran and Northeast Africa.
Organization of power and management.
The Muslim state for some time after Muhammad remained a theocracy in the sense of recognizing it as the true possession of God (state property was called God's) and in the sense of striving to govern the state according to the commandments of God and the example of his Messenger (the prophet was also called rasul, i.e. messenger). The first entourage of the prophet-ruler consisted of mujahirs (exiles who fled with the prophet from Mecca) and ansars (helpers). After the death of Muhammad, the head of state with the rank of deputy (caliph) became the mujahir, a wealthy merchant and friend of the prophet Abu Bakr, who initially ruled without a vizier (the highest official from the Ansar). Mujahir Omar took over the court. Another mujahir, Abu Ubaida, became in charge of finances. This model of separate conduct of administrative, judicial and financial affairs was subsequently imitated. Omar, already being caliph, took the title of emir (military leader) of the faithful. Under him, the chronology of the Hijra was introduced (migration to Medina, dated 622). Under Oman, the text of the Koran was canonized (an official version was compiled). According to the covenant of the prophet, the Koran, in addition to liturgical purposes, had a purpose as a guide in the administration of justice. However, under Oman, the right to impose punishments (huduzh) was taken away from judges (qadis) and transferred to the sultan - an autocratic official, the viceroy of the caliph. This step is explained by the fact that punitive (punishment) law in the Koran is represented only by a small number of instructions and demands (about 80 in total), and this was fraught with accusations of the caliph or judge according to the Koranic verse about “those who judge not according to the book of God” (Suras, 48 and 5.51) and even a possible uprising under the slogan of jihad (war
etc.................

You can find many photos of the KHALIFA palaces, including on Wikipedia, but I collected the coolest ones from all over the Internet. By the way, below there is a video about the KHALIFA PALACE project

Establishing the authenticity and ownership of the palace

Known as the palace of Caliph Hisham, have always been problematic: in medieval historical and literary texts there is no mention of the palace or its descriptions, and during the excavations themselves, only a few ostracons (shards of a clay vessel, shell, slate, limestone) with inscriptions were discovered on the territory of the mound In the Arabic language. On two of the found ostracons the name of Caliph Hisham is mentioned, which allowed the archaeologist to attribute the construction of the palace to the period of Hisham's reign (from 727 to 743 AD).

Name of the palace

The pearl of the construction of the caliphate

One thing is certain - Khirbet al-Mafjar was the crown jewel of the construction of the Umayyad Caliphate, an example of the magnificent artistic work of the early Islamic period and can be considered as an example when evaluating all the “castles in the desert” of that period.

The main building of the palace complex

The Great Hall, the baths, and the reception hall were a miracle of the architecture and art of that time. Tens of meters of luxurious mosaics, carpets, extraordinary beauty and skill of stucco (a technique of simulating work on marble) and frescoes, all this, of course, distinguished the palace even among such powerful competitors as the palaces of Samarra or Cairo.

"Tree of Life"

This is the name of one of the most beautiful mosaics in the Middle East, if not the whole world. The floor of the guest room of the bathhouse complex was covered with it. Imitating beautiful Persian carpets, the mosaic is relatively well preserved, having suffered only slightly from earthquakes.

Palace of the Caliph Burj Khalifa (Burj Khalifa)

Many people understand the Caliph's Palace as a skyscraper 828 meters high in the city of Dubai, which is considered the tallest building in the world. The shape of which resembles a stalagmite. The skyscraper opened to visitors on January 4, 2010 in one of the largest cities in the UAE - Dubai.

View from the top floor of the Burj Khalifa skyscraper (Burj Khalifa)

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 comes 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. Back then it was still possible to guess that the city would acquire legendary world fame.

Not far from Baghdad there are now the ruins of the old Ukhaidir fortress. 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. The approximate time of construction of the palace is the 7th -8th century. The Englishman Cresswell 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 heir. The first years were successful for Isa; 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 into the hottest military troubles, but came out of there alive. They tried to poison him, but even then he escaped with the loss of his 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 retained 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 heir, so it is necessary to eliminate the claimant. Isa is deprived of his governorship, and in 778 he goes into isolation, probably to the Ukhaidir palace. By this time, Ukhaydir most likely already acted as the country residence of the governor of Kufa.

Description of the palace

Isa spent almost all his days in this palace. The palace measures 175 by 169 meters. Externally it is surrounded by a wall 17 meters high. The wall is well fortified for a possible assault - there are round corner towers and half-towers with loopholes, and in the past there was a covered gallery. Also interesting is the presence of hinged loopholes for firing at the enemy who came right up to the wall. Europe began to build such a structure only in the 14th century.

You can only get inside through a single gate. On the right you can see the ruins of an old mosque. In the northern corner is the palace itself.

One thing is certain - Khirbet al-Mafjar was the crown jewel of the construction of the Umayyad Caliphate, an example of the magnificent artistic work of the early Islamic period and can be considered as an example when evaluating all the “castles in the desert” of that period.