DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45605#0107
Kharab il-Meshhed
333
99. KHARAB IL-MESHHED.
Here we find the unusual architectural combination of a partly ruined Christian
chapel of the fifth or sixth century enlarged and repaired to serve as a Mohammedan
Mosque at some time in the Middle Ages. The Christian town was never more than
a small village, and all of its buildings seem to have been crudely rebuilt in Moslem
times. There are no interesting remains of either period outside of the Chapel-Mosque,
and no inscriptions which might shed light upon the period of Moslem activity in this
particular place; but it is probable that it was contemporaneous with the inscribed
Arabic tombstones 1 which have been found in a few scattered sites in these hill-towns
of Northern Syria. This would place the date of the Mosque in the period between
the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, rather than in that of the earliest occupation of
Northern Syria by the Arabs in the seventh century, which, so far as the country
districts are concerned, was probably not an occupation in the strict sense at all.
The chapel had a square sanctuary (Ill. 379), a square diaconicon which protruded
SECTION A-B-
KHARAB IL-MESHHED- CHAPEL-MOSQVE-
Ill. 379.
slightly on the north, and a narrow prothesis which did not protrude. This entire
east end, and the whole north wall of the chapel, remained intact. The south wall
was replaced by an arcade of three heavy arches supported upon large square piers.
The original west wall was replaced by a much stouter wall with a very small doorway
in it placed under a little porch with solid side walls and heavy arched roof. South-
ward from the lines of the older building a long narrow extension was erected. This
was covered by a heavy tunnel vault set parallel to the longer axes of the old chapel.
In the south wall of the extension was set a niche, on axis with the central arch of the
new arcade, much deeper than the ordinary mihrab seen in mosques of the present day.
There was no carved ornament in this later part of the building, nor decoration of any
kind so far as can be seen to-day.
100. KEFR ANTIN.
This is, in many respects, a very disappointing ruin. The place was a large one,
and many of its buildings were well constructed, and are in a fairly good state of
preservation. But it was impossible to discover any traces of a church, or chapel, or
of any public building, and all of its domestic architecture, with a single exception,
1 A. A. E. S. IV, Arabic Inscriptions 11-45.
Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria. Div. II, Sec. B, Pt. 6. 44
333
99. KHARAB IL-MESHHED.
Here we find the unusual architectural combination of a partly ruined Christian
chapel of the fifth or sixth century enlarged and repaired to serve as a Mohammedan
Mosque at some time in the Middle Ages. The Christian town was never more than
a small village, and all of its buildings seem to have been crudely rebuilt in Moslem
times. There are no interesting remains of either period outside of the Chapel-Mosque,
and no inscriptions which might shed light upon the period of Moslem activity in this
particular place; but it is probable that it was contemporaneous with the inscribed
Arabic tombstones 1 which have been found in a few scattered sites in these hill-towns
of Northern Syria. This would place the date of the Mosque in the period between
the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, rather than in that of the earliest occupation of
Northern Syria by the Arabs in the seventh century, which, so far as the country
districts are concerned, was probably not an occupation in the strict sense at all.
The chapel had a square sanctuary (Ill. 379), a square diaconicon which protruded
SECTION A-B-
KHARAB IL-MESHHED- CHAPEL-MOSQVE-
Ill. 379.
slightly on the north, and a narrow prothesis which did not protrude. This entire
east end, and the whole north wall of the chapel, remained intact. The south wall
was replaced by an arcade of three heavy arches supported upon large square piers.
The original west wall was replaced by a much stouter wall with a very small doorway
in it placed under a little porch with solid side walls and heavy arched roof. South-
ward from the lines of the older building a long narrow extension was erected. This
was covered by a heavy tunnel vault set parallel to the longer axes of the old chapel.
In the south wall of the extension was set a niche, on axis with the central arch of the
new arcade, much deeper than the ordinary mihrab seen in mosques of the present day.
There was no carved ornament in this later part of the building, nor decoration of any
kind so far as can be seen to-day.
100. KEFR ANTIN.
This is, in many respects, a very disappointing ruin. The place was a large one,
and many of its buildings were well constructed, and are in a fairly good state of
preservation. But it was impossible to discover any traces of a church, or chapel, or
of any public building, and all of its domestic architecture, with a single exception,
1 A. A. E. S. IV, Arabic Inscriptions 11-45.
Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria. Div. II, Sec. B, Pt. 6. 44